Ms FINOCCHIARO - 2013-11-27
Teachers will have the opportunity to participate in a ballot to accept the most recent EBA offer. What would they get by signing up to the latest offer?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the average teacher will receive $95.00 more in their pay …
Ms Fyles: Bigger class sizes, less support.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr ELFERINK: I am sick of the interjections from the members opposite. Here is the explanation of what is happening in the Northern Territory.
This is the Labor Party’s policy. Ladies and gentlemen, that is how much more money we are spending under the Labor Party’s expenditure in the past, and it is up 46%. Ladies and gentlemen of the Northern Territory, that is how many more staff were put on under the Labor Party …
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Darwin, could you put the cardboard down.
Mr ELFERINK: There are the results. This Labor Party believes you can walk into this House and continue to argue that this is the appropriate policy process. It is not. You guys seem to think – you always said it in parliament – that it is always about spending more and more will come. It has not happened and this government has the courage to say we have to do things differently, because if we keep doing more of the same, we will continue getting the same poor results.
Unfortunately, I know Territory parents care more about teachers in one particular area – their kids. So they should because I do. It bothers me that I see every day, when I read these documents in my office, no improvement, in spite of the increased expenditure. Let us use the money smarter, let us use it better, and we can look internationally as well as nationally for examples of how to do it better.
We hear the argument that class sizes have to become smaller in the intermediate and senior years. That is not supported by the evidence. In some schools we have a teacher to student ratio as low as 5:1 and we do not have the kids turning up to class. We have to do that better, and we are not. I say to the teachers and the teachers union, for goodness sake …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. The question went to the amount of pay teachers will receive. We know you are sacking 105 teachers …
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Minister, you have the call.
Mr ELFERINK: I say to the teachers union and the teachers the same thing I said before in this House: sign up. If the issue is not the EBA and the amount of money, sign up to the EBA and work with government in the three reviews we are running so we can make our education system the finest in this country. That is not occurring. The results are not there to be seen and we, as a government, are committed to increasing those results so Territory kids can hold their heads high and hold their results up high as being equal to or better than the rest of the country. What we are currently doing and what is currently argued for is not working ...
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the average teacher will receive $95.00 more in their pay …
Ms Fyles: Bigger class sizes, less support.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr ELFERINK: I am sick of the interjections from the members opposite. Here is the explanation of what is happening in the Northern Territory.
This is the Labor Party’s policy. Ladies and gentlemen, that is how much more money we are spending under the Labor Party’s expenditure in the past, and it is up 46%. Ladies and gentlemen of the Northern Territory, that is how many more staff were put on under the Labor Party …
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Darwin, could you put the cardboard down.
Mr ELFERINK: There are the results. This Labor Party believes you can walk into this House and continue to argue that this is the appropriate policy process. It is not. You guys seem to think – you always said it in parliament – that it is always about spending more and more will come. It has not happened and this government has the courage to say we have to do things differently, because if we keep doing more of the same, we will continue getting the same poor results.
Unfortunately, I know Territory parents care more about teachers in one particular area – their kids. So they should because I do. It bothers me that I see every day, when I read these documents in my office, no improvement, in spite of the increased expenditure. Let us use the money smarter, let us use it better, and we can look internationally as well as nationally for examples of how to do it better.
We hear the argument that class sizes have to become smaller in the intermediate and senior years. That is not supported by the evidence. In some schools we have a teacher to student ratio as low as 5:1 and we do not have the kids turning up to class. We have to do that better, and we are not. I say to the teachers and the teachers union, for goodness sake …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. The question went to the amount of pay teachers will receive. We know you are sacking 105 teachers …
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Minister, you have the call.
Mr ELFERINK: I say to the teachers union and the teachers the same thing I said before in this House: sign up. If the issue is not the EBA and the amount of money, sign up to the EBA and work with government in the three reviews we are running so we can make our education system the finest in this country. That is not occurring. The results are not there to be seen and we, as a government, are committed to increasing those results so Territory kids can hold their heads high and hold their results up high as being equal to or better than the rest of the country. What we are currently doing and what is currently argued for is not working ...
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016