❓ Question regarding the Australian Education Union's reception to the government's pay offer for teachers. The Minister's answer details a mixed reaction and difficulties in negotiations, highlighting conflicting statements from the union leadership.
AnsweredQoN 1134Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I understand the Government’s pay offer to teachers includes efforts to more successfully attract people to and retain them in the teaching profession. Can the minister advise the House whether those offers have been well received by the Australian Education Union? Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER
AnswerView source ↗
Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Brevity is the soul of wit, but I have gone down that path once. Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I think it was from Hamlet . I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
I thank the member for Wanneroo for the question and for her abiding interest in education. There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
There has been a mixed reaction from the Australian Education Union about our pay offer and attempts to attract and retain teachers. I hope to demonstrate the difficulties we are having in attempting to negotiate with the current teachers union leadership. In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
In one response the union leadership recently provided to me about the government offer, it said under the heading “Salaries” - The Union believes that this offer will not achieve the fundamental aim of attracting and retaining teachers . . . In the very next paragraph under the heading “Teacher Career Structure” it states - The provision of a new Senior Teacher Classification . . . is endorsed by the Union as . . . a strategy which will attract and retain teachers. They are mutually exclusive paragraphs and they follow each other in the same letter. It is a perfect example of how difficult it has been to negotiate with the current leadership. It is all over the place. Depending upon whom we talk to from the union leadership on any particular day, we get a different response about its levels of concern. However, I am very confident that the teacher’s union leadership will soon see sense because of two things. First, its membership will demand that it see sense. I told the union leadership when I addressed it that if it did not recommend our offer to its teachers as acceptable, I would do my very best to explain to the membership that our offer was acceptable and good and - Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr C.J. Barnett: More government advertising. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, not advertising, although I thought about it. My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
My belief is that the ordinary classroom teacher, a member of the community, is a sensible person who can tell reality from fantasy. Those teachers know very well that the current demand by their leadership for a 30 per cent pay rise is ridiculous. The entire community knows it is ridiculous. The sad part about what is going on is that the position taken by the union leadership is putting public pressure on its own members rather than the Government. Its own ordinary classroom teachers are being criticised, unfairly attacked and unfairly categorised by members of the public because of what the union leadership is doing. The second reason that I am absolutely confident that the union leadership will soon see sense is that it has finally dawned on it that this is a very different Government from the previous Government, and this minister is very different from the previous minister. I told the union leadership that the days of simply pulling out a pen and signing the cheque, no matter what it cost, were gone. That is what it urged me to do. It said, “It doesn’t matter what it costs, Alan, just sign it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it, just sign it. That’s what the previous minister did.” I explained to the union leadership, as I have explained to the House, what happens in the long term if Governments continue to do that. The music must stop and someone must pay the bill. The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
The union leadership knows now that it is dealing with a Government that is serious about fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline. Everybody in Western Australia can thank the Treasurer for that, because he has put that point of view to the entire community. To paraphrase, I believe that the efforts of the current Treasurer have awakened in the community the understanding that government must be able to afford to pay the bills. Ordinary teachers in the classroom understand that. I think that very soon the union leadership will understand it as well.
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