Portfolio — 29 August 2026

The Member for Bellarine's contribution in the Assembly window centred on apprenticeship and traineeship reform, with her Assembly speech on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Schools and Other Matters) Bill 2026 supplying the sole but substantive record for this district.

The Member for Bellarine supported the bill, framing apprenticeships and traineeships as essential pathways to employment and career development [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s045]. Her speech drew directly on the Apprenticeships Taskforce, established after the 2022 election, which found that apprentices and trainees across Victoria were experiencing bullying, discrimination, harassment, unsafe workplaces, and unpaid wages — the taskforce produced 16 recommendations, all accepted by the government in full or in principle [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s045].

The structural centrepiece of her contribution was the bill's transfer of apprenticeship and traineeship regulation from the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority to Workforce Inspectorate Victoria, a change she described as sharpening the focus on worker safety and compliance [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s045]. The shift reflects a deliberate move toward a body with enforcement powers more suited to the workplace conduct problems the taskforce documented.

The Member also situated the reform within the government's broader commitment to TAFE, including the free TAFE system, and flagged a practical constraint shaping the reform design: nearly 80 per cent of Victorian employers taking on apprentices and trainees are small businesses without dedicated human resources or compliance capacity [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s045].

That observation implicitly frames the regulatory transfer as supporting employers who lack the internal infrastructure to navigate complex obligations unaided.