Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak in favour of this motion and thank the member for Wakefield for bringing the motion to the floor of the Federation Chamber. It is right that there are famous people with dyslexia who have gone on to have remarkable lives and contribute to our society. Albert Einstein had dyslexia and Tom Cruise is another famous person with dyslexia. But the difference between these people who have gone on to have great lives and great careers is the fact that they got early support. A lot of people with dyslexia live with it silently. A lot of people with dyslexia did not get the support they needed when they were younger and have not been able to achieve or to fulfil their lives in the way that others have. That is largely because it is a silent topic. It is something that is not talked about enough.

In more recent times students with dyslexia have been lumped with students with autism, and they quite often miss out on funding and support in their schools because they do not fit into the right category for funding support. That is why I echo the call from the member for Wakefield that our schools need the resources, need the needs-based funding that was put forward by the former Labor government to help all students with a learning difficulty and disability.

Yes, it is true that there are some innovative programs in our schools as well as in some schools overseas. But the problem is that there is no national approach. It is very much a patchwork approach. Quite often a school, a particular teacher or a particular principal has been the champion and has battled their own school and their own state education department to bring forward a program. In my own area of Bendigo we have some schools doing quite exciting work in this space. NETschool, which is a subsection of Bendigo Senior Secondary College, has a special class for students with dyslexia to support those students in re-engaging with education—because, as previous speakers have acknowledged, they learn differently. Some of our primary schools have special classes and use some of the techniques raised in this motion to encourage people to learn.

Part of the great challenge in this space is that we do not know the science. We do not know why it is that children or people with dyslexia learn differently and think differently. There is still a lot of research that needs to be done in this space to understand why it is the brain works differently for people with dyslexia. Simple things like mixing up your own name when you are tired, being able to learn how to drive, being able to read out aloud, being able to remember formulas or phone numbers are a challenge for people with dyslexia. Like all issues of this nature there are varying scales. There is some talk that wearing rose-coloured glasses may help, but it does not help all people with dyslexia.

This motion calls upon the government to consider working with the states. It calls upon the government to work with the states to develop a national program which encompasses accreditation and development of schools specialising in dyslexia. These are all steps we need to take. One of the previous speakers mentioned how things have not improved since her son was at school. That is correct. We need to turn best practice into common practice. We need to see there be a national program to support all children with dyslexia. If they can learn the basics at school then they can go on to be the next Albert Einstein or the next Tom Cruise, or any other number of famous people with dyslexia. But if they cannot master the basics then they will struggle for the rest of their lives.

I will end with a story from a young boy in my electorate. For his eighth birthday he asked for a ride-on mower that was broken—not fixed, not working, but broken. He rebuilt that ride-on mower. Shortly after his birthday a great clip popped up on Facebook as he cut the lawn of his parents' paddock with this ride-on mower that he had rebuilt. This young boy has dyslexia and hates school. He cannot read. His parents just hope that one day it will click into place. They are hoping that his love for motor mechanics will trigger an interest so he can overcome the barriers that he is experiencing in reading, writing and maths. A young boy who can rebuild a motor should not have to struggle the way that he struggling is at school. Our schools should have the resources to support students with dyslexia to ensure that every kid gets the best possible start. I support the motion.

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