New South Wales Labor has launched an unprecedented attack on parents’ rights, signalling plans that could see homeschooling and private education severely restricted, if not abolished altogether.

Family First stands with parents. We affirm, without qualification, the fundamental right of mums and dads to direct the education of their children — including the right to homeschool — and we will do everything in our power to protect and defend that right.

State Education Secretary Murat Dizdar’s disturbing comments, aired on the ABC earlier this month, reveal a worrying agenda. He described alternatives to government schooling as “unnecessary” and called for a single, centralised “educational pathway” — an idea more fitting for Communist China than a free society like Australia.

Dizdar’s extreme position has rightly sparked outrage from Catholic educators, homeschooling advocates, and many across the political spectrum. Catholic Schools NSW CEO Dallas McInerney called Dizdar’s remarks “outrageously bad and very worrying.” Sydney Catholic Schools Director Danielle Cronin reminded Dizdar that faith-based education has been part of NSW’s fabric for over 200 years, long before the state offered any public schooling.

Yet despite a half-hearted reassurance from Premier Chris Minns, Labor’s actions are speaking louder than words. From 5 May 2025, Labor will shift homeschooling regulation from the relatively impartial NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to the Department of Education — the very bureaucracy Dizdar oversees.

This is no minor administrative change. As homeschool advocates like VIGIL have warned, it represents a dangerous power grab. Parents who have chosen to educate their children at home — often at great personal cost and sacrifice — now face the real prospect of bureaucratic harassment, ideological interference, or worse.

Family First is committed to resisting this totalitarian drift. We reject the idea that children belong to the state. Children belong to their families, and it is parents — not bureaucrats — who are best placed to decide what is in their child’s best interests.

We support the continued legal recognition of homeschooling under Section 5d of the NSW Education Act and will fight any attempt to narrow or remove this right.

Family First will:

Defend homeschooling rights at every opportunity.

Oppose any government moves to restrict or ban private education.

Champion genuine school choice, respecting parents as the primary educators of their children.

In an era when government schools are increasingly captured by radical ideologies, the right of parents to homeschool their children is more important than ever.

Family First will not stand by while Labor tries to steal this freedom. We are ready to fight — and win — for Australian families.

The madness of closing coal-fired power stations is finally becoming clear. Reality has caught up with the political fantasy of net zero, and the consequences are now undeniable.

The Victorian Labor government, which once boasted of its aggressive transition away from coal, is now scrambling to keep the Yallourn coal power station open beyond its planned 2028 closure.

Clearly the electricity affordability and reliability emergency is trumping the so-called climate emergency.

This backflip follows last year’s decision to extend the life of the Loy Yang power station. In New South Wales, the Minns government has already been forced to extend the life of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal plant, at a potential cost to taxpayers of up to $450 million.

What happened to all the promises that renewables would be cheaper and reliable? The grim reality is that wind and solar are not replacing baseload power fast enough, and the grid is now at risk of instability, something Family First has been warning for years. Industry experts have warned that Victoria faces blackouts and power shortages, and the Australian Energy Market Operator has been forced to intervene. The Albanese government, meanwhile, remains wedded to a net-zero dream that is crumbling under its own contradictions. Energy Minister Chris Bowen insists Australia will double its renewable energy by 2030, but even his own department knows this won’t be enough to prevent a power shortfall.

Instead of admitting their mistakes, governments are using taxpayer dollars to prop up failing policies. Extending coal plants now means millions, even billions, in additional costs. It never had to be this way. Australia was once a country with some of the cheapest and most reliable electricity in the world. Net zero has turned that advantage into an energy crisis.

Both major parties remain committed to net zero and the Paris climate accords. At the upcoming election, voters must send a message: stop the madness. Family First is standing against reckless energy policies that put ideology before common sense. Vote Family First and help bring Australia back to energy sanity.

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Australia's terror-supporters must not be allowed to win, we must go back to the Opera House in peace.