Portfolio — 31 July 2026

Child safety and institutional accountability dominated the Member for Kew's contributions in the Assembly on 30 July 2026, with the Suburban Rail Loop's contested future providing a second front of scrutiny.

As Leader of the Opposition, the Member for Kew delivered the coalition's formal statement supporting the motion of apology to survivors of child sexual abuse in Victorian government schools [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s059]. She named at least 482 children whose trust was betrayed and cited the Beaumaris board of inquiry's finding of six systemic failures in the Department of Education's response — including the absence of policies for handling abuse allegations, a culture that placed the education system's reputation above children's safety, and poor record-keeping and information-sharing practices.

On behalf of the Liberal and Nationals coalition she stated, without reservation or qualification: "we are sorry." She drew a direct line from those historical failures to more recent events, invoking the 2025 case of a Melbourne childcare worker charged with more than 150 offences against children, in which regulators' information-sharing and working-with-children-check processes were found wanting.

Her argument to the Assembly was structural: organisations must never prioritise their own reputation over child safety, and early warning systems must be embedded before vulnerable children are harmed.

On the Suburban Rail Loop, the Member for Kew pressed the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop on whether the government supports cancelling or pausing the project and questioned whether the minister stands by the $34.5 billion cost estimate for Suburban Rail Loop East [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s065]. She then challenged the Premier directly, quoting his prior statement that the government cannot wait to get on with the project, and asking what has changed [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s068].

The exchange framed an apparent shift in the government's public position as the central question the opposition is pressing.

Separately, the Member for Kew moved a motion condemning the Premier and the government for failing to listen to Victorians, drawing on findings gathered during her Fresh Start tour of 88 seats across the state [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s003]. That motion contextualised the day's broader scrutiny as part of a sustained opposition argument about government responsiveness.