SA high school phone ban ... or damp squib?

The state education minister and his opposite number were on the same page wishing students well for 2023 but were at odds prior to day 1 of term whether the Malinauskas government had made good on its ban on mobile phones in high school.

Shadow education minister John Gardner told Flow on Wednesday that when his Liberal party was in office from 2018 to 2022, they looked at measures controlling mobile phones in high schools and put protocols in place guiding schools how to make that move in concert with their school communities. Mr Gardner said the recently published number of exemptions Labor has applied to restrictions on phones in high schools meant it wasn't the ban promised by then opposition leader Peter Malinauskas in opposition in 2019:

"Is it wrong that these exemptions are in place in some cases? Is it true that this is a complex area? Absolutely. But I wasn't the one and the Liberal Party weren't the ones who spent the last three years trying to drum up votes being hairy chested and macho about how tough we were going to be.

"The Labor Party - Peter Malinauskas - spent three years being very macho about this but when it comes to deliver, his policy in some ways is much weaker than what was there before."

Education minister Blair Boyer later told Flow the measures were certainly a ban:

"This is just a case of the former minsiter and the former government, who did put a ban in place in primary schools which I have to say was a good thing but then they looked at high schools where we have the real issue with mobile phones and thought, ohh that's a bit tricky I'll put that in the too-hard basket. They squibbed that one, well I'm not going to be the minister who looks away from the kind of issues that mobile phones cause and that's why we made the commitment, that's what we're putting into place."

"There will be appropriate exemptions, as you would expect, we were contacted by parents early in the piece ... if they have a legitimate reason to access their phone during the day, that would be there. But it is a ban otherwise."

Hear the full interviews with Blair Boyer and John Gardner on the Flow podcast player below: