Mr STIRLING - 1996-05-14
Will he concede that his actions and those of his ministerial colleagues have inflamed the dispute with the teachers and caused disruption in our schools by: throwing them off the education committees that they were on, in some cases as a statutory right; banning the use of equipment purchased by parents so that the teachers could not communicate with their union, thereby forcing teachers into holding stop-work meetings as the only way that they could communicate; calling them 'guerillas' and comparing their actions to those of Nazi Germany; sending out memo after memo forcing principals to record the names of teachers taking stop-work action; naming teachers in letters to parents; telling teachers to go to hell; and locking teachers out of our schools? All of these actions were deliberately designed to provoke the teachers and to prolong the dispute. Why is the minister doing this? Why has he so little regard for our children's education that he continues to inflame and prolong this dispute for as long as he possibly can?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I have been extremely patient, tolerant and constructive for some 10 months - indeed, I have made compromises - in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
Ms Martin: You failed, didn't you?
Mr FINCH: Why did I fail? I failed because teachers in the Territory do not even have a say in this. This matter is in the control of their head office down south. That is evidenced by not only those 3 issues I raised earlier. The original agenda items included matters of
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national note that are totally irrelevant to the Territory. In his meeting with me 2 weeks ago, the president ...
Mr Stirling: It is obvious that you do not have kids in school.
Mr FINCH: That is not to mention the report of the Territory secretary, Mr Crossin, who was heard to use his mobile phone outside the other day to report to his federal masters about the 1000 people who were assembled in front of this building. He spoke about how well their campaign was going.
We have been patient, tolerant and understanding. There have been 4 stop-work meetings ...
Mr Stirling: Is that what you call locking them out - 'patience and tolerance'?
Mr FINCH: Let me come to it. There were 2 stop-work meetings last year and 2 this year, of 2 hours duration each. No action was taken by the department. We thought that, in the interests of trying to reach a resolution, we would let them go by.
Mr Stirling: You banned the use of communications. How can they ...
Mr FINCH: Listen for a minute! That is exactly how you are able to get to the crunch sometimes. Some people just do not understand the word 'no'.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr FINCH: Let me finish. Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut and appear a fool, rather than open it and prove it.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, let me tell of my patience and tolerance. Since it was put to us by the secretary and the president of the NT branch of the federal organisation, in a spirit of cooperation we did allow facsimile machines and school facilities to be used during all of the period after the Friday meeting, a fortnight ago. We allowed lunchtime stop-work meetings to proceed so that they could get back to their members with the last 3 matters on which we thought we had agreement. I am not convinced that the union even went back to its members during that week, in a factual way, about those last 3 issues. We were understanding. We did give the union a break during that week to see if it could convince its members about the offer made which, to anyone else, was transparently fair and reasonable.
Subsequently, the union held its conference at the weekend, which passed a resolution that a recommendation go to the membership for rolling strikes - not stop-work meetings to examine, consider and deliberate at, but actual strikes! Teachers did not have a vote on that. From Monday afternoon, the Territory president did not equivocate. He said that there would be rolling strikes and more action. He did not say that teachers might consider the recommendation and there might be rolling strikes. He was directing that there would be
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rolling strikes. Members opposite ask the government to stand back and have the taxpayers fund people on strike.
Mr Stirling: We want it settled.
Mr FINCH: The member for Nhulunbuy is the person who said publicly on the radio that he did not condone strikes.
Mr Stirling: That is right.
Mr FINCH: That is right. He has changed his mind now.
Mr Stirling: No, it was in context. If you want to quote, quote all of it.
Mr FINCH: What was last Friday's action? Was it a strike?
Ms Martin: You locked them out. Well done!
Mr FINCH: Let us be clear about the term 'lockout'. It is part of industrial relations dialogue. It is a technical term. What we did - and the public needs to know this - was to say that, if teachers failed to present themselves for the full day in accordance with their contractual agreement to teach their classes, and by so doing created havoc and chaos in the classrooms and beyond for those parents who have had to make arrangements for child care and who are aggrieved by the interruption to their children's education, we will not pay them for that day. The technical term is 'lockout'. People do not get paid for going on strike. That is not a very complex matter.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr FINCH: The member for Fannie Bay would pay them for going on strike. She could not care less, perhaps, about her own kids, but there are people who are sick and tired of ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I do care about my kids and their education.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr FINCH: I am absolutely stunned, Mr Speaker. Many people want to see this matter brought to a head. Let there be no question about it, what happened last Friday was strike action - not a stop-work meeting for further consideration. They had already held that. They had a stop-work meeting after school on Wednesday of last week to discuss the final 3 parts of the package that we offered. Therefore, the action taken on Friday of last week was nothing short of a strike. This government, on behalf of the taxpayers, will pay teachers to teach, but it will not pay them to strike.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I have been extremely patient, tolerant and constructive for some 10 months - indeed, I have made compromises - in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
Ms Martin: You failed, didn't you?
Mr FINCH: Why did I fail? I failed because teachers in the Territory do not even have a say in this. This matter is in the control of their head office down south. That is evidenced by not only those 3 issues I raised earlier. The original agenda items included matters of
Page 1339
national note that are totally irrelevant to the Territory. In his meeting with me 2 weeks ago, the president ...
Mr Stirling: It is obvious that you do not have kids in school.
Mr FINCH: That is not to mention the report of the Territory secretary, Mr Crossin, who was heard to use his mobile phone outside the other day to report to his federal masters about the 1000 people who were assembled in front of this building. He spoke about how well their campaign was going.
We have been patient, tolerant and understanding. There have been 4 stop-work meetings ...
Mr Stirling: Is that what you call locking them out - 'patience and tolerance'?
Mr FINCH: Let me come to it. There were 2 stop-work meetings last year and 2 this year, of 2 hours duration each. No action was taken by the department. We thought that, in the interests of trying to reach a resolution, we would let them go by.
Mr Stirling: You banned the use of communications. How can they ...
Mr FINCH: Listen for a minute! That is exactly how you are able to get to the crunch sometimes. Some people just do not understand the word 'no'.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr FINCH: Let me finish. Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut and appear a fool, rather than open it and prove it.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, let me tell of my patience and tolerance. Since it was put to us by the secretary and the president of the NT branch of the federal organisation, in a spirit of cooperation we did allow facsimile machines and school facilities to be used during all of the period after the Friday meeting, a fortnight ago. We allowed lunchtime stop-work meetings to proceed so that they could get back to their members with the last 3 matters on which we thought we had agreement. I am not convinced that the union even went back to its members during that week, in a factual way, about those last 3 issues. We were understanding. We did give the union a break during that week to see if it could convince its members about the offer made which, to anyone else, was transparently fair and reasonable.
Subsequently, the union held its conference at the weekend, which passed a resolution that a recommendation go to the membership for rolling strikes - not stop-work meetings to examine, consider and deliberate at, but actual strikes! Teachers did not have a vote on that. From Monday afternoon, the Territory president did not equivocate. He said that there would be rolling strikes and more action. He did not say that teachers might consider the recommendation and there might be rolling strikes. He was directing that there would be
Page 1340
rolling strikes. Members opposite ask the government to stand back and have the taxpayers fund people on strike.
Mr Stirling: We want it settled.
Mr FINCH: The member for Nhulunbuy is the person who said publicly on the radio that he did not condone strikes.
Mr Stirling: That is right.
Mr FINCH: That is right. He has changed his mind now.
Mr Stirling: No, it was in context. If you want to quote, quote all of it.
Mr FINCH: What was last Friday's action? Was it a strike?
Ms Martin: You locked them out. Well done!
Mr FINCH: Let us be clear about the term 'lockout'. It is part of industrial relations dialogue. It is a technical term. What we did - and the public needs to know this - was to say that, if teachers failed to present themselves for the full day in accordance with their contractual agreement to teach their classes, and by so doing created havoc and chaos in the classrooms and beyond for those parents who have had to make arrangements for child care and who are aggrieved by the interruption to their children's education, we will not pay them for that day. The technical term is 'lockout'. People do not get paid for going on strike. That is not a very complex matter.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr FINCH: The member for Fannie Bay would pay them for going on strike. She could not care less, perhaps, about her own kids, but there are people who are sick and tired of ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I do care about my kids and their education.
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr FINCH: I am absolutely stunned, Mr Speaker. Many people want to see this matter brought to a head. Let there be no question about it, what happened last Friday was strike action - not a stop-work meeting for further consideration. They had already held that. They had a stop-work meeting after school on Wednesday of last week to discuss the final 3 parts of the package that we offered. Therefore, the action taken on Friday of last week was nothing short of a strike. This government, on behalf of the taxpayers, will pay teachers to teach, but it will not pay them to strike.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016