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.