Portfolio — 29 August 2026

The Member for Sandringham's Assembly contributions across this window span two distinct but connected education-domain events: a formal parliamentary apology to victim-survivors of child sexual abuse in Victorian government schools, and the Opposition's rejection of a multi-subject education reform bill.

The dominant discourse arc for Sandringham in this window is the parliamentary apology. The Member for Sandringham delivered the apology on behalf of the 60th Parliament to victim-survivors of child sexual abuse in Victorian government schools, acknowledging that the state failed to keep children safe despite being entrusted with their care [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s060].

He grounded the apology in specifics: the history of abuse at Beaumaris Primary School from the 1960s to the 1990s, the Department of Education's failure to review allegations, and the role of former Legislative Council member Stuart Grimley and survivor Glen Fearnett in bringing the matter before Parliament [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s060]. The Member for Sandringham argued that Beaumaris was not an isolated case but one instance of a systemic pattern across government schools comparable to or exceeding abuse in non-government institutions, and he characterised the Forum for Truth and Recognition's report — documenting 38 survivor accounts — as the beginning of Parliament's obligation, not its end [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s060].

The third-party record from the same sitting day reinforces and contextualises that contribution. The Assembly passed the motion on 30 July 2026, with the Premier, Mr Carroll — who also holds the education portfolio — stating that the apology followed a 2023 board of inquiry into Beaumaris Primary School and other government schools [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s058].

That inquiry found the Department of Education had no abuse-response policies, provided no staff training, prioritised institutional reputation over child safety, and maintained inadequate records. The Leader of the Opposition, Ms Wilson, pledged coalition support, noting that over 400 government schools have been named in civil claims or redress applications and that decades of silence compounded the original harm [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s058].

Across both lanes, the framing converges: both the government and the Opposition characterised the apology as opening sustained action rather than closing the matter, with commitments to pursue accountability for perpetrators, strengthen child safety frameworks, and support survivors through dedicated services and restorative engagement programs [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s058].

The second strand of the Member for Sandringham's Assembly activity concerns the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Schools and Other Matters) Bill 2026. Speaking as Shadow Minister for Education, the Member for Sandringham opposed the bill, citing concerns raised by the Australian Education Union, the Victorian Principals Association, and Parents Victoria regarding enforcement of digital content orders, procedural fairness, and the removal of imminent-risk thresholds for exclusion orders [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s044].

He acknowledged that individual education-related provisions — including a statutory principle that schools be safe and respectful places and the renaming of 'permission to teach' to 'conditional authority to teach' — have merit, but the Opposition will oppose the bill in its entirety on the ground that multiple unrelated policy areas have been bundled into a single instrument [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s044].

That structural objection — opposition to legislative omnibus packaging rather than to the substantive education provisions themselves — is the Opposition's stated position of record.