❓ Mrs Roberts questions the Education Minister about job losses due to budget cuts, referencing rising unemployment. The Minister acknowledges the need for detail and promises to provide specific answers later, emphasising efforts to minimise classroom impact.
AnsweredQoN 584Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING — EMPLOYMENT SEPARATION OFFERS
I refer to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures that reveal that since the election of the Barnett government, the unemployment rate in Western Australia has almost doubled, with 68 000 Western Australians now out of work. (1) Can the minister confirm, in a bid to achieve the three per cent cut to the education budget, how many departmental employees have been targeted for a so-called employment separation offer? (2) Which categories of staff and how many people have been targeted to lose their jobs? (3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE
I refer to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures that reveal that since the election of the Barnett government, the unemployment rate in Western Australia has almost doubled, with 68 000 Western Australians now out of work. (1) Can the minister confirm, in a bid to achieve the three per cent cut to the education budget, how many departmental employees have been targeted for a so-called employment separation offer? (2) Which categories of staff and how many people have been targeted to lose their jobs? (3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(1) Can the minister confirm, in a bid to achieve the three per cent cut to the education budget, how many departmental employees have been targeted for a so-called employment separation offer? (2) Which categories of staff and how many people have been targeted to lose their jobs? (3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(2) Which categories of staff and how many people have been targeted to lose their jobs? (3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(1) Can the minister confirm, in a bid to achieve the three per cent cut to the education budget, how many departmental employees have been targeted for a so-called employment separation offer? (2) Which categories of staff and how many people have been targeted to lose their jobs? (3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(2) Which categories of staff and how many people have been targeted to lose their jobs? (3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(3) What details can the minister provide to the house of the termination offer? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
(1)-(3) It is a great pity that I was not given some notice of this question, because it is asking for a great deal of detail. If the member for Midland had given notice, I would have been able to give her specific answers to those questions. I certainly will undertake to find the answers to those questions for her. However, I can say to her, and as she is well aware, that the three per cent efficiency dividend or cutback in Education has in fact still not been reached, because we know that we must be very careful to make sure that we do not make cuts in classrooms, in face-to-face instruction of students, and that the main cuts in staffing in the education department will be in central office and in the district offices—most of those through retirements and redundancies. That will be a process over a long period. I am quite prepared, of course, to get for the member the specific information that she has requested.
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