❓ Ms. Kelsbie asks about the government's support for teachers' pay and conditions. The Minister outlines pay increases, workload initiatives, and criticizes the opposition's claims about teacher shortages.
AnsweredQoN 684Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TEACHERS — WAGES
AND CONDITIONS
684. Ms E.J. KELSBIE to the Minister for Education:
I refer to the Cook Labor
government's commitment to quality public education.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house how this government is supporting teachers by
providing better pay and conditions?
(2) Can the
minister advise what this means to Western Australia's crucial teaching
workforce?
AND CONDITIONS
684. Ms E.J. KELSBIE to the Minister for Education:
I refer to the Cook Labor
government's commitment to quality public education.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house how this government is supporting teachers by
providing better pay and conditions?
(2) Can the
minister advise what this means to Western Australia's crucial teaching
workforce?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I thank the member for Warren–Blackwood
for her question and for her outstanding advocacy for education in her electorate. She is an absolute champion of
education in the wider Western Australian state, particularly public education. I am very pleased—I even think
the negative shadow Minister for Education will support this—that we can now state that all teachers and school
leaders will receive their five per cent pay rise backdated to 6
December 2023 as part of the enterprise bargaining agreement, which will
deliver a 12 per cent increase in pay over
the next three years. The agreement will see the starting salary of graduate teachers increase by $9 781 to $88 178 and senior teachers' salary
increase by $14 704 to $132 557. Experienced level 3 teachers will earn up to
$147 077 and senior school principals up to $206 662.
In addition to increased wages for public
school teachers, the EBA includes a number of initiatives to address workload
issues, enhance career pathways and attract more quality teachers to the
regions and remote areas. Some of the benefits in the EBA include an increase
in the graduate allowance to give new teachers
more financial support; paid time for new starters to complete professional
learning; improvements to long service leave, personal leave and
compassionate leave entitlements; the introduction of a district allowance for eligible employees; and additional
travel concessions for staff in the Pilbara, Kimberley and goldfields. The government has also established a new
workload taskforce to review its workload reduction measures and look at
further options. It is also providing more staff to help with complex behaviour
and to run small group tuition focusing on literacy and numeracy, and we are
helping classroom teachers meet the individual needs of students with special
needs and learning challenges. We value the work of public school teachers. I am pleased to announce that the
payment has been fast tracked so that our teachers' bank accounts will show the increase at the beginning of term 4.
In
light of that, it was very disappointing that the Leader of the Liberal Party,
in an op-ed titled ''Policy show bag a sugar hit'', stated
something that was completely false. I quote —
For three years in a row, the Labor
Government failed to put a teacher in front of every classroom for the start of
the school year.
That is completely false—completely
false. She knows it is a false claim because it was later amended and the
online version of the op-ed did not include that statement. The Leader of the
Liberal Party was wrong. She should stand up
and apologise for that. It is interesting, because the title of her op-ed is ''Policy show bag a sugar hit''.
I could not get to the Royal Show so I asked a friend whether they would buy me a sugar-free show bag and a policy-free show bag. It was very difficult to
find a sugar-free show bag, but I tell you, it was easy to find a policy-free
show bag! Here is the Liberal Party show bag—policy free. There is not a policy to be found in this show
bag. All I could find was a notepad, some alphabet calendars— A
for apple, B for banana. But what might actually help the Liberal Party is that
C should be for commitment, P should be for policy and H should be for honesty.
I kept looking and kept looking, but I could find no policy in the Liberal
Party show bag.
The
DEPUTY SPEAKER : Thank you,
minister. I am sure you got approval for that prop before you introduced it?
Dr A.D. BUTI : I can table it
if you want!
for her question and for her outstanding advocacy for education in her electorate. She is an absolute champion of
education in the wider Western Australian state, particularly public education. I am very pleased—I even think
the negative shadow Minister for Education will support this—that we can now state that all teachers and school
leaders will receive their five per cent pay rise backdated to 6
December 2023 as part of the enterprise bargaining agreement, which will
deliver a 12 per cent increase in pay over
the next three years. The agreement will see the starting salary of graduate teachers increase by $9 781 to $88 178 and senior teachers' salary
increase by $14 704 to $132 557. Experienced level 3 teachers will earn up to
$147 077 and senior school principals up to $206 662.
In addition to increased wages for public
school teachers, the EBA includes a number of initiatives to address workload
issues, enhance career pathways and attract more quality teachers to the
regions and remote areas. Some of the benefits in the EBA include an increase
in the graduate allowance to give new teachers
more financial support; paid time for new starters to complete professional
learning; improvements to long service leave, personal leave and
compassionate leave entitlements; the introduction of a district allowance for eligible employees; and additional
travel concessions for staff in the Pilbara, Kimberley and goldfields. The government has also established a new
workload taskforce to review its workload reduction measures and look at
further options. It is also providing more staff to help with complex behaviour
and to run small group tuition focusing on literacy and numeracy, and we are
helping classroom teachers meet the individual needs of students with special
needs and learning challenges. We value the work of public school teachers. I am pleased to announce that the
payment has been fast tracked so that our teachers' bank accounts will show the increase at the beginning of term 4.
In
light of that, it was very disappointing that the Leader of the Liberal Party,
in an op-ed titled ''Policy show bag a sugar hit'', stated
something that was completely false. I quote —
For three years in a row, the Labor
Government failed to put a teacher in front of every classroom for the start of
the school year.
That is completely false—completely
false. She knows it is a false claim because it was later amended and the
online version of the op-ed did not include that statement. The Leader of the
Liberal Party was wrong. She should stand up
and apologise for that. It is interesting, because the title of her op-ed is ''Policy show bag a sugar hit''.
I could not get to the Royal Show so I asked a friend whether they would buy me a sugar-free show bag and a policy-free show bag. It was very difficult to
find a sugar-free show bag, but I tell you, it was easy to find a policy-free
show bag! Here is the Liberal Party show bag—policy free. There is not a policy to be found in this show
bag. All I could find was a notepad, some alphabet calendars— A
for apple, B for banana. But what might actually help the Liberal Party is that
C should be for commitment, P should be for policy and H should be for honesty.
I kept looking and kept looking, but I could find no policy in the Liberal
Party show bag.
The
DEPUTY SPEAKER : Thank you,
minister. I am sure you got approval for that prop before you introduced it?
Dr A.D. BUTI : I can table it
if you want!
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