Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (22:27): Thank you very much. To see another teacher, another former teacher, in the chair is very, very good. We are always teachers, like you are always an Olympian.

I just want to say to the member for Footscray that my grandmother taught at Footscray. She was a teacher in Footscray during the Depression, and she had some incredible stories. She was a woman who went to Melbourne University in the 1920s, and as soon as she finished she went out to Footscray and taught there. There are generations of teachers in my family, and I am very proud to talk about being a teacher today and the contribution that teachers make.

I look around, and whether it is the member for Greenvale, the member for Frankston, the member for Monbulk, who was just here, the member for Werribee – I think we have heard he is a teacher. Does everyone know the member for Werribee is a schoolteacher? Because I have heard that.

A member interjected.

Juliana ADDISON: Firefighters and schoolteachers. It is with this great love of education and strong understanding of education that it is an absolute privilege tonight to be able to get up to support the motion that this house recognises the Allan Labor government’s commitment to working families by expanding free breakfast clubs, saving parents $400 through the school saving bonus and extending the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund, ensuring that every student has access to essential programs no matter what their circumstances. If something wants to be emblematic of the Labor Party, this motion is.

This is about our values. This is about who we are. This is about equity. This is about education being a game changer. I am really, really pleased that the Legislative Council has provided me with this opportunity tonight at 10:30 to talk about this issue that I am so passionate about. I am indebted to the Legislative Council, and I thank them for the work that they are doing which allows me to do this. I also note the member for Sunbury, another former teacher, is in the house, so I am in excellent company. They say you are judged by the company you keep, and when I think about the teachers in the Labor caucus and the people who are children of teachers or partners of teachers – I know the Minister for Equality’s husband’s is a teacher. There are a lot of teachers in here, and all our kids have been taught by them, so it is great.

We have really done a lot when we talk about the Education State. Victoria is known for being the Education State, and it is a real disappointment to me that the shadow opposition is not proud of the Education State. She does not get it. She does not understand what we are doing and what our vision is. This is a vision that has been around since 2015, a vision of the former great education minister, and that is James Merlino, our former Deputy Premier. His leadership on education was really the driver for the Education State.

When we look at it, it is not just about infrastructure. It is about the whole package, the whole student, and it is about mental health and supporting our students who struggle with mental health. We know that is such an issue for students in Victoria and around Australia and the world – we know that with our GPs in schools program. I am going to talk a lot about how important it is that we make sure our kids get good nutritious breakfasts, because we know that that is a really important part of school. And there is my love of school camps. I got to go on school camps, and I will talk about camps as well.

But let us go back to our state’s proud history, because tonight is all about history. I will not go back as far as others, but I will go back to 1872, when the Education Act 1872 was introduced. In doing so, prior to federation, Victoria was the first colony to offer free, secular and compulsory education, leading all of the colonies, like we always do. We are the leaders of our nation. We set agendas, and then the others follow. I am really proud that education is one that we are doing. One hundred and fifty years on, we are seeing that with our government: the very proud Allan Labor government’s commitment to free, secular and compulsory education continues.

We do have a really, really strong vision of what we want to achieve with the Education State, and it is to deliver excellence in every classroom in every school in every part of the state. Importantly, this vision has been created with parents, with stakeholders and with school leaders. Once again, James Merlino, our education minister from 2014 to 2022, made it the number one priority of our state, because what is more important for a state than our future? That is what this is all about.

When we look at that, we have to say how do we build the Education State? A part of it is infrastructure. We have talked about the Kennett school closures that shut down schools in my community. People still mourn those schools. But guess what, we are making sure that no matter where you live, whether it is in metropolitan Melbourne or in regional or rural Victoria, you will get a great public school education thanks to the Education State.

Just in my electorate alone we have had serious infrastructure investment. At Ballarat High School we have the JJ Sheehan building. JJ Sheehan was a member of this place. He was a proud Labor member of this place in the 1950s, after the split in 1955. Sadly, we lost the seat of Ballarat back then. He went back on the tools and became principal of Ballarat High and was one of the greatest principals ever of Ballarat High – a Labor man who lived his values, whether it was in this chamber or whether it was teaching kids in Ballarat. I have been so fortunate to have my children educated by his kids. Kate Sheehan was my kids’ kindergarten teacher. There is this lovely synergy of living in a local community; JJ’s daughter taught my daughters. It is something I am really proud of.

Mount Rowan Secondary College is something we are so proud of. The member for Ripon is also in the catchment area, with Miners Rest, Creswick and Clunes. In the heart of Wendouree we have just done the most beautiful building, with new STEM classrooms. It is a game changer. This school continues to grow. The reputation of the school continues to grow. I thank the leadership there of Seona Murnane and Nick Stephen, who are doing an outstanding job and making that school one that we can all be proud of.

At Phoenix College there are the new sports facilities, with basketball courts. What I love when we invest in our schools is that we are investing in the community. My daughter gets to play basketball at Phoenix College; we bring the community into Phoenix College, the old Sebas Tech. It used to be a pretty rough and tough school, but now as Phoenix College it is literally rising from the ashes. It is a great school. We bring the whole community in there for basketball on a Monday night and Friday night, because when you invest in state schools, you invest in communities. That is what this is all about.

We have done amazing work at Black Hill and Macarthur Street. Macarthur Street has the best primary school toilets I have ever seen. They are amazing; I love them. We have refurbished the Forest Street Primary admin and classroom, and my very favourite project, the Delacombe Primary School stadium, is a $6 million world-class stadium. We announced it in 2018 and we delivered it on time and under budget, and once again we have community groups, whether it is the local cheerleaders or basketball teams or touch football, all using this facility around the clock, as well as the school getting to access it. One of my favourite things when I was visiting Delacombe Primary School was that parents of kids at that school were constructing the new gym, and kids who had been at that school were apprentices and tradies on that job, because that is what happens when you invest in our schools; you invest in the community, you create jobs, you support the local economy and everyone is a winner.

I have got to talk about breakfast clubs, because we’ve had over 40 million breakfasts served, and we are going to keep serving those up. I have had the opportunity to go to Yuille Park and make scrambled eggs and serve pancakes. Do you know what is great about Yuille Park? Like so many, it brings the parents and the kids together. Once again it is all about community – it is about parents and carers connecting and supporting our kids – and it makes a real difference. We are going to extend that. We announced in the last budget we are extending it for more schools. So welcome, Ballarat North Primary School, you are getting a breakfast club as well. We are going to make sure that all our schools are going to have access to it.

I have talked too much about all these other great things. I want to say thank you to the families who have gone out and accessed the school saving bonus in my community. I have got the figure; I have got to get it right. $1.657 million has remained in the pockets and the wallets of people in Wendouree ‍– $1.657 million that they have spent on textbooks and school uniforms, as well as back-to-school expenses. We know how hard it is. I know that even when I go to schools now principals are saying the kids are loving their uniforms because they are not wearing hand-me-down ones. They have been able to get brand new uniforms. They are so proud of their uniforms. Uniforms are the great equaliser, and that is what it is all about. It is about saying to every kid, ‘Welcome, you’re a part of a group, you’re a part of a team. It doesn’t matter what your household income is. You are welcome. You’re a part of our school.’ I support this motion. I recommend it to the house.

You can take a look at more of my contributions to Parliament here.