Portfolio — 29 August 2026

The dominant discourse arc for Ashwood in this window centres on school safety and education investment, anchored by the Member for Ashwood's contribution to the Education Training Reform Amendment (Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Schools and Other Matters) Bill 2026 [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s065]. Mr Fregon spoke in support of the bill, focusing on two distinct but related concerns: the introduction of school community safety orders as a mechanism to address trespassing and concerning behaviour on school grounds, and protections for teachers and staff against digital harassment [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s065].

His contribution framed the problem of social media bullying as qualitatively different from bullying in earlier decades — arguing that unlike playground conflict, which ended when students left school grounds, online harassment follows students home and persists around the clock. The school community safety order mechanism, as Mr Fregon presented it, is the bill's practical answer to the physical dimension of that problem.

Mr Fregon also used the debate to place Ashwood's school infrastructure record on the Assembly floor, cataloguing capital works across the district over the past eight years [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s065]. The list included playground and gymnasium upgrades at primary schools, a STEAM centre at Ashwood High School, and building works at Mount Waverley Secondary College and Mount Waverley North Primary School.

This strand of the contribution connected policy advocacy to local delivery — pairing the bill's school safety provisions with a district-specific account of education investment.

The third-party record for this window does not reference Ashwood directly. The Assembly received five petitions addressing infrastructure and safety concerns across metropolitan and regional Victoria, spanning pedestrian safety at the Monash Freeway bridge near Salesian College, establishment of Wallan Wallan Regional Park, tram Route 58 accessibility, road safety at the Murray Valley Highway and Frank Drive intersection in Yarrawonga, and reopening of a train station in Altona North [TA-260811-vichns-559d5117f54a:s023].

None of these petitions originate from or are directed at the Ashwood district. They are recorded here as the third-party parliamentary activity in the window — their subject matter is geographically distinct from Ashwood.