Mr NATHAN HAGARTY (Leppington) (17:00): I move:
That this House:
(1)Notes that the New South Wales Labor Government inherited a teacher shortage crisis from the former Liberal-Nationals Coalition, which saw up to 3,311 teacher vacancies in November 2022 and 10,000 merged and cancelled classes every day.
(2)Supports the removal of the wages cap, which allowed for an historic pay deal for teachers and has resulted in a 61 per cent drop in teacher vacancies from last year to this year in addition to halving the number of merged and cancelled classes.
(3)Supports the building of new and upgraded schools in fast-growing communities, including Emerald Hills, Grantham Farm, West Dapto, Wilton, Tallawong, Wentworthville, Calderwood, Jordan Springs and Leppington, after a decade of neglect by the former Liberal-Nationals Government, which left New South Wales with fewer schools than it started with.
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said:
The importance of education and the creation of equality of opportunity in education. These are, to me, the most fundamental things about a decent society.
Education is the great constant. It is where children build friendships, find purpose and begin to understand who they are as a person. As they grow, it becomes the foundation for the adults they will become, shaping how they think, contribute and engage with the wider world. I am a living example of what a strong public education system can do. My dad left school at 14 to become an apprentice carpet layer and help raise his siblings, while my mum left school at 15. In many parts of the world that would have been my path too, whether I liked it or not. But because I had access to a strong public education system, I had the chance to apply myself, go to university and eventually stand in this place.
This is a story shared by several generations across the State and the nation, where education has given families like mine the opportunity to build something better for future generations. However, under the previous Government, that opportunity became harder to reach. On any given day, public schools in this State were short by around 3,000 casual teachers, forcing thousands of classes to be merged, cancelled or left with minimal supervision. Nearly nine in 10 schools reported daily staff shortages, with principals pulled from their offices just to keep classrooms running. Public education funding was slashed, including a $148 million cut that left schools scrambling to meet basic needs; TAFE was gutted and hollowed out by a $196 million shortfall; and campuses were sold off, with hundreds of staff gone. The Liberals even closed schools. There were more public schools in New South Wales when they came to government than when they left. They walked away from their responsibility to provide every community with access to quality public education.
Those were not isolated incidents; they were deliberate choices to underfund, cut and walk away from public education. In doing so, too many students found it harder to access the one thing that could change their lives: a fair go in the classroom. The Minns Labor Government is rebuilding education from the ground up. We abolished the wages cap and delivered the biggest teacher pay rise in a generation, restoring respect, fairness and stability to the profession. We reduced teacher vacancies by 61 per cent, down from 2,460 under the previous Government to just 962 today. We halved the number of merged and cancelled classes, and teacher resignations are now at their lowest level in 13 years. The Government has also invested a record $9 billion in new and upgraded schools—more than at any time in the State's history—with 50 major projects already underway. We are also delivering 100 new public preschools, the biggest expansion of early learning this State has ever seen. The Liberals did not build a single public preschool in their 12 years in government.
I spoke about the number of schools that went down under the previous Government, but it gets worse. Two sites were earmarked as public schools in my electorate of Leppington, but both were relinquished by the former Government. In their place—surprise, surprise—three private schools have purchased those sites. So education will be provided there, but it will not be public education—because we know what the Opposition thinks about that. In 2024 the Government released the NSW Enrolment Growth Audit, which found that the Leppington‑Catherine Field area in my electorate ranked ninth in the entire State for student growth, with enrolments rising by 173 per cent between 2018 and 2023—which is 942 additional students in just five years—far outpacing the population forecasts. The same audit found that dwelling growth was up 98 per cent, nearly doubling from around 3,700 to 7,300. Those numbers tell a pretty obvious story to anyone who cares about public education: Rapid development and swelling enrolments meant that there was a clear need for more schools.
The previous Government failed to act, but this Government is getting on with the job. In Leppington, teacher vacancies are down by more than 55 per cent and six new public preschools are being built, at Eschol Park, Kearns, Robert Townson, Greenway Park, Leppington and Emerald Hills. The Government is also building the first public school for Austral, Leppington and Denham Court, where much of the growth in my electorate has been and at which I was very excited to recently do the sod turn. Thousands of houses have been built in that area over the past decade, and this Government is building its first high school. The Government is also investing in the existing public schools at Leppington, Austral, Greenway Park and Dalmeny as part of a broader statewide effort to match infrastructure with population growth.
I know that is a novel idea to those opposite, but it is something Labor members believe in. We know that education is not just a line item in a budget or a bunch of numbers in a spreadsheet. It is the foundation of opportunity, equality and growth. It lifts families, strengthens communities and builds a fairer State for everybody. Education changed my life, and I want it to change the lives of every child growing up in Leppington and across this great State. This Government is delivering on its mission to provide a stronger, fairer, better-resourced public education system for New South Wales.
