Parents will gather this Thursday from 12.30pm on the lawns of Parliament House to voice their opposition to the proposed cuts to state school staffing.
Almost two weeks ago, state teachers called a 2-hour stop work meeting for this Thursday to demonstrate their claim to fair pay. The government says that their pay claim means teaching staff will need to be cut to all state schools. With just 2 days to go before the stop work action, the Minister for Education suddenly announced that all state schools would be closed to students on Thursday.
Our kids and our families have been caught up in the politics at play here. The 2-hour stop work would have caused us all some inconvenience but the Minister’s sudden decision to close schools for the whole day appears to be a political decision rather than an issue of safety as the Minister knew about the 2 hour stop work for almost 2 weeks but waited until the last minute to announce the school closures.
I hope all families across the state can make suitable and safe arrangements for their kids. I hope employers are considerate of this last minute crisis for families for those of us who have to suddenly take the day off.
But at this difficult time let’s all remember what this is about. We want the best education for our children. To do this, we need our teachers to get fair pay and to be supported to do their best for our kids. The teachers have the right to protest their pay conditions. It is difficult for teachers to protest without causing some disruption to the school day. The Minister knows this and is asking parents to turn against the teachers, to blame teachers for wanting the pay that is set for them by an independent body.
In the 2014 State election campaign, the Liberals promised not to cut frontline services – not to sack teachers, nurses or police. They said they would prioritise frontline services over less essential areas of Government. They knew that teachers’ pay is set by an independent body. But they now say they have to cut frontline services because the unions won’t accept the wage freeze proposed by Government.
We all know that balancing a budget is not easy to do at a personal level. It certainly is not easy to do at a school level or a government level. Hard decisions have to be made. But the Government must find another way. They can find another way. Our kids deserve a good education. Our teachers work hard to help each individual child to shine. Let’s not blame teachers for the student-free day. Let’s ask everyone to work together to sort the funding issue out. Let’s invest more in education and don’t let the government punish our kids to make a political point.
The Liberal Government said they were committed to Gonski and committed to keeping the average class size to below 25. With some of our urban schools already with an average class size of 25 – and their intake population growing – we’d like the Minister to explain how these schools are meant to keep their classes to below 25 while the government cuts their staffing at the same time. This doesn’t make sense. Any primary school kid could work that out.
Minister Rockliff, how do your plans fit with the Government’s commitment to Gonski? Is this the best the Liberal Government can do for our state school kids?
Please join me to rally against these proposed staff cuts. Come to Parliament House lawns this Thursday, 27 November at 12.30pm and send a loud message to the politicians sitting inside Parliament House. We will be peaceful, respectful and non-party political. We are rallying to tell the government not to cut staffing to state schools.
