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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-21 Daily Xml
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Bills

Statutes Amendment (Education, Training and Skills Portfolio) Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 30 November 2022.)

Mrs PEARCE (King) (11:26): I rise to speak in support of the Statutes Amendment (Education, Training and Skills Portfolio) Bill. This bill makes important amendments to three separate acts, the first of which is the amendment of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019.

Education is a crucial influencer in the direction our state takes now and into the future, and it is vital that we do what we can to ensure that students who can be in the classroom are there and that they are learning. Attending school provides our children and young people the opportunity to develop important social networking skills, expanding their ability to learn important values that set the foundation of what they will continue to build on throughout the pursuits they undertake in life.

To ensure that students are encouraged to come to school, this bill will amend section 75(2a) of the act to provide clarity that a head of an approved learning program has an obligation, along with principals, to notify the education department's CE of persistent non-attendance or non-participation.

Reducing truancy where we can is a priority of our government because we want to ensure that every child is attending school and gaining the many benefits of doing so, getting the best start possible in life. Since we have come into government, we have gone about making the necessary changes to facilitate a reduction in non-attendance across our schools and to help students feel empowered to attend by adding supports within the education system.

This has included the funding of 100 full-time equivalent mental health and specialist learning support staff to support students. Two of these have been allocated to my local community, with one full-time specialist being allocated to Salisbury East High School and the other being allocated to Golden Grove High School.

Research shows that mental health concerns are most likely to emerge in lower secondary years, and we want to support young people when they are most likely to need it. This investment in mental health and wellbeing will see a workforce, including psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and other learning support specialists in place to help young people tackle issues early, helping to look after their wellbeing and helping them to feel empowered to stay in school.

We have also increased the number of staff who work for the Social Work Duty Line by three full-time equivalents, which now means we have over 30 full-time equivalents supporting schools, addressing wellbeing and attendance issues and providing a support service for schools with a high level of demand for its use.

Other work we have been busy delivering includes the nation-leading initiative which has seen our government invest $28.8 million into ensuring access to an autism inclusion teacher in every public school, as well as R-12 schools. We are also utilising education family conferences, which are an evidence-based approach to engaging with family members, schools, relevant department staff and other professionals.

These conferences offer a strength-based approach that provides families with the opportunity to be actively involved in deciding on and actioning arrangements to improve their child's attendance at school. Since coming to government, we have also been supporting a new partnership with Kornar Winmil Yunti (KWY) to deliver a new program of intensive support for Aboriginal families with children who are not attending school.

This bill will also amend section 130 of the Education and Children's Services Act to provide the chief executive of the education department with the discretion to waive, reduce or refund a charge, allowing it to be paid by instalments or require a person to give security for a charge under section 130 of the Education and Children's Services Act.

This amendment to section 130 aligns the legislation with the practice, moving power from the principal to the department, as the practical administration of this currently lies with the department. We are proud of our support to overseas students studying in South Australia and we continue to support the Department for Education's International Education Strategy 2019 to 2029, with a strong commitment to continue supporting international education. We have in recent times exercised this ability to waive fees for Afghan evacuees and Ukrainian families, showing compassion where we can and supporting those families in a time of need, and it is this section of the act which allows us to do this in the future.

This bill also looks to amend the Education and Early Childhood Services Act, amending section 22 of the act to allow a deputy member of the Education Standards Board to fill a vacancy in the office of the member for whom they are the deputy. Currently, if a vacancy falls before the current term of the appointment ends, the deputy member cannot act in the place of the member. This change allows for a more efficient and effective board, with the person appointed to be the deputy of the member being able to act as a member of the board with respect to the vacant position. This would be for the balance of the term of appointment or until a person is appointed to the vacant office under the act, whichever occurs first.

The Education Standards Board is responsible for the regulation of early childhood services and schools, and is key to ensuring an education system which operates at the highest quality. This amendment is another step made by our government to ensure that the Education Standards Board has the support it needs to continue with its important role in our education system.

This is in addition to the work we have done to date for the Education Standards Board, which has seen this government provide the ESB with additional funding—over $2 million across two financial years—to offset reductions in commonwealth funding and appoint Alana Girvin as the new presiding member of the board. A great fit for the board and with extensive leadership experience, including as principal of several schools, Ms Girvin also established the education department's Incident Management Directorate to respond to critical incidents.

Also contained in the statutes amendment is an important amendment to the History Trust of South Australia Act. South Australia has the unique benefit of having the History Trust as an agency of the South Australian government, with the act setting out its functions, which include to carry out and promote research relevant to the history of SA; accumulate and care for objects of historical interest; disseminate, or encourage the dissemination of, information relevant to the history of SA; encourage the conservation of objects of historical significance to SA; and manage and administer museums and other premises placed under the care, control and management of the trust.

Across South Australia, the History Trust's museums include the wonderful Migration Museum, which tells the stories of South Australians while celebrating cultural diversity. The National Motor Museum in Birdwood, which I was more than happy to visit recently as part of my participation in the Bay to Birdwood, is a wonderful venue that showcases this state's rich motoring history. The South Australian Maritime Museum located in Port Adelaide preserves our state's maritime history and holds the oldest nautical collection in Australia, a museum which my two love to visit and explore, due to the amazing and creative ways that they promote learning within the museum. The Centre of Democracy does an amazing job showcasing the people, the movements and the ideas which have helped to shape, and continue to shape, South Australia.

The History Trust also hosts events outside its museum, such as university campuses, and this proposed amendment is to change section 2 to broaden the definition of 'a premises' to include premises used by the trust to conduct activities and events. Allowing this amendment will be an important change for the History Trust, granting them the power to deal with any inappropriate behaviour at any of their events, helping to manage parking and the bringing of animals to events. The act's regulations provide for a range of penalties for a breach of behaviour, with this change extending those penalties to temporary exhibitions and events.

The History Trust do an amazing job showcasing the rich history of our great state, and this is an important amendment to the act to protect exhibitions in our history. This will ensure that more South Australians can access many more of the fantastic opportunities available from the History Trust. All of these amendments seek to add value and incentive within our education system, which is why I commend this bill to the house.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (11:35): I am very pleased to make a few remarks on the Statutes Amendment (Education, Training and Skills Portfolio) Bill. I commend the minister for bringing the bill to the house and indicate that the opposition will support it. I will place on the record some reflections on the nature of legislation in the education space and on each of the four measures in this bill.

For the first 18 months, I suspect it was—maybe even two years—that the Marshall Liberal government was in office, we sought to undertake reform of the Education Act and the Children's Services Act—acts that have been in place since the early 1970s, which were completely rewritten by the Education and Children's Services Bill. It was an evolution of bills that had been prepared, first, in the late period of the Brown-Olsen-Kerin government.

Under Malcolm Buckby work started on things that needed to be updated in that education bill, and then through subsequent years the Labor Party initially, when they first took government in 2002, focused only on the age of compulsory education, and ultimately some work was done, particularly under the auspices of the now Deputy Premier, in a rewrite of the bill. There were some significant sticking points to enable this work to be done, and that bill was never given the priority necessary to get it through the parliament, let alone resolving those sticking points, but I acknowledge that certainly a great deal of the body work in that bill was started in that 2016-17 period.

In 2018, we were elected with a mandate to implement those reforms, but with some variations. We put in place a new approach to dealing with attendance and truancy, an approach that I note the minister is now seeking to work with and which I would certainly have looked forward to seeking to work with had COVID not been a significant barrier to any reasonable approach to dealing with truancy throughout the 2020 and 2021 school years.

I hesitate to say 'for obvious reasons', because I have noted some commentary that suggests that they were not for obvious reasons, but I will say it: for obvious reasons during that period of the pandemic it was very difficult to determine a student being absent from school as truant when we were urging parents, were there any sign of illness, a sniffly nose—any sign that somebody might have flu-like symptoms, a potential COVID case—to keep those children home. It was very difficult in those circumstances to rack up somebody as being a truant in those circumstances.

It was in that legislation that we established the education family conferencing, which I note the member for King talked about as an important reform and which is now available as a tool, a mechanism, to help the education department engage effectively with families and ensure those kids get back at school, because every day lost at school in a child's learning is a lost opportunity to engage with the curriculum to help find a pathway towards a successful future in which that student may thrive and fulfil their potential. We need kids to be at school. One of the most important things that any family can do is ensure their child is getting to school.

The education family conferencing notifies the significant role that families play in getting that child to school. We do not want to impose huge truancy fines on a family that is doing their best, and, indeed, a court would never impose such a fine. The importance of the court's involvement in a prosecution is something that was lost from the original Labor bill in 2016 and 2017 when they were endeavouring to introduce an expiation notice for a child not being in school. We thought that that was a missed opportunity. We thought that actually the engagement was very important to getting that child back to school.

While it meant that there was a risk of a greater fine, being $5,000, if the family was not attempting to get their child to school, it would require a court's engagement in the process so circumstances could be taken into consideration. However, to enable both the best forward-leaning opportunity to get that child back to school and also to provide an easy measure of whether a family was interested in helping their child get to school, the education family conferencing model was developed and indeed piloted and trialled during the term of the former government.

I am sure it is going to be a boon to the now minister as he seeks to do this because, in an education family conference, you can bring in the principal, authorised officers (whether they be truancy officers or potentially police, if needed), behaviour and wellbeing-related staff, and, indeed, the family, to find an understanding with the student of what is the block to their attendance at school. Should that family not engage in an education family conference, then that is a sign that potentially the stick of the prosecution may be necessary. I tell you what, having those larger fines certainly captures the attention of anybody who is not interested in engaging positively and proactively with the process at the first point.

All of this work was part of the 120 or 130 clauses of the Education and Children's Services Bill 2019, which put in place these measures. During this period, we also increased by 50 per cent the resource available for truancy officers, or social workers engaging in attendance—there are a number of different classifications they use within the department, but effectively, truancy officers were increased from 20 to 30 during the period from 2018 to 2022 in line with our election commitments.

We felt that there were too many schools, too many students requiring support by each one of these people with an important role and powers to help get those kids back to school. Again, in 2020 and 2021, COVID prevented the full benefits of this work being realised, and now the newish minister, about to celebrate one year in the role tomorrow, has the opportunity to do this work. We trust and we expect and we will accept nothing less than continued improvement in relation to this matter.

The clause that is relevant in this bill is one that deals with an ambiguity—certainly an intentional ambiguity—and one where it is not clear that there is a problem. Certainly, if there is a suggestion of ambiguity, and we are dealing with other matters as well, then we will fix it. When a student is engaged in a VET program as part of their school studies, that program may involve a student doing some of their hours outside of the school in a registered training organisation or through a service or, indeed, it could be a school-based apprenticeship. As that relates to truancy, this bill makes it clear that there is no difference, from the truancy point of view and accountability for school attendance, whether that student is at the RTO or inside the school grounds: they must be present performing that sort of activity.

As I say, I am not convinced that that was not the case under the previous law, but rather than give any opportunity in one of the truancy-related prosecutions that may well potentially come up in the future, should a child's family be prosecuted in this way, I think it is fair enough to make it clear beyond any doubt.

The second clause that is relevant in the bill is in relation to international students. About a decade ago, the former Labor government, under Jennifer Rankine I think it would have been at the time—the minister might remember because he was the Chief of Staff in her office—made a budget decision. Potentially, the now Treasurer, who would have been the economic adviser to Premier Weatherill, might have been the one who made the decision; it might not have been the Minister for Education.

It might have been the now Treasurer under the former government who made the decision that a budget savings measure would be put in place, where the former government said that international students could no longer get free education in our public schools. Instead, they would be charged significant fees—significant to the point, I should say, that one of the significant effects of it was that many students in that situation left our public school system and went to low-fee independent schools or Catholic schools because the fees at those non-government schools were lower than the public school fees that these international students were required to pay.

Of course, circumstances differ from school to school. Indeed, international students are in our schools for a range of different reasons. Some were always intended to be fee-paying students—students who, particularly in senior secondary years, are invited to come to study, to pay the fees and to have that one-year or two-year experience in our schools. That is not what this deals with. This deals with students who are in a situation where potentially their parents have come from overseas for whatever circumstances. Indeed, they are not citizens, they do not have permanent residency, but they are in our school system and being charged thousands of dollars.

In that environment, the savings mechanism was created when the budget measure was allowed, that a school principal could apply a school discount or an exemption. From the very start, and I stand to be corrected, but certainly when I arrived as education minister in 2018, it was already the practice that a principal delegated that authority to the chief executive. Effectively, it was Chris Bernardi, the chief finance officer, now chief operating officer of the department, who would have the authority to do this. My understanding is that between 2012 or 2013—when the budget measure came in place—and 2018, it was one that had rarely been used.

However, circumstances arise—as I am sure all members can imagine—whereby very sympathetic cases present themselves, especially where there are multiple children, where somebody's circumstances change abruptly. Indeed, the power was exercised a number of times when I was the minister to either significantly reduce or, in certain cases I believe, exempt some families from paying that fine.

We also took a view when we were in government that, while there were a great number of metropolitan schools that were very much at capacity, and it would not be possible to completely reinstate free public education for many people in these visa categories, we did take the view that there was absolutely nothing to be lost by allowing schools, particularly in regional areas and in the Adelaide Hills—many of them small schools—to have more international students.

Many people in agricultural and horticultural communities rely on workforces from overseas, and we thought it would be an excellent idea for those families to be incentivised to come to work in South Australia by allowing their children to attend schools. Many of those schools, particularly at the smaller end, would benefit greatly from having those extra students, and there was no risk of capacity being a problem. So we did change that fairly significantly when we were in government to free up the opportunity for many of these families to send their kids to public schools. I do not have any data on it, but I would be very surprised if that did not see a significant uptake.

This clause is an administrative change. It moves that power from the principal, which has been delegated for years to the chief executive or the chief finance officer. It changes the legislation, so it removes the question. It takes away that principal's authority and gives it to the chief executive. In effect, this is an authority that has never been used by a principal, and you would not necessarily think it was appropriate for that principal to have that power.

It puts the principal in an invidious position if somebody comes to the principal with one of these questions. It is a very awkward situation when somebody is asking for their school-fee burden to be relieved because of awful personal circumstances they are in. The principal then has to make a judgement. That is not fair on that principal and that is why, I suspect, in practice it has always been delegated, and that is why I support and the opposition will support moving it in practice in this legislation.

The third part of the bill is in relation to the Education Standards Board or, to give it its full title—and I challenge the minister in his second reading response to say this full title without reference to his notes; I am not going to try—the Education and Early Childhood Services Registration and Standards Board, which is a catchy title. Again, I think Jennifer Rankine may have been the minister who passed that act, and the minister was therefore the chief of staff and is responsible for this. The board itself is referred to as the Education Standards Board these days because everybody prefers to call it the ESB than that other name.

When I became the minister, the chair of the Education Standards Board was John Dawkins, the former Labor federal Treasurer, and the registrar was Chris Chatburn. Chris Chatburn had in effect been the registrar since the board was formed. The board brought together three different registration authorities and combined them into one. It was a useful reform, it was an important reform, and it was a reform that I think has been gratefully received by many.

It was particularly important in the period after the National Quality Framework for early childhood standards was brought into place. This was about a decade ago. It was a federal reform, supported by the Education Ministerial Council, as it was then. That reform was particularly important in relation to early childhood services but also to preschools and out-of-school-hours care facilities. It provided national consistency in the manner in which OSHC, long day-care services, occasional care services, family day-care services and preschools were given authority to continue their work.

It had seven categories, such as the infrastructure of the service, which were a series of requirements, effectively, that services needed to match up to. We needed the registrations of those around Australia to be relatively consistent. The board is also responsible for the registration of schools, including new schools—there were a number of new schools given authority to come into existence while I was the minister, which was very encouraging—and ongoing monitoring, assessment and rating of them. When John Dawkins stepped aside from the chairmanship of the board, Ann Doolette, who had been the deputy, stepped into that role. We were pleased to reappoint her; we thought she did a good job.

I note that earlier this year the minister and cabinet endorsed Alana Girvin to take on that role. Alana Girvin is an exceptional educator, but the reason I have great confidence and commend the minister for that appointment is the experience I had with her not only during the period when she was in charge of effectively monitoring internal disciplinary situations within the Department for Education, which is a very important role indeed, but also because her last role while working for the education department was very focused on being the liaison with the COVID management team within SA Health.

Throughout 2020 and 2021 and even more so at the beginning of 2022, the interface between SA Health and the education department could not have been more important. The fact is that South Australian school students had less disruption to their education; they had disruption, to be sure, but so did every student in the world. By comparison with every other jurisdiction in Australia, Western Australia was the only jurisdiction that came close to the low levels of disruption that South Australia had, and compared with jurisdictions elsewhere in the world, it was chalk and cheese.

Ensuring that early childhood services and schools, non-government and government alike and the Catholic system, were singing from the same song sheet, were giving the same information to their families, parents, staff and students, was critically important. Alana Girvin played a really key role through that in ensuring that the messages from SA Health had a conduit to education that the education department trusted and that the non-government sector in education trusted, and also somebody with significant experience in education was embedded in the SA Health office.

At the points where decisions were being made early on and recommendations were being produced in short time as evidence came to light in the most difficult of circumstances, Alana played a key role in ensuring that there was an education insight in that office able to provide feedback, and she did a great job. Did we get everything perfect? No, of course not; nobody in the world did, but I think that it is beyond question that South Australia did a damn good job in ensuring that our students were always at the centre and that their health, safety and wellbeing were supported, as was their right to an education, which also plays an important role in their health, safety and wellbeing. So I commend Alana for that work, and I commend the minister for recognising her expertise and, with the support of cabinet, elevating her to the role of the presiding member.

Chris Chatburn, I mentioned before, did a great job as the registrar of the ESB for a long time. She decided, against my strong recommendation, against my advice and against my request, that she thought that it was important that at some point in her life she be allowed to retire. Cruelly for me as the minister, she proceeded with that plan towards the end of our time in office. I commend Chris for her tremendous work and the tremendous career that she had in that role and the broad respect that she had within the education system and the education sector. I thank her on the record on this occasion for the support she gave me as minister, particularly in relation to some complex matters. Kerry Leaver was the choice to replace her. I know that we all wish Kerry well in that work going forward.

The Education Standards Board's role in assessing compliance, supporting and ensuring that new services are fit for purpose and the ongoing monitoring, assessment and rating of schools and early childhood services is critically important. We invested an extra million dollars of state taxpayers' money in our first budget, within the education budget, to ensure that it could continue that work at the level that was expected, because we wanted to ensure that our children, particularly through early childhood services, were not slipping through the cracks due to a lack of ability to assess and monitor their compliance with safety issues.

It is no small thing, whether it is a private service or a not-for-profit service, for the Education Standards Board to come in and put some sort of block on the service being able to be offered. Indeed, there is a difficult task when somebody is in breach of their conditions to decide whether this is an accidental, one-off circumstance that could not have been foreseen, that was no-one's fault and the service needs to be supported or whether it is a more significant systemic issue that requires that service to cease. The Education Standards Board works very hard to get those calls right. During our term, it has expanded its role to also include more work in the student exchange programs as well, which are very important.

I mentioned Alana Girvin's work during COVID, but the ESB had a particular role during the pandemic. Again, they had a liaison embedded in SA Health at a couple of points when the case numbers were high. They provided important advice, and I recognise that work.

They also provided an important conduit. There are more than a thousand of these early childhood registered services in South Australia. Some of them are run by government as part of schools, preschools or OSHC services. There are a number that are attached to non-government school services, there are standalone preschools and standalone kindergartens, and there are government preschools. The government ones were fine, but we engaged in that manner with the schools and early childhood services, many with their own private ownership situations—dozens run by councils, hundreds run by bigger organisations, and there are also about 100 community-based organisations—each with their own boards and committees running those organisations. To get all of them on the same page, understanding the COVID restrictions and the best advice coming out of SA Health, was a significant challenge.

The Education Standards Board was really the only conduit that the health department and the education department could use, short of going through the media. The Education Standards Board ensured that all of our early childhood services had accurate information. That, too, contributed to our state's strong response during 2020 and 2021 to the COVID pandemic.

It gave reassurance to many families who were in a situation where they were able to keep taking their children to child care, and certainly early on when little was known about the disease. Then, when it became clear that that first iteration of COVID was not having the same effect on children and it was not being transmitted by children in the same way that later variants did, that was a very significant job, and I thank the ESB for the role they played in supporting the government during that period.

They also played a role in early 2022, when the situation was changing significantly when our Chief Public Health Officer determined that rapid antigen tests were to be part of the mix and, again, early childhood services were able to benefit from the work that the ESB did in assisting with ensuring that there was some access to those RATs, and that was important too.

The work of the Education Standards Board is supported by an excellent board full of people who have varying experiences within the school and early childhood sector, and I commend them for that work. They have deputies, and this bill's significant change—well, maybe not that significant, but no doubt it will make life easier for the Education Standards Board and the cabinet office—is that if those members of the board step down or are removed for some reason, the deputies can act up without having to go through the whole cabinet process again. We have no particular problem with this move, so are happy to facilitate it.

The final part of the legislation relates to the History Trust. The History Trust is a fantastic South Australian institution, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in, I think, 2021. The History Trust came about under the Tonkin government and from conception to legislation passing took less than six months, a task I offer to those opposite: to conceive of a new institution that will stand the test of time and be seen in future decades to be more and more appreciated. From conception of the idea to legislation through the parliament in less than six months was a significant feat. I commend the late the Hon. Murray Hill for his particular role there as well as the late the Hon. Dr David Tonkin.

The History Trust is responsible not just for managing its museums, although it is no small thing to manage the Maritime Museum, the National Motor Museum at Birdwood and the Migration Museum, as well as the more recent addendum, The Centre of Democracy. It is also responsible for the state's history collection, which is a vast treasure trove of items, artefacts, memorabilia, and things with significant value to our state—both real and inherent—that are able to be part of telling the story of what South Australia is, who we are in the world and where we have come from, both truth-telling and also celebration.

I think that the way the state's history collection is used by the museums is positive and strong, but there are tremendous opportunities in the years ahead—and I hope they will be taken up by the new government—to expand on the way that we tell stories of South Australia's past, being proud of the very many different stories of how our current South Australian community is made up of people who have come here for different reasons, and arrived at different times, but together we, understanding that past, are able to work together to make our state stronger.

The History Trust is important. We tell those stories particularly during May, the month of the History Festival. It started off as a history week, and indeed a couple of decades later we now have a month-long History Festival, which is one of the most significant community participation events in our state. Not only are there significant events put on by glorious institutions—the museum, the library, indeed the parliamentary library, and Dr John Weste and his team put on an event every History Festival—but right across South Australia from Farina to Port MacDonnell, from Ceduna to Port Adelaide, there are community organisations, councils, National Trust groups and so many other organisations telling the stories of South Australia in their own ways.

Whether it is through open days at buildings or history talks by luminaries, such as Keith Conlon, on different aspects of South Australia's history and life, it is a great opportunity for people to participate. What I love about it is the way that people who have insight into our communities take those opportunities to tell those stories. Whether it is to 10 people in a room or a thousand people in the town hall, they are all equally important to that festival and equally valued by that festival. I commend Greg Mackie and Elizabeth Ho, and indeed all the trustees of the History Trust, for the great work that they do.

The History Trust has certain modest powers in relation to maintaining good order or protecting property under the care or control of the trust on their premises. Those exist in the current legislation and they could be used to deal with offensive behaviour relating to a particular group's display at the Migration Museum, or it could be relating to the protection of important artefacts. Under the act as it stands at the moment, somebody could be banned from a site for a day or for longer in order to protect good order. It has not been used, it has not been required to be used, but I can certainly envisage circumstances in which it might need to be used and where it is an appropriate set of powers.

The clause in this bill extends those powers to sites being used temporarily by the History Trust to conduct activities or events related to its functions. The Migration Museum might want to rent a room to do a display, for example, perhaps while it was undergoing some of the significant renovations, including those funded dramatically by the former Liberal government—and I thank Rob Lucas for that investment. It could be to do with the Bay to Birdwood renting some space in an adjacent property. These are the sorts of circumstances where the History Trust might use some other spaces, and this bill extends the powers they currently have for those opportunities. If these powers are to exist for their current purpose then this seems to be a logical extension, and so it has our support. These are the four measures that are in the bill:

clarifying that VET programs are equally captured by the intent of the bill for truancy accountability in school attendance;

ensuring that the current practice relating to principals delegating their authority to waive or amend international student fees to the chief executive is set into legislation;

enabling deputy members of the Education Standards Board to serve as full members without having to go back to cabinet; and

the History Trust being able to rent spaces and continuing to have their powers.

I think I have summed up everything that could possibly be said about these four powers. I look forward to hearing if there are any government speakers who have something new to add to that. The opposition will support the bill.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (12:07): I thank the member for Morialta for having such faith in the next government speakers.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: We're very excited.

Ms CLANCY: Yes, I am so excited to be here. Welcome back to another sitting week, everybody. If anybody knows any good trigger-point massage, let me know because my back is killing me. I rise today in support of the Statutes Amendment (Education, Training and Skills Portfolio) Bill 2022. It is a bill that seeks to amend the Education and Children's Services Act 2019, the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011 and the History Trust of South Australia Act 1981.

I would like to thank our Minister for Education, Training and Skills—who is nice and close by and is a great minister—the staff in his office and the Department for Education and everyone else who has been involved in the process of bringing this bill to this place. Largely administrative bills such as this one might not be sexy enough to make it to the 6pm headlines, but they still require hours of dedicated work from passionate staff, so thank you.

Education is at the heart of our government's agenda for reform in South Australia. It is why we took policies to the election that were about more than just the next four (or now three) years: they were for the next generation, for the future.

Proposed in this bill is an amendment to section 75(2a) of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019, which clarifies that the head of an approved learning program has an obligation to notify the chief executive of the Department for Education of persistent non-attendance or non-participation. We know that not attending school can have large and lasting impacts on a child's development. Consistent non-attendance has been shown to be detrimental to students' academic and social development and can lead to social isolation and emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Reducing student truancy is absolutely a priority for the Malinauskas Labor government. Truancy, also known as chronic truancy or non-attendance, refers to the unauthorised non-attendance of more than 10 school days per term. This does not refer to approved student absences, such as family holidays, illness or family and cultural obligations.

The Australian Education Union suggests that principals have reported student truancy as a problem in almost 50 per cent of students at disadvantaged schools. That is compared to just three per cent at advantaged schools. When we have children not attending school at that rate in already disadvantaged communities, we see those gaps between the haves and the have-nots get bigger and bigger.

We tackle truancy not to punish parents but to give the best opportunities to our children. We understand just how difficult it can be for some parents to get their children to school. I have to drag miss six out of bed at eight o'clock, if I am lucky, just to wake her up. But while there is no excuse for parents preventing their children from going to school, we also want to ensure we are removing barriers and ensuring schools are a safe and secure environment for our children.

One little thing that helps with that is our government's support of the breakfast in schools program. At least if you can get them there, even if you could not feed them beforehand, they are able to be fed and nourished before they start their education.

This is part of the reason why we are funding an autism inclusion teacher in every public primary school, including reception to year 12 schools, area schools and special schools. It is why we are employing a central pool of 100 new mental health and learning support specialists for primary and secondary schools, and it is why we are banning mobile phones in secondary schools during school hours. This is a $50 million commitment that we have already started delivering in our first 12 months in government to keep children in the classroom learning, collaborating and succeeding together in a safe and aspirational environment.

Just last night at Springbank Secondary College's governing council meeting, there were conversations about the mobile phone ban and the way students are interacting with each other more and actually enjoying that connection with one another without their phones. As someone who got her dad's hand-me-down mobile phone in year 12, a phone that had no games, not even Snake, I can say I really enjoyed my years at school without one. I almost count year 12 in that because only about three other friends had mobile phones at that point and without Snake, let alone the internet, where is the joy?

I tend to think I am pretty good at leaving my phone alone when it is not needed, but even then I hate to think about how many times I have missed something because I have been distracted by it or how many hours I have spent scrolling or how often I have foregone sleep because of exciting messaging with someone like the member for Newland who is telling me about how great chocolate custard and M&Ms are and then that is all I can think about and I keep texting about it. It is a game changer. It is a fantastic dessert—highly recommend it—but I should have gone to sleep.

But you get the idea: phones are incredibly distracting. I could not have imagined trying to focus during school with a smartphone, let alone the instantaneous bullying behind a screen all day. We used to have to wait until we were home on MSN before that had to start.

The Malinauskas Labor government has also increased the number of workers at the Social Work Duty Line to over 30 full-time staff. The Social Work Duty Line assists schools to address wellbeing and attendance issues and plays an integral role in supporting our schools. We are also supporting a new partnership with Kornar Winmil Yunti to deliver a new program of intensive support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families with children who are not attending school.

Education family conferences also provide additional support for students who are not attending school regularly. These conferences are an evidence-based engagement approach that provides voluntary independently facilitated meetings between families, schools and relevant staff from the Department for Education and other professionals. By bringing everyone together, education family conferences provide parents and families the opportunity to be actively involved in deciding on and actioning arrangements to improve their children's attendance at school.

This amendment to the Education and Children's Services Act 2019 also includes TAFE SA and universities, which will be obliged to report non-attendance and non-participation. It is of the utmost importance to our government that all students, from the time they are smaller than their backpacks to when they can responsibly enjoy a burger and pint between lectures, are supported in their dreams and aspirations. We have a duty to not only support the educational needs of our children but also their wellbeing needs. We know from experienced classroom teachers that the prevalence of poor mental health among students has increased dramatically.

As the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention, I am particularly concerned by the growing rate of reports of students experiencing anxiety and depression-related mental illness, including students as young as primary school age reported to have experienced thoughts of suicide. We can and we must be better at recognising the patterns of non-attendance that are having such a damaging impact on our students.

This bill also seeks to amend section 130 of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019 to provide the chief executive of the Department for Education with the discretion to waive, reduce or refund a charge, allow it to be paid by instalments or require a person to give security for payment of a charge under section 130. Such a change would only relate to full fee paying overseas students, enrolled students who are not South Australian residents and enrolled students who are the dependant of someone who is the subject of a visa of a kind prescribed by the regulations.

We know that diversity in the classroom is just as important as diversity in the workplace, and as important as diversity in this place. The presence of international students in our classrooms only enhances the education experience of all students by bringing together knowledge, culture and language to forge new ways of learning about our globally interconnected communities. This is especially true at the Clovelly Park Primary School in my electorate, a school in which diversity and culture are so beautifully celebrated every single day.

I understand that currently fee discretion sits with our principals; however, in practice the practical administration of fee discretion sits with the Department for Education. It simply makes sense to align the legislation with the practice.

Since Vladimir Putin's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we have welcomed 400 Ukrainian refugees to South Australia, waiving their fees for schooling and providing guidance for families in job-seeking services. This year, over 40 Ukrainian families enrolled in public schools have continued to have their school fees waived, with similar support being provided to Afghani refugees, since the occupation of their home by the Taliban. I am really proud to stand here today, and every day, as a member of the Malinauskas Labor government, a compassionate state government committed to providing support and relief for those in need.

This bill also seeks to amend section 22 of the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011. Such an amendment would allow a deputy member of the Education Standards Board to fill a vacancy in the office of the member for whom they are a deputy. Introduced by the Rann-Weatherill Labor government in 2012, the Education and Early Childhood Services Registration and Standards Board, known more commonly as the Education Standards Board, is an independent statutory authority responsible for the registration and regulation of early childhood services and registration of schools for domestic and overseas students.

The board's priority is to minimise any risk to the safety, health and wellbeing of children. They respond with regulatory action that is responsive and proportionate to the risks and harms being addressed. As it currently stands, if a vacancy on the board occurs before the current term of the appointment ends, the deputy member cannot act in the place of the member. It would certainly appear to me that the role of a deputy—as in your case, Mr Deputy Speaker—would be to step up in the absence of the member for whom they are a deputy.

The Malinauskas Labor government strongly supports the Education Standards Board. After all, it was a Labor government that established the board and I am sure the current Minister for Education in his role in that government probably played a very important part in it. It is why we are introducing such a simple adjustment to provide for a more efficient and effective board. An efficient and effective Education Standards Board is key to ensuring an education system of the highest quality for the students of South Australia.

Since our election, the Malinauskas Labor government has appointed Alana Girvin as the new presiding member of the board. I understand Ms Girvin has been involved with the Department for Education for 39 years, holding roles in the principalship of several schools and having worked executively within the department. Alana Girvin was convenor of the early years portfolio and the early years reform agenda, the regional literacy improvement priority and the regional office leadership team planning group. Ms Girvin also established the department's incident management directorate to respond to critical incidents.

The Malinauskas Labor government has also supported the Education Standards Board by offsetting reductions in their commonwealth funding with additional funding to the tune of $2 million across two financial years. By keeping existing students in school, bringing more international students into our schools, and strengthening the Education Standards Board, this bill goes a long way to improving the education and welfare of our students.

The Malinauskas Labor government is steadfast in its commitment to legislate, not just for our first term of government but to legislate for the future in the best interests of the next generation. Our agenda is unapologetically progressive, evidence-based and in the best interests of our students, our teachers, parents, families and caregivers.

Finally, this bill seeks to amend the History Trust of South Australia Act 1981. The History Trust of South Australia is a unique state government agency established to promote the history of South Australia. The trust is responsible for the dissemination of historically relevant objects and information in South Australia and to encourage the preservation of objects of historical significance to our state. They also manage and are responsible for the operations of the Migration Museum, the National Motor Museum, the South Australian Maritime Museum—I can almost smell that Maritime Museum just hearing the name of it; it reminds me of every primary school excursion—and The Centre of Democracy.

By amending section 2 of the History Trust of South Australia Act 1981, we seek to broaden the definition of a premise to include premises used by the trust to conduct activities and events. This is an important change for the trust so that they can be empowered to deal with any potential inappropriate behaviour at their events. Such an amendment will also help to manage parking, bringing animals to events, and prevent the reproduction of exhibits. This is an important amendment to protect exhibitions and our history, and to make sure that all South Australians can access the fantastic activities of the History Trust. I commend the bill to the house.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (12:22): I, too, rise to speak on the amendment of three bills within the education, training and skills portfolio. It was my experience as a School Card kid, proudly educated in the public system, and the first in my family to go to university, that inspired me to become a journalist, and specifically a journalist in education.

This is an area of government that I have continued to have a great passion for, and I am very proud that it is something that our government is also so incredibly passionate about, which is reflected in the many commitments and initiatives that the Malinauskas government has implemented since coming to government 12 months ago—things like expanding Adelaide Botanic High School, banning mobile phones in schools, and increasing the threshold to the School Card.

These policies are all incredibly important for children but in order for them to benefit from state-of-the-art schools and through these important policies, they do need to actually be at school. I know it was a topic that, as a former journalist, I would cover quite regularly, and it is a requirement of the department to constantly focus on. I know, from being at the state budget and covering that as the education editor at The Advertiser in 2010, that even back then the previous Labor governments were investing heavily in this space. I remember writing a story about the introduction of an additional 15 truancy officers at the time.

One of the amendments that we speak to today is the amendment of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019. Amending section 75(2a) of this act will obligate the heads of an approved learning program to notify the Department for Education's chief executive of persistent non-attendance or non-participation. As an example, it would require TAFE SA and South Australian universities to report student non-attendance or non-participation.

This is particularly important when we reflect on the announcements of the past week with Adelaide going to build the next generation submarines. We are going to need the skilled workforce in order to build these incredible machines and so making sure that our students are rocking up to TAFE, rocking up to South Australian universities and undertaking the required training to ensure that we have the skilled workforce of the future.

These amendments strengthen the act by ensuring that any student non-attending is reported to the department, because we know how important it is that children and young people go to school. It is why tackling truancy is an important priority for our government. Since coming into government, we have been undertaking some important work specifically around reducing non-attendance. Some of those things include funding 100 mental health and learning support FTEs in order to support students and prevent them from missing school due to reasons such as mental health.

Speaking on that, it is why the ban on mobile phones in schools is so important. It is so heartening to hear the opinion pieces of principals talking about the fact that now in the classrooms, in the schoolyards, rather than the sound of a phone buzzing or dinging, rather than kids sitting around staring at a screen, they are actually conversing, kicking a football, having a chat with their mates. This is so important, this genuine social connection, to balance out the challenges that young people can experience around mental health, in particular anxiety and depression.

We are also increasing the number of staff working the Social Work Duty Line by three FTEs. We are supporting a new partnership with Kornar Winmil Yunti to deliver a new program of intensive support for Aboriginal families with children who are not attending schools. This one is incredible: we are providing access to autism inclusion teachers in every public primary school, to make schools more inclusive and welcoming places where students actually feel safe to attend. I am incredibly proud that this government is, we believe, the first in Australia if not the world to have an Assistant Minister for Autism in the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC in the other place undertaking this important work.

We are also taking action, including prosecution, against parents who are deliberately preventing their children from going to school and holding education family conferences, which is an evidence-based engagement approach which provides voluntary, independently facilitated meetings between family members, schools and relevant departmental staff and other professionals. These methods have seen a number of families sending their kids to school after prolonged periods of absence, but this is something that we have to consistently and constantly focus on in order to ensure that our kids are attending school.

This bill also proposes to amend section 130 to provide the chief executive of the education department with the discretion to waive, reduce or refund a charge; allow it to be paid by instalments; or require a person to give security for payment of a charge under section 130. This relates to full fee paying overseas students, students who are enrolled in schools who are not residents in the state and children enrolled in schools who are dependents of a person who is the subject of a visa of a kind prescribed by the regulations.

The Malinauskas Labor government is proud to support overseas students studying at our schools. Again, as an education journalist under the former government of Mike Rann, this was certainly something that the former Labor government did have a huge strong push in in terms of making us one of the sought after cities for overseas students.

In recent times, the Malinauskas Labor government has been focused on supporting overseas students, in particular in areas of extreme need—Afghan evacuees and Ukrainian refugees—to support these families in this time of need. In this section of the act, it allows these fees to be waived. This amendment is further demonstration of our strong commitment and compassion to those students.

Last year, in August, I was privileged enough to attend with the education minister a TAFE class that was teaching Ukrainian refugees English. We waived these fees and we provided this course for free. I know the minister and I found it an incredible privilege to meet some of these students—in particular, Victoria, who had come over here in April last year having fled her country. You can only imagine that to flee your country and to come to another where you do not have strong English skills must be absolutely terrifying and overwhelming. To be able to just provide that little bit of assistance in the form of TAFE English courses is something that we are incredibly proud to do, and I hope that those students are doing well here in their adopted country.

Another amendment that we will be undertaking is the amendment of the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011. Amending section 22 of the act will allow a deputy member of the Education Standards Board to fill a vacancy in the office of the member for whom they are deputy. Currently, if a vacancy exists before the current term of the appointment ends, the deputy member cannot act in the place of the member. Therefore, this change will allow for a more efficient and effective board. The Malinauskas Labor government strongly supports this board. It is responsible for the regulation of early childhood services in schools, and is key to ensuring an education system of the highest quality.

Since coming into government, the Malinauskas Labor government has also appointed Alana Girvin, who has extensive leadership experience and established the education department's Incident Management Directorate to respond to critical incidents. We have also provided the Education Standards Board with additional funding of more than $2 million across two financial years to offset reductions in commonwealth funding. This change is a step by our government to provide the Education Standards Board with the support they need.

A final act within these three amendments is the amendment of the History Trust of South Australia Act. We have the unique benefit of having the History Trust as an agency of the South Australian government. The History Trust museums include the Migration Museum in the CBD, the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, the South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide, and The Centre of Democracy in the CBD. In addition to their physical spaces, the History Trust often hosts events at other sites, in particular at university campuses. The History Trust of South Australia Act sets out its functions, which include:

carrying out and promoting research relevant to the history of SA;

the accumulation and care for objects of historical interest;

disseminating or encouraging the dissemination of information relating to the history of SA; and

managing and administering museums and other premises placed under the care, control and management of the trust.

The proposed amendment is to change section 2 of the act to broaden the definition of a premises to include premises used by the trust to conduct activities and events. This is an important change for the History Trust. It will allow them to have the power to deal with any inappropriate behaviour that might occur at events. It also helps them to manage parking and bringing animals to events, and assists them with preventing the reproduction of their exhibits.

The act's regulations provide a range of penalties for breach of behaviour, and this change will extend those penalties to temporary exhibits and events. This is important to protect exhibitions and our history, and make sure more South Australians can access the fantastic activities of the History Trust. With those comments, I commend the bill to the house.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (12:32): I rise to speak on the Statues Amendment (Education, Training and Skills Portfolio) Bill. I am proud to speak on this bill, because there are few things more important than ensuring our children receive a quality education, whether that be at preschool, school, TAFE or university. We know that across the world, this is not an opportunity that is available to all children and young people, especially girls. UNESCO informs us that two-thirds of the illiterate adults in the world are women.

On this point, I would like to acknowledge the work of one of my own constituents, Julia Gillard AC, whose work has been to improve educational opportunities for women on the global stage, including serving as Commissioner at the International Commission for Global Education Opportunity and as patron of the campaign for female education.

Our government values the importance of education and our educators, and has acted swiftly but responsibly since we have come to government to improve public education in South Australia. This bill is no different. We all know that you cannot benefit from quality education if you cannot attend. This bill proposes to amend section 75(2a) of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019. The aim is to provide clarity that a head of an approved learning program has an obligation, along with principals, to notify the education department's chief executive of persistent non-attendance or non-participation.

Our students in South Australia are lucky to have the opportunity to participate in learning beyond the school classroom at TAFE or at university; however, this is not an opportunity for students to not attend. All students must respect this opportunity.

I support this amendment and highlight that tackling truancy is an important priority of the Malinauskas Labor government. We know how important it is that children and young people go to school. Poor attendance is related quite often to poor student outcomes, especially once patterns of non-attendance are established. We want every child to be going to school regularly.

Since coming to government we have started important work to reduce non-attendance, including funding 100 full-time equivalent mental health and learning support staff to support students and prevent them from missing school due to reasons such as mental health, one of the biggest barriers for children attending school, as well as increasing the number of staff working for the Social Work Duty Line, which assists schools to address wellbeing and attendance issues.

We are also providing access to an autism inclusion teacher in every public primary school to make schools more inclusive and welcoming places where students feel safe to attend. Every student has the right to feel safe and supported in their school environment, which is why our government is banning mobile phones in schools to reduce the incidence of bullying and screen addiction in school time. We know that we have already seen positive results from that change in the schools that have so early adopted this policy change, with students becoming more engaged with each other.

I thank the education department for their work with families who engage in persistent truancy and are not valuing their children’s education. Pleasingly, the threat of prosecution has seen a number of families now sending their children to school after prolonged periods. However, it should not get to this stage, and as a community I do remind everyone that we have a responsibility, if we believe children are being denied an education, to report it.

The next amendment will not affect most South Australians but is an example of our government being progressive. Many members would be aware that many international students attend our TAFE and universities but may not know that around 1,500 international students attend our public preschools and schools.

This bill proposes to amend section 130 of the Education and Children’s Services Act 2019 to provide the chief executive of the education department with the discretion to waive, reduce or refund a charge, allow it to be paid in instalments or require a person to give security of payment of a charge under section 130.

This change relates to full fee paying overseas students, students enrolled in schools who are not residents in the state and children enrolled in schools who are dependants of a person who is the subject of a visa of a kind prescribed by the regulations. This change will move from it being the principal with the power to the department. The change reflects that practical administration lies with the education department so it makes sense to align the legislation with this practice.

In recent times, our compassionate government has waived the school fees of Afghan evacuees and Ukrainian refugees to support these families in their time of need, demonstrating our humanity and why South Australia is such a good place to reside.

If we are going to have quality education, we do need standards. Therefore, the Malinauskas Labor government strongly supports the Education Standards Board, which is responsible for the regulation of early childhood services and schools and is key to ensuring an education system of the highest quality.

This bill supports a more efficient and effective board by amending section 22 of the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011 to allow a deputy member of the Education Standards Board to fill a vacancy in the office of the member for whom they are a deputy. Currently, if a vacancy falls before the current term of the appointment ends, the deputy member cannot act in the place of the member. This is a sensible change that I fully endorse.

If we do not know where we have come from, we cannot fully embrace the future, so it is important that we continue our support for the History Trust of South Australia, an agency of this government. The History Trust plays a vital role in South Australia, and part of that role is managing the important Migration Museum, one of my daughter's favourites as a child; the National Motor Museum, one of my brother's favourites; the South Australian Maritime Museum, one of my son's favourites as a child; as well as The Centre of Democracy. If members have not visited for a while, I would encourage them to go out and visit these museums.

The proposed amendment in this bill will change section 2 to broaden the definition of a premises to include premises used by the trust to conduct activities and events. This is an important change for the History Trust, for them to have the power to deal with any inappropriate behaviour and manage parking and bringing animals to events. It also helps with preventing the reproduction of exhibits. These changes are important so the History Trust can ensure the safety of everyone at their events and, additionally, protect exhibitions and our history. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (12:40): I rise too to support the Statutes Amendment (Education, Training and Skills Portfolio) Bill, and in doing so I would just like to make a few comments in relation to the amendment of the Education and Children's Services Act 2019. The bill proposes to amend section 75(2a) to oblige heads of approved learning programs, along with principals, to notify the education department's chief executive of persistent non-attendance or non-participation in the educational institution. Included in this, of course, is TAFE SA and our universities being required to report non-attendance or non-participation.

This strengthens the act, to ensure that any student not attending is reported to the department. It can sound a bit heavy-handed, but tackling truancy is an important priority of the Malinauskas Labor government. We know how important it is that children and young people go to school. From my former role as a schoolteacher, I can tell you that for children who regularly miss school the outcome is not good. Poor attendance has been related to poor student outcomes, especially once patterns of non-attendance are established. Every child should be encouraged to attend, and the expectation would be that parents encourage their children to attend and do whatever they can to ensure that their children attend school on a regular basis.

What I particularly like about this amendment is that it will put a focus on the child or student who is not attending, and that means that the opportunity may be there to check in on the student, to see how they are travelling, to see what the issues are in relation to their non-attendance. I am talking specifically here really about those more senior students and students at TAFE and universities, because very often their non-attendance is related to issues that the teaching staff may have no idea even exist.

Sometimes those issues are beyond their control. They can be related to the environment in which they are living, long-term sickness in the family, relationship issues or even, for some of those students, not being able to reside in a permanent home and having to couch surf, for reasons that are outside their control. Doing this actually draws attention, draws the focus onto that student, through the head of that educational institution. It also means their teachers have to take note that there is regular inattendance, and hopefully some of those issues will be able to be resolved, and that will deal in itself with the problem.

In our first year of government, there are a number of things in relation to education and work to reduce non-attendance that we are very proud to be able to stand here and report on, including:

the funding of 100 full-time equivalent mental health and learning support staff;

increasing the number of staff working for the Social Work Duty Line by three full-time equivalents. This line assists schools to address wellbeing and attendance issues;

supporting a new partnership with the Kornar Winmil Yunti to deliver a new program of intensive support for Aboriginal families with children who are not attending schools; and

providing access to an autism inclusion teacher in every public primary school to make schools more inclusive and welcoming places where students feel safe to attend.

A really important one, too, is the voluntary engagement of independent facilitated meetings between family members, schools, relevant departmental staff and other professionals, because these conferences enable the issues to be talked about and very often the opportunity for solutions to the non-attendance to be put forward.

Another amendment to this bill that I would like to speak to briefly is the amendment to section 130, to provide the chief executive of the Department for Education with discretion to waive, reduce or refund a charge, allow it to be paid by instalments or require a person to give security for payment of a charge under section 130. Importantly, this relates to full fee paying overseas students, students who are not residents in the state enrolled in schools and children enrolled in schools who are dependents of a person who is the subject of a visa.

That is one of the issues I would like to speak briefly about. In my electorate I have had many students who live on these visas and they have to pay a significant amount to our education department schools and institutions for them to attend. I had a young boy whose mother became terminally ill, so she had to give up work, and the father was working to try to keep the family surviving. They had medical expenses as well as everyday living expenses. Of huge concern to the family was the fact that this young boy went to one of our public schools and the fee for the family was out of their reach. They were not able to pay that fee.

After representation and advocacy, over quite a significant period of time—a few months—that was able to be waived for that period. Sadly, his mum passed, but that fee was waived, and that took a huge burden off that family, who had been living in South Australia, working in South Australia and contributing to our community in such a positive way. When that fee was waived for a certain period of time, it was a great relief to the family and they could focus on things that were important to them. A number of really positive amendments are included in the bill before us, and I am very pleased to stand today and support them.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (12:47): I rise to support this bill. Ensuring our children have all the opportunities they can to start and continue their education is very important to me. As a parent who raised their child on their own, I believe this bill will work to not only ensure that parents are held accountable for making sure their children attend school regularly, but I believe it will also assist parents who do advocate for schooling, but who sometimes are dealing with strong-willed children, to have that next level of authority. What do I mean by that?

Some students are dealing with a lot as they head to school. It is overwhelming, but they are also sometimes victims of bullying, are dealing with confidence issues and can feel like the work is overwhelming, especially if they have learning difficulties. They may feel that they cannot cope, and that going to school makes them physically sick.

Our government is moving to put things in place to support these students, with mental health and learning support, increased numbers of staff working for the social work duty staff, assisting schools with wellbeing and attendance issues and the access to autism inclusion teachers in every primary school. I believe supporting students from within and identifying issues early will help support students, giving them a welcoming experience at school. Also, addressing bullying early and taking into consideration students' circumstances are incredibly important.

The bill proposes to amend section 75(2a) to provide clarity that a head of an approved learning program has an obligation, along with principals, to notify the education department CE of persistent non-attendance or non-participation. I believe that there are times when students' non-attendance is not taken seriously, and when parents reach out for help it is not always provided. This may be controversial, but sometimes the threat of authorities is what is required. Explaining to children that they actually have to go to school or parents can be held accountable needs to be followed up with actual action. Ensuring that principals and heads of learning programs have to notify the department puts into place that level of accountability.

This also works in reverse. There are some parents who, through their own needs and wants or neglect, keep children at home. Whether to keep them company or for other reasons not known to me, they are detrimental to their child's future and, again, this new obligation will mean that the department is engaged earlier to assist the student.

Since coming to government, we have also introduced education family conferences. These are an evidence-based engagement approach, which provide voluntary, independently facilitated meetings between family members, schools and relevant departmental staff and other professionals. The conference process offers a strengths-based approach, providing families with the opportunity to be actively involved in deciding on and actioning arrangements to improve the attendance of their child at school.

It can be the case that students are living between two family units, and having these conferences will allow all family members to be involved, as well as the school, other professionals who can offer advice and further support, and departmental staff to ensure agreements are maintained. We are taking non-attendance seriously by taking action against parents who are deliberately preventing their children from going to school.

There will be no hesitation to use prosecution as a tool where a child has been prevented from going to school. Sadly, it is this level of enforcement, or the threat of it, that is required to ensure that parents and students take attending school seriously. As mentioned before, the battle to raise a child is real. In some cases, getting them to school can cause a great deal of stress and emotional collapse. This provides that next level of authority and I believe it will help parents and students.

The bill also proposes an amendment to section 130, to provide the chief executive of the education department with the discretion to waive, reduce or refund a charge, allow it to be paid by instalments or require a person to give security for payment of a charge under section 130. This change relates to full fee paying overseas students, students enrolled at schools who are not residents in the state, and children enrolled in schools who are dependents of a person who is the subject of a visa of a kind prescribed by the regulations. This change can be an incentive to encourage parents who may be working here on visas to send their children to public schools. This is especially encouraging for our regional areas.

Recently, our government waived school fees for Afghan evacuees and Ukraine refugees to support these families in their time of need. They arrive in our communities with almost nothing and we believe the ability to attend school no matter what helps to provide a stable environment, an opportunity to engage with other children their age and, for a time, to just be a kid. It is this section of the act that allows these fees to be waived.

We are also seeking to amend the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011. Simply, the bill proposes to amend section 22, to allow a deputy member of the Education Standards Board to fill a vacancy in the office of the member for whom they are a deputy. This allows for a more efficient and effective board. Our government strongly supports this board and since coming to government, we have appointed Alana Girvin as the new presiding member of the board. Ms Girvin has a lot of experience and, along with additional funding, we look forward to great outcomes.

This bill also seeks to amend the History Trust of South Australia Act. The History Trust is an agency of South Australian government and does incredible work preserving and celebrating history. We have all been to the Migration Museum, the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, The Centre of Democracy in the CBD, and, my favourite, the Maritime Museum. These places provide us all—especially our children—with a link to the past, an opportunity to learn through seeing, hearing and touching history. I know that as a parent I visited the Maritime Museum many times with my son, who always enjoyed the displays and exhibitions they have there.

But the History Trust also works outside of these establishments. They often host events celebrating history, and this amendment seeks to support them in doing just that. I know in my electorate we will be having a number of history week events put on by Blackwood Action Group. Last year, I attended one of these events, which took participants on a bus tour of the Belair National Park, learning about its history, both more recently, as it is home to the Old Government House, but also its greater history and its use by both the Kaurna and Peramangk people as a key trading area. I have lived nearby that park for nearly my whole life and I thought I knew a lot about it, but it was the case that I did not really know much at all. I thank Blackwood Action Group for hosting it, and Peter Raine for his incredible knowledge, as he drove us around the park.

The Blackwood Action Group also hosted a Belair train line trip, hopping off at various stations to speak about the history of the suburbs at which it stops. I am looking forward to attending this one this year, as our area has a history that you would not even believe. As I learn more about it, I am really touched by how we are preserving it.

History is important, and this change will give the History Trust the power to deal with any inappropriate behaviour at any of their events. Just to be clear, there were none at Belair National Park when we were there. It also helps them to manage parking, bringing animals to events and preventing the reproduction of exhibits. The act's regulations provide a range of penalties for breach of behaviour. This change will extend those penalties to include temporary exhibitions and events. It is important to protect exhibitions, and our history, and to make sure more South Australians can access the fantastic activities of the History Trust.

Ensuring that our young people have access to school, that parents have support to encourage attendance, supporting international students appropriately and resourcing the Education Standards Board, and ensuring it can be efficient and effective, are all important outcomes of these amendments. I commend the bill to the house.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (12:55): I rise to thank those other members of this place who have made contributions to this important bill. I start by thanking the shadow minister for education, the member for Morialta, for his generous words, but also for indicating the support of those opposite for the carriage of this bill. In addition, I thank the members for King, Elder, Adelaide, Torrens, Gibson and Waite, all of whom I think have spoken very passionately and earnestly around why these changes are important.

Even though this is a portfolio bill, which is traditionally used to clean up a few issues that have arisen from previous iterations of legislation, I think that should not in any way be taken as belittling the importance of the changes that we are making here. Perhaps I could point most specifically, in the context of this bill, to the changes we are making around the reporting of truancy. As the member for Morialta said—and I was really proud to hear the members on this side speak with great sincerity around why tackling absenteeism and truancy is so important—we do have a lot more work to do. It is not a problem that is specific or unique to South Australia.

The pandemic served to perhaps speed up the disengagement of many students from our education system—whether public, independent or Catholic—who may have been on the precipice, if I could put it that way, of disengaging and not going to school anymore. Those three years of interrupted learning and school right across the world probably resulted in some of those young people choosing to disengage a bit earlier and making it harder for all those staff at schools—whether they were classroom teachers, SSOs, principals, year level coordinators, administrative staff or governing council, all of whom collectively do a lot of work to try to make sure that their individual school caters for all students—to do what was necessary to re-engage those kids.

It is really a case of needing to have all hands on deck in terms of us doing absolutely everything we can do, to use a bit of carrot and stick where it is appropriate. There has been some discussion in this place this morning around prosecution, which is a tool in the toolkit of a government and the minister, to take action against those parents who might be deliberately standing in the way of their child attending school.

I want to reiterate that it is in extreme cases only. I have foreshadowed that I am prepared to use it, and we are investigating a number of cases, but we are only talking about the really pointy end here, when it is a case of parents actually deliberately seeking to prevent their kids from going to school. In other cases, we are using all those positive measures around engaging with families and going to their houses. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00

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