Portfolio — 12 July 2026

Education dominated the Assembly's engagement with Bayswater across the window, with the Member for Bayswater placing it at the centre of his own contributions and external references to the district clustering around school funding, capital investment, and the government's Education State framing.

The Member for Bayswater spoke to the Education and Training Reform Amendment Bill 2026, commending the Minister and positioning the legislation as a pillar of the government's education agenda [TA-260616-vichns-9dec69d94dd9:s190]. He outlined the bill's core reforms: strengthening Aboriginal recognition and self-determination across early childhood education, schooling, vocational education and training, and adult community and further education; requiring schools to restrict student use of personal electronic devices during school hours; and improving the teacher registration framework and the Victorian student register [TA-260616-vichns-9dec69d94dd9:s194].

The Member identified education as his absolute number one priority, citing the government's investments in universal access to free three- and four-year-old kindergarten and over 80 free TAFE courses as evidence of transformational change.

The Member grounded the legislative debate in local terms. He described the eighth Bayswater education plan — a collaborative initiative with four local primary schools and Bayswater Secondary College focused on school improvement and curriculum development — as having contributed to that college's growth from 170–180 students to substantially higher enrolment [TA-260616-vichns-9dec69d94dd9:s194].

He also reported delivering close to $100 million in capital upgrades across the district, including $13 million in new senior and middle school learning buildings at Bayswater Secondary College. The Member also directed a question to the Minister for Government Services on local uptake of the 20 per cent vehicle registration rebate, the only non-education item in his contributions [TA-260616-vichns-9dec69d94dd9:s169].

The third-party record brought a sharper contest. The Member for Bayswater, Ms Westaway, raised a significant equity funding shortfall at Windsor Primary School, a school where 26 per cent of students are educationally disadvantaged, 30 per cent speak English as an additional language, 36 per cent live with disability, and half receive Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund support [TA-260616-vichns-9dec69d94dd9:s168].

Equity funding at the school fell from $27,132 in 2025 to $4,994 in 2026, she said, reducing the school's capacity to provide onsite wellbeing services by almost half. That specific challenge — sharply reduced equity funding at a high-need school within the district — sits in direct tension with the Member for Bayswater's account of $100 million in capital investment and sustained educational gains.

The Member for Sunbury, Mr Bull, responded to the broader education debate by defending the government's record — citing nearly $40 billion invested over 12 years — and contrasting it with cuts to education maintenance allowance and schools funding between 2010 and 2014.

Bayswater also appeared in the housing debate. The Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Violence Reduction and Minister for Finance announced the government approved more than 55,000 new homes across Victoria in the past 12 months, with Bayswater named among the areas receiving approvals, and criticised the Opposition and One Nation for voting jointly against the government's housing policy [TA-260617-vichns-9fa22f0e851d:s219].

The most politically charged reference came from the Opposition Member for Taylor, who sought leave to condemn the Member for Bayswater for confidence in the Premier, alleging $15 billion of corruption on the Big Build and citing record crime, unemployment above the national average, and nearly $200 billion of net debt [TA-260618-vichns-682983134932:s177]. Leave was refused.

The motion signals that the district and its Member are a named target in the Opposition's broader political campaign, even as the substantive parliamentary record from the window remains dominated by education policy.