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

Six hundred and twenty qualified and trusted student welfare officers face the sack under new government guidelines. The Abbott government has decided to cut funding for student welfare officers and only give schools the ability to employ religious chaplains. One of the people facing the sack is Prue Robertson, a qualified social worker who works as welfare officer for three small schools in my electorate. One of her schools, Campbells Creek Primary School, has collected already over 1,500 signatures calling for school councils to continue to have choice when it comes to the chaplaincy funding.

I know from talking to many of the parents at Campbells Creek how important Prue is to their school community. Principals and school communities are in the best position to determine the welfare needs of their students, and they should be given the opportunity to choose the most effective way to assist students at the local level. One of the parents said to me, and it was backed up by one of the teachers, that Prue encourages and ensures that children are in the classroom ready to learn so that the teachers are ready to teach them. Campbells Creek primary school has done an outstanding job collecting so many signatures so quickly. It demonstrates how important Prue is to the school and it demonstrates how out of touch this Liberal government is with regional Victoria.