Motion · 10 April 2025
Schools safety order laws: Proposed
Wording in the final text came from Laura NuttallGreens · Crossbench (1)
In short
- Proposed
- Jeremy Hanson brought this motion on 10 April 2025.
- Changed
- 1 change proposed by Laura Nuttall; 1 agreed.
- Decided
- Agreed as changed. No individual votes were recorded, so this doesn't show who supported it.
- Final wording
- Compared with the original, 3 words taken out and 36 words put in. See every difference
- What was proposedJeremy HansonLiberal · Opposition
Read the original wording (450 words)
That this Assembly: (1) notes that: (a) the 2024 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey (the ACU Report) showed: (i) seven out of 10 Canberra principals reported physical violence in their job, the highest in the country; and (ii) 74.4 percent received violent threats, the highest in the country; (b) the ACU Report further shows parents/caregivers as sources of: (i) threats of violence remains high at 63.7 percent; (ii) bullying remains high at 58.1 percent; and (iii) cyber bullying has become high at 87.6 percent; (c) the ACT Education Directorate annual report 2023-2024 notes that “the most significant risk to health and safety of workers in ACT public schools continues to be occupational violence in the form of verbal or physical aggression by students or parents”; (d) the Australian Education Union’s 2023-2024 ACT Budget submission stated that in the 2021-2022 year, there were 36.55 incidences of occupational violence reported every teaching day, or one violent incident every nine minutes and 51 seconds; (e) in response to violence and threats of violence, the Victorian Government introduced the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Protection of School Communities) Act to protect their schools; (f) this legislation enables principals and other authorised persons to issue safety orders that prevent a specified person from: (i) entering or remaining on any school-related place of the relevant school; (ii) approaching, or causing another person to approach, within 25 metres of any staff member or class of staff members within or outside of any school-related place of the relevant school; (iii) contacting any staff member or class of staff members; and (iv) using or communicating on a communication platform owned, controlled by, or established in relation to the relevant school; (g) South Australia introduced the Education and Children’s Services (Barring Notices and Other Protections) Amendment Bill 2024 with similar provisions; (h) the South Australian Education Department stated the laws give “better protection against abusive parents at schools”; (i) the Victorian Premier stated the laws will give Victorian schools “the power to ban aggressive and violent parents from entering school grounds, to protect students and staff”; (j) no equivalent laws exist in the ACT to protect staff, students and families; (k) occupational violence in schools has been ongoing for years, and highlighted in numerous reports, including an Assembly inquiry of 2019; and (l) in 2023, the Opposition called for an inquiry into school violence that was dismissed by the Government; and (2) calls on the Government to: (a) investigate the school safety order laws in Victoria and South Australia for their applicability and use in ACT schools; and (b) report back to the Assembly no later than 2 September 2025. Debate ensued.
Grouped by key words as: rewrote the proposal, changed a date or deadline, added reporting or consultation.
The exact wording of this change
Omit all text after paragraph (2)(a), substitute: “(b) through this investigation, consult key stakeholders within the education space and ensure that both this consultation and any resulting initiatives are developed to minimise and ideally reduce the workload impost on educators and principals; and (c) report back to the Assembly no later than 2 September 2025.”. Debate continued.
Agreed on the voices. No individual votes were recorded. Its wording is in the final text.
- What the Assembly decidedAgreed
Decided on the voices: no individual votes were recorded, so this doesn’t show that every MLA agreed.
Final agreed wording, with changes marked
That this Assembly: (1) notes that: (a) the 2024 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey (the ACU Report) showed: (i) seven out of 10 Canberra principals reported physical violence in their job, the highest in the country; and (ii) 74.4 percent received violent threats, the highest in the country; (b) the ACU Report further shows parents/caregivers as sources of: (i) threats of violence remains high at 63.7 percent; (ii) bullying remains high at 58.1 percent; and (iii) cyber bullying has become high at 87.6 percent; (c) the ACT Education Directorate annual report 2023-2024 notes that “the most significant risk to health and safety of workers in ACT public schools continues to be occupational violence in the form of verbal or physical aggression by students or parents”; (d) the Australian Education Union’s 2023-2024 ACT Budget submission stated that in the 2021-2022 year, there were 36.55 incidences of occupational violence reported every teaching day, or one violent incident every nine minutes and 51 seconds; (e) in response to violence and threats of violence, the Victorian Government introduced the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Protection of School Communities) Act to protect their schools; (f) this legislation enables principals and other authorised persons to issue safety orders that prevent a specified person from: (i) entering or remaining on any school-related place of the relevant school; (ii) approaching, or causing another person to approach, within 25 metres of any staff member or class of staff members within or outside of any school-related place of the relevant school; (iii) contacting any staff member or class of staff members; and (iv) using or communicating on a communication platform owned, controlled by, or established in relation to the relevant school; (g) South Australia introduced the Education and Children’s Services (Barring Notices and Other Protections) Amendment Bill 2024 with similar provisions; (h) the South Australian Education Department stated the laws give “better protection against abusive parents at schools”; (i) the Victorian Premier stated the laws will give Victorian schools “the power to ban aggressive and violent parents from entering school grounds, to protect students and staff”; (j) no equivalent laws exist in the ACT to protect staff, students and families; (k) occupational violence in schools has been ongoing for years, and highlighted in numerous reports, including an Assembly inquiry of 2019; and (l) in 2023, the Opposition called for an inquiry into school violence that was dismissed by the Government; and (2) calls on the Government to: (a) investigate the school safety order laws in Victoria and South Australia for their applicability and use in ACT schools; (b) through this investigation, consult key stakeholders within the education space and ensure that both this consultation and any resulting initiatives are developed to minimise and ideally reduce the workload impost on educators and principals; and (c) report back to the Assembly no later than 2 September 2025Nuttall.
Original and final wording compared
That this Assembly: (1) notes that: (a) the 2024 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey (the ACU Report) showed: (i) seven out of 10 Canberra principals reported physical violence in their job, the highest in the country; and (ii) 74.4 percent received violent threats, the highest in the country; (b) the ACU Report further shows parents/caregivers as sources of: (i) threats of violence remains high at 63.7 percent; (ii) bullying remains high at 58.1 percent; and (iii) cyber bullying has become high at 87.6 percent; (c) the ACT Education Directorate annual report 2023-2024 notes that “the most significant risk to health and safety of workers in ACT public schools continues to be occupational violence in the form of verbal or physical aggression by students or parents”; (d) the Australian Education Union’s 2023-2024 ACT Budget submission stated that in the 2021-2022 year, there were 36.55 incidences of occupational violence reported every teaching day, or one violent incident every nine minutes and 51 seconds; (e) in response to violence and threats of violence, the Victorian Government introduced the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Protection of School Communities) Act to protect their schools; (f) this legislation enables principals and other authorised persons to issue safety orders that prevent a specified person from: (i) entering or remaining on any school-related place of the relevant school; (ii) approaching, or causing another person to approach, within 25 metres of any staff member or class of staff members within or outside of any school-related place of the relevant school; (iii) contacting any staff member or class of staff members; and (iv) using or communicating on a communication platform owned, controlled by, or established in relation to the relevant school; (g) South Australia introduced the Education and Children’s Services (Barring Notices and Other Protections) Amendment Bill 2024 with similar provisions; (h) the South Australian Education Department stated the laws give “better protection against abusive parents at schools”; (i) the Victorian Premier stated the laws will give Victorian schools “the power to ban aggressive and violent parents from entering school grounds, to protect students and staff”; (j) no equivalent laws exist in the ACT to protect staff, students and families; (k) occupational violence in schools has been ongoing for years, and highlighted in numerous reports, including an Assembly inquiry of 2019; and (l) in 2023, the Opposition called for an inquiry into school violence that was dismissed by the Government; and (2) calls on the Government to: (a) investigate the school safety order laws in Victoria and South Australia for their applicability and use in ACT schools;
[taken out: and](b) [put in: through this investigation, consult key stakeholders within the education space and ensure that both this consultation and any resulting initiatives are developed to minimise and ideally reduce the workload impost on educators and principals; and (c)]report back to the Assembly no later than 2 September 2025.[taken out: Debate ensued.]Compared word by word by computer, ignoring punctuation. It shows what differs, not which change made each difference; the steps above show that.
Check the official record
- Minutes of Proceedings No 16, 10 April 2025, item 21
Find these on the Assembly’s chamber documents page. Wording is quoted from the Minutes, © ACT Legislative Assembly, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Our reading is automatic and may contain errors; agreeing to a motion is not the same as doing what it asks. Report a problem