Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (15:18:04): Today I stand to grieve for the generations of Victorians impacted by the Kennett government’s education policy. The legacy of the Kennett Liberal government is cuts to our schools and our services and privatisation of public assets.

Under Kennett it was cuts, closures and big corporations. There were over 350 school closures. Schools were sold with no afterthought and with no consideration for the future needs of the state. The ripple effect is still being felt today.

That is Liberal-National governments for you. They cut and they close. It is in their DNA. But Victorians have long memories. They know what the Liberals do. That is why since the Kennett era Victorians have consistently voted for investment in our schools and in our teachers and for a well-resourced and supported education system. They have rejected the ideas of the Kennett government.

Former Liberal Premier Ted Baillieu worked this out. He was pretty smooth, our Ted. He was very keen to get elected, so he made that very famous promise that Victorian teachers would be the best-paid teachers. The community was so thrilled about that. People said, ‘This is really good news’. They then said, ‘We might give this Liberal government a go. We might actually give them a go because they get education. They have learnt their lesson from the Kennett years. They have learnt that the community doesn’t want cuts. They have learnt that the community doesn’t want 8000 teachers sacked. They have learnt that’.

But he lied. Sadly, he lied. The reality of that lie is that in 2014 the people of Victoria said the Liberals cannot be trusted when it comes to education.

Mr Battin: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I call your attention to the unparliamentary language being used in the member’s debate where she used the word ‘lie’, which we know has been definitely ruled out from being used in this Parliament. I ask you to correct the record and also guide the member on what words she can use.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I cannot correct the record, but I will ask the member for Wendouree to adhere to the rules on parliamentary language.

Ms ADDISON: The former Premier, Ted Baillieu, misled the people of Victoria. He did not follow through on his election commitment. He did not deliver for the teachers of Victoria. I am proud to be part of a government that is building the Education State.

As a former teacher, I am proud. We have committed to delivering billions and billions of dollars in additional funding for our schools over the next 10 years. We will build 100 new schools and open them—100 new schools!—and we will upgrade 1400 schools, which is really, really great. It is such an important investment after our education system was devastated by the Kennett government between 1992 and 1997.

I will take you back to 1992, to the night of the Victorian state election. I clearly remember going to vote with my mum. We walked to Alfredton Primary School to vote. I was in year 12. It was my first time voting and I had just turned 18. On that day I had no idea that the outcome of that election would have such serious consequences for so many Victorian students, teachers and communities. Watching the TV that night, the result was clear.

The Kennett-led Liberal-National coalition was elected to govern Victoria with an overwhelming majority, and this would have a catastrophic impact on the state education system. The cuts to education made by the Kennett Liberal government continue to impact Victorians today, and this is what I grieve for—

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Members will not speak across the table. I am having trouble hearing the member for Wendouree.

Ms ADDISON: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. When Jeff Kennett won the election with a landslide victory more than 25 years ago now Victoria had 1541 primary schools. The Kennett government then went on to close 354 state schools in the 1990s.

When people speak of the legacy of the Kennett Liberal government, some point to Jeff’s Shed, some point to CityLink, some point to the Bolte Bridge and Crown Casino. But these are not projects that I think of when I think about Kennett’s term of power and the Kennett years; I think about Victorian workers, I think about Victorian hospitals, I think about Victorian schools that were well and truly Jeffed.

I grieve for the real legacy of seven long years of a Kennett government and the impact that had on Victoria. Eight thousand teachers lost their jobs, 800 police were cut—

Ms Britnell interjected.

Ms ADDISON: And 3500 nurses were cut, member for South-West Coast, many of them in Ballarat. The Kennett government privatised essential public services—our public transport, electricity, gas and water distribution and even the TAB. They privatised that as well.

On being elected, Mr Kennett imposed savage budget cuts that saw more than 350 schools shut, sites sold and the loss of 8000 teachers’ jobs. There were also huge reductions in teachers support services at our schools, which had a terrible impact on our schools.

So with a lack of vision, a lack of strategy, a lack of long-term planning for the population of Victoria over decades to come, government schools were sold because they were easy targets, particularly in the older and inner suburbs. Looking to cut the budget and eyeing off the easy money they could make by school land sales, cuts to education and selling off our state schools was low-hanging fruit for the Kennett government. It was ideologically and economically solid Liberal politics.

I would like to draw your attention to one such school that was sold off and closed, Ardoch-Windsor, which was described as an educational rarity in Victoria. It was a school that reached out to disadvantaged kids, to troubled kids, to homeless kids, to difficult kids. It was closed by Jeff Kennett.

It was a school that was keeping disengaged and vulnerable kids in the education system, keeping them safe and keeping them supported, giving them hope for a future when life’s odds were against them. The success of schools like Ardoch-Windsor cannot be measured in conventional terms. They would never rate highly on a league ladder of academic achievement, but their success in transforming student lives was not measured. The economics of funding this school did not stack up and the school was closed.

The opposition leader at the time, Mr Brumby, said that further school closures were inevitable in light of the Kennett government’s plans to cut almost $500 million from the education budget between 1992 and 1996. What would this mean? It would mean larger class sizes, lower quality education and a higher dropout rate in the wake of the ongoing cuts to education.

But it was not just Melbourne schools that were hit; rural areas were hit so hard with the Kennett wrecking ball that 12 per cent of all country primary schools closed by the end of 1993—12 per cent!

In the Ballarat region we experienced closures of Eureka Primary School, Golden Point Primary School, Millbrook Primary School and Richards Street Primary School. In close-by Clarendon, Clarendon Primary School was closed in 1993 and Elaine Primary School, halfway to Geelong, was also closed.

I note with interest that in my neighbouring electorate of Ripon, where the current Shadow Treasurer is—

Ms Britnell interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for South-West Coast, I have asked you to stop yelling across the chamber.

Ms ADDISON: As I was saying, I note with interest—

Mr Battin: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, in relation to your ruling on the member for South-West Coast, she was having a conversation with someone. I am sure there were two people yelling across the chamber. I know that we have already got issues, but you must warn—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have warned members—

Mr Battin: You must warn both—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Gembrook. I have warned members from both sides of the house to cease talking across the chamber.

Ms ADDISON: I should note that a number of those schools were then merged into Canadian Lead Primary School. I am sure the member for South-West Coast will be interested in that—that six schools were closed in Lowan. These closures must have been terrible for their communities, where the school is often the heart of the community.

But I am proud to say that the regional people of Victoria, who Kennett ignored, who Kennett showed contempt for, were the very ones who contributed to him losing his job, because they said ‘Enough’s enough’ in 1999—’Enough’s enough with your cuts, with your closing of our schools and with your attacks on our communities’.

I am conscious of the time, and I would like the member for Sydenham to have a good opportunity to contribute as well. I just want to finish by saying that one thing I am pleased about is that Jeff Kennett, despite all his bravado, admitted in an article in 2012 when he was reflecting on his legacy that in his fervour to effect change he failed to fully grasp the social implications of his policies. I am happy to say that the people of Victoria did not fail to grasp the social implications.

We know what the social implications of seven years of Jeff Kennett were. We know the impact they had on education. So I am going to finish up just by saying that my grievance today was for the scars left by the Kennett government on our education system and to remind everyone that the Liberals and The Nationals have form when it comes to closing schools and cutting funding to the education system. I have no doubt that they will do it again.

 

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