Honourable Speaker, I rise to follow on from the member for Bass and the things that she has just raised in relation to Trevallyn Primary School. On Wednesday, 14 October at 8.33 p.m., Pulse Media published an article saying, ‘Launceston school ditches Christmas’. On 14 October at 8.47 p.m., the Premier posted a social media post saying this:
It has been brought to my attention that there have been efforts made to remove all references to Christmas in end-of-year school celebrations. Whatever your religion or heritage, Christmas is part of our way of life.
He went on and finished by saying:
Our schoolkids should be encouraged to sing Christmas carols whenever they please. I have requested that the Education Department step in.
What ensued from that media article, which named the school and named the acting principal, and from the Premier’s social media post was a pile-on. The school faced an avalanche of abuse: abuse online, the school office was phoned, they received threats, they needed to put security in when the school term started again the following week. It was a terrible situation for them, and they were overwhelmed by the negative attention that had been brought to them for no good reason, because the school was not ditching Christmas, the school was not getting rid of Christmas carols. They had just been considering how they could be more inclusive, and that was a response to requests from the students. The school was following the principles of the Education Department, particularly around respect, around connection, making sure that everyone felt included in their end-of-year celebrations.
It’s been a little bit difficult to get to the bottom of what happened here, and there are still some pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that we don’t know. But following questions in the other place from the honourable member for Hobart, Ms O’Connor, to the Minister for Education, it became clear that after the Premier had written a letter to the Education Department, that the secretary of the Education Department had replied to him. It’s taken us till this evening for that letter to be tabled in this place. I want to read what the secretary of the Department of Education wrote to the Premier on 14 October. Before the social media post, before the Pulse article, this letter was sent to the Premier:
Dear Premier, thank you for your correspondence of 13th of October 2026 regarding end-of-year celebrations at Trevallyn Primary School. The school has advised that Christmas carols will remain part of the event, with some classes choosing to perform Christmas-themed items, and Santa Claus will also be attending, consistent with previous years.
The letter goes on, with the secretary saying:
Based on the information provided by the school, I am satisfied that Christmas remains an important part of the proposed celebration. Rather than removing Christmas, the school is seeking to balance longstanding traditions with an inclusive approach that enables all students and families to participate in a way that is respectful of their individual beliefs and circumstances.
What’s particularly shocking about this is that the Premier would have received this letter before he made that social media post. He absolutely knew that Christmas was not being removed from the school, that Christmas carols weren’t being ditched and he still went ahead and made that post, and threw that school under a bus. It has caused so much pain and distress in that school community. I’ve had so many people contacting me, really upset about what’s happened because they have been unfairly targeted and they have suffered greatly at the hands of people on social media – trolls, bots, scurrilous people who are just awful, and the Premier is the person who has opened them up to that abuse. It is completely unacceptable behaviour by this Premier. And why has he done it? So, he can shore up his own standing amongst conservative voters. He’s dog-whistling to parts of the community that he needs to get on his side. This is really, really terrible. The school has been used as collateral in the Premier’s own attempts to make himself have a better standing among certain members of the community. It’s absolutely shameful. I have written to the Premier and asked him to apologise. I have asked in this place if he will apologise on two occasions, and I’m asking again.
Premier, what you have done is unacceptable, it’s hurtful and you need to apologise to the school. I call on you to apologise to Trevallyn Primary School.
