Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

School is back for 2026, much to the joy and relief of parents everywhere, including my own colleagues here. Now is a great time to reflect on what Labor governments have been delivering for public education and local public schools across Australia.

Under the Albanese Labor government, we are delivering the biggest investment in public education under the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement—an investment of $16.5 billion over 10 years. We are finally on a path to full and fair funding for every public school, including in my electorate. It ends years of underinvestment by former coalition governments. We are backing public education, and this commitment to public education is being matched by the Minns New South Wales Labor government. There's no better example of that than the major upgrade to Concord High School in my electorate.

The school was bursting at the seams, with almost 30 per cent of Concord High School students learning out of demountable temporary classrooms. The first time I met the P&C in 2022, they spoke to me about the challenges at the school, including the fact that the toilets were of such an awful standard that the children were choosing not to drink water or were going across to the park to use the toilets there.

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I'm so excited by the upgrade at Concord High School. It is now fit for purpose for the ambitions of those students. The new upgrade includes 40 new permanent classrooms, including specialist learning spaces for visual arts, performing arts and PDHPE; new support learning units; a brand-new hall and canteen; and upgraded facilities all across the school. It's fantastic. Last week, I had the opportunity to join the Acting Minister for Education and Early Learning, Courtney Houssos; Principal Mr Victor Newby; President of Concord High School P&C Amber Hooker; and the school captains to have a tour of the new facilities, and it was fantastic. Mr Newby said that it was an upgrade that had been some time coming, after having to use spaces across the school that were not designed to be teaching spaces, and all the students were really excited to be starting there.

I want to thank all the teachers of the Concord P&C for their work in advocating for these changes, all the staff who have worked so hard over years to push for better facilities, and, of course, I want to thank the New South Wales Minns Labor government.