Now it’s a Canberra issue: Premier wants national approach to school mobile ban
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has signalled she’s open to banning public school students from using their mobile phones in the classroom and on school grounds, in line with most other states, but said a national approach was needed first.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Education Minister Grace Grace will meet with her federal counterpart Jason Clare on Thursday, apparently to push for a unified national approach to phone-use bans.
This is despite most other states but Queensland formulating their own policy on restricting mobile phone use in schools.
“She (Grace) very much wants to see some national consistency here, so if we can have a national policy on this, of course, Queensland will step up to the plate,” Palaszczuk told reporters.
The newly-elected NSW Labor government made a pre-election commitment to ban phones in state schools in October after Victoria banned their use in primary and secondary schools in 2020.
Similar rules were adopted in WA and Tasmania in 2020.
From term three this year, all South Australian public high schools will also have mobile phone bans in place except where exemptions have been allowed.
Similar rules came into effect in Northern Territory at the start of the year for primary and high school students.
Palaszczuk pointed to an anti-cyberbullying taskforce set up by her government five years ago as having informed its response on the issue so far, but she said it was time for an updated approach.
“I do think we need fresh eyes and a fresh look,” she said.
The federal education minister indicated there is an argument for a nationally consistent approach to banning mobile phones in schools.
“I can’t tell states what to do. What I can do is bring us all together and try (to) develop a national approach, and I’m really happy to do that,” Jason Clare said.
“We’ve got a national approach to try to tackle the big challenges in education like kids falling behind in school. I reckon with a bit of goodwill we can develop a national approach to the banning of phone in all schools.”
Opposition education spokesman Christian Rowan said the LNP was monitoring responses to the issue, including in NSW.
“The opposition has a long-standing position of empowering individuals, school communities, those principals to make those decisions,” he said on Thursday.
“We’re going to be carefully evaluating what’s happening in New South Wales and keep an open mind.”
