My speech in the new Labor government's proposed Mobile Phone ban in NSW public schools

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Ms TAMARA SMITH (Ballina) (17:33): On behalf of The Greens, I contribute to the public interest debate and congratulate the member for Wallsend on her appointment as Deputy Speaker. I speak on behalf of the member for Newtown and the new member for Balmain, who is sitting in the Chamber today. It is a bit exciting as it is the first time that I have stood in the Chamber with her. I notice there are some students in the gallery, so hello to them especially.

The Greens will not get in the way of Labor delivering on this election commitment, and we commend the intention of it. The fact that 70 per cent of schools have already implemented this ban gives us an indication of how difficult phone usage has become in schools. As The Greens NSW education spokesperson and as a former teacher for 21 years, given everything that I am hearing from the new education Minister and given Labor's policies at the election, I am very confident that she will make a real difference to our classrooms—not least because Labor members are addressing the teacher shortage through a raft of measures. I look forward to the robust debate to push Labor further on some issues, and that is the holistic framework that we are looking forward to.

The Greens believe that schools are well placed to manage those kinds of decisions, and we support the intent of this motion. However, we would encourage the Minister to talk to young people, and I have not heard anyone mentioning students' perspectives. I know how addicted I am to my phone, and anyone watching question time will notice that every member in the Chamber is also highly addicted to their mobile phone. Mobile phones are extensions of our arms. I recently left one in an Uber, and one would have thought that I was in the Middle East. I was in Balmain, but I was completely and utterly bereft. It was ridiculous how traumatised I was to not have my mobile phone for a few hours, so this is a much broader issue about student engagement. I am certainly not blaming teachers, but we need to look more broadly.

In my day bringing your own device was a real thing, and I was glad to see the wording around access and students. Not all students could afford a device in the beginning, and their phones were often the best way for them to engage with online learning. We look forward to better resourcing of schools so that that simply is not required anymore. But, as pointed out by others, there are so many devices. What will we do about iWatches? What will we do about the multiple ways that young people can access the internet? Let us face it: When it comes to the things that are impeding learning, a lot of it is that addictive content. I would love to have a broader conversation about the addiction that young people are facing to their phones and also to hear from young people about the many ways that that could be addressed without an outright ban, but we will definitely not get in the way of supporting Labor in its election commitment.

The Greens look forward to supporting schools across the State to be better resourced, to have more classroom teachers in front of their students and to deliver first-class, world-class education. I hope that this issue becomes a thing of the past, because to me it is a symptom of a number of things. We do not think that banning mobile phones will be an overnight panacea for the disengagement of students and other broader issues with our public school system. We look forward to those debates, and I again encourage the Minister to speak to young people. In my experience, students know exactly the answers to those issues and will come up with far better remedies than we would ever think of, because we are not in their position. Young people have literally had access to mobile phones for their entire lives, so it is a very different world. We will support the motion and we will not support the amendment. We look forward to broader conversations about education in our public schools in New South Wales.