I too rise to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Protection of School Communities) Bill 2021, and it is a great pleasure to join my colleagues and speak just after the member for St Albans, the member for Frankston and the member for Pascoe Vale over there. As the members for St Albans and Pascoe Vale pointed out earlier, the Andrews Labor government is undertaking a significant amount of investment into our wonderful schools right across Victoria. Indeed in Tarneit we are building a lot of first-class schools, whether it is local primary schools or indeed the elusive and much-needed high schools for years 7 to 12. We have been able to secure land acquisition in Tarneit for that senior high school and indeed funding for construction for a Tarneit North secondary school. But as the member for Pascoe Vale pointed out, we can build the best facilities possible, but what really matters is the people inside them and the person at the front of the classroom: the teacher.

I would like to give a huge, huge shout-out to our teachers and indeed principals right across Victoria but most certainly in my electorate of Tarneit. I spent many, many, many weeks and months talking to teachers and principals right across our local community about the challenges they were facing during the global pandemic last year during lockdown and indeed over the past two weeks. What has really struck me is the stories that have been told to me by principals about going above and beyond for their local school community. When I say that, I remember principal David Smillie telling me at The Grange P–12 College there at Hoppers Crossing that teachers were absolutely committed to making sure that those children who were most at risk, most vulnerable, were still able to receive care packages. We know that our school breakfast club program is absolutely critical to giving so many—and probably, very sadly, too many—kids a bit of food in their belly before class begins. I know during COVID lockdown there in Hoppers Crossing there was concern amongst teachers that some of the kids most at risk would be missing out on that first meal of the day, so they were absolutely committed to putting together food hampers and care hampers and delivering them to the homes of students. They wanted to check on their wellbeing but also provide some food and some groceries into the pantries of families who were doing it really tough there in Hoppers Crossing.

Our principals really do drive an incredible agenda for our kids. It is not just about their education and learning to read and write and getting through VCAL or VCE; it is also learning to become wonderful human beings. An example of this recently was I went out with and attended the first walking school bus in Tarneit, and that was with principal Nadia Bettio there in Tarneit Rise. The commitment was to having the school principal and a number of teachers getting up really early—and it was really cold—and standing out at significant crossways within the local community about a kilometre or a kilometre and a half from the school to meet and greet parents dropping kids off, who were then going to join up and have a walking school bus and walk to school. This was about teaching children the benefits of walking to school but also to reduce traffic congestion in and around school during that dreaded drop-off that many parents were finding very challenging. This shows the absolute dedication and true leadership of Nadia there at Tarneit Rise, and I do thank her for her contribution to our local community.

Our teachers and our principals continue to go above and beyond for schoolchildren and their families. I think on this bill, as the member for Mount Waverley said to his local teaching community and teachers, ‘This one is for you’. It most certainly is. What this bill is about first and foremost is making sure that our schools are safe. Every workplace needs to be safe so students, teachers and parents can go to school and work without worrying about aggressive parents entering the premises and abusing staff and students. Violence is never okay. It is never okay in the home, and it is never okay in the workplace.

I do think, after talking to principals, particularly last year, and dealing with many constituent inquiries to my local electorate office, the mental health of our community, even the people that were really robust in the beginning, certainly unravelled to a point. I think that this type of bill is really about trying to ensure that protections are in place from parents that are aggressive, whether it is verbally or physically aggressive, to teachers and teaching support staff at school and most importantly—and I was really glad to see that this bill covered it—on social media. The amount of trolling and downright meanness of some parents—not all parents, but some parents—particularly on social media platforms like Facebook can be quite disappointing to see.

We know that most parents, carers and adults who do interact with the school are amazing people. They are really passionate about their kids and their kids’ education. We have had contributions here in this chamber from the other side, and in some cases rightly so, about the community becoming increasingly disengaged—parents and grandparents becoming increasingly disengaged—with their kids’ and grandkids’ education. That is for a number of reasons and no fault of the parents that do struggle to spend a lot of time in the schools. But I see some great stuff in my local schools where grandparents of Indian background and heritage will come to the school and be involved as volunteers helping with veggie gardens and landscaping—anything that needs to be done. They really do understand and value the importance of an education and how that can benefit their children and grandchildren. But I do think that sadly in some cases there will always be those parents that are rude and a little bit nasty or downright violent in their interactions with teachers and school staff, and teachers and school staff need to feel safe in their workplace. There is no doubt that when such incidents happen there is trauma involved, and that is not just for the primary victim of such physical or verbal abuse but also, very sadly, as has been pointed out by many members in this chamber this afternoon, for the kids that witness such abuse in the schoolyard.

I know I would be mortified if one of my children came home from school feeling terrified after watching a teacher being assaulted at school by an angry parent. Now, what we have known is that schools have been struggling to deal with abusive and unruly parents and other adults who may also be a risk of harm to teachers and students, and I think that probably with the rise of social media platforms this becomes increasingly so. It is really hard to go after or find these parents, but it does have a great deal of detrimental effect on our teachers and our teaching staff. The conversations and the debate today that we have had have really made me reflect that the community needs to stop and think about the types of attacks that they are making on our local teachers, because at the end of the day most teachers are dedicated to their children’s education and wellbeing.

I know that in my local community this bill will be welcomed. I do know that very sadly we have had local incidences of aggression from parents and indeed assault and violence at schools. So this bill will indeed be welcomed by my local community. I commend the minister for pushing this through the house, and I certainly commend the bill to the house.