❓ Mr. Rundle questions the Minister for Education about student supervision during a teacher strike. The Minister expresses hope for resolution and highlights government efforts to minimise disruption and negotiate with the union.
AnsweredQoN 248Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TEACHERS — INDUSTRIAL ACTION — IMPACT
248. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Education:
I refer to the ongoing failure of this Cook Labor government
to reach a deal with the hardworking teachers of Western Australia. Yesterday,
the Premier babbled through an answer saying, ''the Department of
Education is preparing to minimise the impact on students and parents.''
It can now be revealed that Western Australian public schools should not expect
to rely on education assistants or other support staff to supervise students
while teachers are out on strike next week.
Who can the parents of WA expect to supervise their children
while teachers are on strike?
248. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Education:
I refer to the ongoing failure of this Cook Labor government
to reach a deal with the hardworking teachers of Western Australia. Yesterday,
the Premier babbled through an answer saying, ''the Department of
Education is preparing to minimise the impact on students and parents.''
It can now be revealed that Western Australian public schools should not expect
to rely on education assistants or other support staff to supervise students
while teachers are out on strike next week.
Who can the parents of WA expect to supervise their children
while teachers are on strike?
AnswerView source ↗
We remain hopeful that strike action can be avoided. We are
negotiating in good faith. We have put a good offer to the State School
Teachers' Union of WA and we hope that teachers will remain on the job
on Tuesday. If not, the department is looking at various arrangements to be put
in place to minimise as much as possible the disruption to the school day. It
is a half-day strike that also creates transport difficulties. We have made a special
plea to the union to allow education support centres to remain open for our
most vulnerable students. Unfortunately, the teachers' union has
rejected that at this stage. We hope that it will reconsider because the kids
going to ed support centres use special buses, and it is very hard for the
buses to come back halfway through the day.
We have negotiated in good faith and we continue to negotiate
in good faith. We ask the union, with its members, to consider the very
attractive offer that we have made with regard to not only salary, but also the
other components that will improve the education system of Western Australia.
While I am on my feet, I will
let the member know, because I know he is very interested in the WA student
assistance payment, that nearly 100 000 people have made a claim. We
only opened that process up on Monday and it is now Thursday. Of those claims,
11 703 have been made using alternative methods to the ServiceWA app. People
know about alternative methods because 11 000 of them have applied in that way.
We are very happy with that. With regard to the impending industrial action, we
hope that can still be avoided.
negotiating in good faith. We have put a good offer to the State School
Teachers' Union of WA and we hope that teachers will remain on the job
on Tuesday. If not, the department is looking at various arrangements to be put
in place to minimise as much as possible the disruption to the school day. It
is a half-day strike that also creates transport difficulties. We have made a special
plea to the union to allow education support centres to remain open for our
most vulnerable students. Unfortunately, the teachers' union has
rejected that at this stage. We hope that it will reconsider because the kids
going to ed support centres use special buses, and it is very hard for the
buses to come back halfway through the day.
We have negotiated in good faith and we continue to negotiate
in good faith. We ask the union, with its members, to consider the very
attractive offer that we have made with regard to not only salary, but also the
other components that will improve the education system of Western Australia.
While I am on my feet, I will
let the member know, because I know he is very interested in the WA student
assistance payment, that nearly 100 000 people have made a claim. We
only opened that process up on Monday and it is now Thursday. Of those claims,
11 703 have been made using alternative methods to the ServiceWA app. People
know about alternative methods because 11 000 of them have applied in that way.
We are very happy with that. With regard to the impending industrial action, we
hope that can still be avoided.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.