We can’t afford bigger pay rise for teachers

Early school closures today are about pay, not staff numbers, says Peter Gutwein

TASMANIA has a hardworking and dedicated public sector, but Tasmania’s parents must be wondering why our schools are closing early today when teachers are being offered a pay rise of 6 per cent over three years.

The Hodgman Government has been negotiating in good faith with the teachers’ union with an offer of a salary increase of 6 per cent over the next three years.

The union won’t accept this though, and will today disrupt students’ learning and inconvenience parents with teaching staff walking off the job. If the union wanted to avoid disrupting parents by forcing schools to close early, they could have moved their industrial action back an hour.

By scheduling their action at a time that forces 65 Tasmanian schools to close early, it’s clear they always planned to cause disruption.

It is extraordinary that after just three meetings the union would take this step.

The Government calls on the union to return to the negotiating table and to negotiate in good faith.

While we have proposed a fair offer of 2 per cent per year to our teaching staff, the union has called for wage increases of 3 per cent. If this was provided to all public sector workers, it would cost Tasmania $285 million including superannuation over four years.

That’s $285 million less available to invest in employing more teachers, nurses and doctors.

Now, you will hear the union claim today’s strike is about class sizes and workload, but this is not true.

The Government has already employed an extra 142 teachers and 193 teacher assistants since 2014, but we know there is more to do, and we have started to recruit 250 new teachers. This strike is about pay, and the argument comes down to whether we want more teachers, and a fair, reasonable, affordable and sustainable pay rise of 6 per cent over three years, or unsustainable pay rises, and less teachers.

Given the choice, I will always argue for more teachers to educate our kids.

There will be scaremongering by the union that our teachers are poorly paid, but the unions won’t tell you that Tasmanian teachers are actually paid the third highest hourly rate in the country, and have the second lowest hours per week in the country at 35 hours.

And our wages policy is keeping up with the cost of living.

Since March 2014, inflation has risen just 1.6 per cent on average per annum, well below our wages policy of 2 per cent per annum.

While the unions campaign for a massive and unsustainable hit on the budget of $285 million, I am proud of our budget’s strong position which means we are able to do more to provide the essential services you need.

A strong budget means better healthcare, education, and investment into services to support vulnerable people in our community.

It also means ensuring Tasmania has the flexibility to respond to the challenges and unforeseen events that our growing state will inevitably face.

I am happy to support our hard-working public servants, especially our dedicated teachers who are working to better the future of your children, and they deserve a pay rise, but it must be fair, it must be sustainable, and it must be affordable.