As we build up to the 2024 ACT election in October, Marisa Paterson MLA and Jeremy Hanson CSC, MLA will write a column each week covering different topics. This is the tenth instalment.

Marisa Paterson

Public education is a cornerstone of the ACT Labor party’s values, reflecting our commitment to equality, opportunity, and social justice. This is why ACT Labor is committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, has access to high-quality, free education – which is why year after year, the second highest expenditure in the ACT Budget is education (at $1.8 billion, second to health).   

ACT Labor will invest $150 million into local schools across the ACT, which includes a dedicated $30 million for heating and cooling upgrades. ACT Labor will also progress works for new ACT public schools in Whitlam and Strathnairn, a new public high school and college in Molonglo, and a second college in Gungahlin to meet our growing population. This term we have delivered on our commitment for free three-year-old preschool in the ACT, with Canberra families accessing up to 300 hours each year. This election, we are committed to doubling it to 600 hours a year (a saving to families of over $2,600). ACT Labor will also roll out before and after school care at public four-year-old preschools (this will be a lifesaver for working parents!).

ACT Labor established the ‘Future of Education Equity Fund’ following the 2020 election. This election, a re-elected Labor Government is committed to expanding this fund, providing low-income families one-off payments to help with education expenses. A re-elected ACT Labor Government will also provide one grade level at each public school the opportunity for a camp at Birrigai Outdoor School.

This term, ACT Labor commissioned an independent inquiry into literacy and numeracy education in the ACT. The Stronger Foundations report made eight recommendations which the Labor Government is committed to investing $56.5 million to implement. Under Stronger Foundations, Canberra families will have access to evidence-informed teaching practices, common assessments including a year 1 phonics check, advice, and resources for parents to support children.

I hear regularly from parents and teachers about their concerns for young people’s mental health, which is why ACT Labor is committed to employing an extra 15 school psychologists or mental health practitioners in our schools.

ACT Labor is strongly committed to delivering high quality, free education to our community, which is why we have a practical and progressive plan to ensure barriers are removed to give our kids the best possible start in life.

Jeremy Hanson

Working hard for you and your family.

A question which sometimes gets raised – especially during an election campaign – is why did I get into politics?

The answer for me is simple: to make life better and easier for Canberra families.

I’ve raised my own family in our local area in Canberra’s south, and I see, live and experience the challenges so many others face.

Families across our suburbs have frankly been left behind by an ACT government that has forgotten there is more to Canberra than the inner city.

Where I live, we need more affordable housing for young families, and they need housing choices. The government seems intent on depriving an entire generation of the ability to live in a family home, on their own block, with a secure yard and reliable, well-maintained city services.

What they are proposing, in my local area, is thousands of homes that the local residents’ association have calculated will give the area a higher population density than Singapore or New York.

We need less overcrowding and more teachers in our schools, so we can deliver better outcomes for our children. And teachers need to be protected – a nationwide survey showed Canberra teachers face the highest level of classroom violence in the country.

We need to fix the health system, which report after report shows Canberra performing the worst in the country across almost every measure.

And we need to ease the cost-of-living pressures on all of us, including rates.

This can all be addressed – but not if we spend billions on a Tram that will take longer to get to Civic than the bus.

I continue to stay committed to politics, to stand up for the ‘forgotten families’ – the Canberrans who have been left behind by Labor and the Greens.

They are the reasons why I entered politics, and why I remain as committed in this election as I was when I first entered politics: to keep working hard for you and your family.