Mrs BRAHAM - 1997-02-26
In an adjournment debate the other night, I mentioned that I had attended the induction of teachers in the southern region. I was impressed by the smaller number of teachers that had to be recruited to staff the schools and also the quality of the teachers who were recruited. Before the start of the school year, the opposition, including the member for Stuart, and the Australian Education Union said that a teacher shortage was imminent. Was there a shortage of teachers at the beginning of the school year and did the opposition's prediction eventuate?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the Labor opposition and its masters, the teachers union, should not take offence at my reference to their continual bleatings as reminding me of the sound of a cracked record or, for those who are into computers, perhaps a spotted disk, if that is an equivalent ...
Mr Coulter: A flaky disk.
Mr FINCH: A flaky disk.
Mr Bailey: You know all about computers, Fred.
Mr FINCH: It is not a matter of knowing about computers, but a matter of commonsense.
A look at the wad of press releases from the opposition and the union over the last year alone shows that they are continually crying wolf. Young students in the gallery would be well aware of the story of the boy who cried wolf. If the opposition keeps going, it is likely to choke on its own propaganda.
Mr Bailey: You are making a proper goose of yourself.
Mr FINCH: The member for Wanguri again leads with his ratty chin, and be it on his own head. He is well and truly represented among this wad of releases - there are probably 100 pages of it - that forecast doom and gloom. In November, the union president,
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Chris Sharpe, indicated a demand for 300 new teachers in the Territory service for this year. Later, he changed his estimate to 200. As usual, almost on line with previous years, only 120 were required, and found.
The member for Wanguri and his master, the secretary of the teachers union, Mr Crossin, referred recently to a shortage of relief teachers. They said there would be a drastic shortage and that there were only a handful. In fact, the year began with 244 relief teachers on the books, 154 of them in Darwin. There was an almost identical number last year. That is the end of that one.
What about the cry of late resignations that we had from members of the Labor Party, echoing the same figure as their union masters? They said that 70 teachers would leave in the last few weeks of the holidays because they had found jobs interstate. They would creep up on us in the last weeks of the holidays and put in their resignations. That number suddenly became 12. That was no different from what might normally happen in the last few weeks of the holidays.
In retailing these supposed statistics relating to supposed teacher shortages, they are jumping on the band wagon of the Deans of Education who, naturally enough, are looking after their own bailiwick. Let me tell members opposite that 30 more primary teachers were produced by Northern Territory University last year than were able to find permanent jobs. Much of that surplus relates to their desire to stay in Darwin instead of going to places such as Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. How many enrolments do we have in the Faculty of Education at NTU this year? In higher education alone, which is not only undergraduate teachers, there are 45 extra. We heard the doom and gloom that HECS would kill our university. However, already there are 45 extra enrolments in the education faculty.
Let us not have this continual crying of wolf by members opposite. Victoria produces 2000 teacher graduates a year. How many does it employ? It employs 500. 1500 are looking for jobs. People come to the Northern Territory from Victoria. They are prepared even to accept a reduction in salary because they like the way things happen here. They will drop a level or 2, in order to take those jobs. Let us have no more of this continual carping and whining about a shortage of teachers, about difficulties in recruitment and about not being able to obtain relief teachers.
The member for MacDonnell said that every Aboriginal school in his electorate was short of teachers. That was before school started - therefore, he had pretty good vision. Let me bring him back to the 2 or 3 at most in the whole of the southern region that were missing. Today, we are 7 teachers short in the whole of the Northern Territory, out of 1850. People have been appointed to most of those positions but have not yet arrived.
Mr Bell interjecting.
Mr FINCH: The member for MacDonnell interjects again. He and the member for Stuart were carrying on about staffing Aboriginal schools for full enrolment versus average attendance plus 10% - the generous situation that we have. I challenged the member for MacDonnell to show me a classroom of 50 students. He still has not come good. He could not tell me how many schools in his electorate were actually short of teachers in the end. He
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could not do so because it is not true! When he and his computer-whizz shadow spokesman for education came up with their education policy, what did they say about the staffing of Aboriginal schools? Did they tell us how many million dollars it would cost to have teachers sitting there, waiting in case kids came to school? No! They skulked away, crying in the public arena for all of January. When it came to the crunch of including it in their policy, they did not have the guts to do it.
When the time comes, I shall remind them that it is part of their platform - another $5m or $6m they will have to find. They will have to explain to Territorians why they would have teachers sitting there, waiting for kids to come to school when other services will go without as a direct result. They may well choke on their own propaganda. At the moment, they are dancing to the tune of the education union ...
Mr Bailey: When are you going to respond to the PAC report?
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: Why don't you ask me a question?
Mr Stirling: He just did.
Mr FINCH: Ask me a question about which parts to take up or not take up.
Mr Bailey: No. You have a responsibility to ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order! You will refer your comments through the Chair. I am not giving another opportunity to the member for Wanguri immediately to take the call. I shall make that call.
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, they are mere puppets on a string. They are mere puppets on the union string.
Page 1970
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the Labor opposition and its masters, the teachers union, should not take offence at my reference to their continual bleatings as reminding me of the sound of a cracked record or, for those who are into computers, perhaps a spotted disk, if that is an equivalent ...
Mr Coulter: A flaky disk.
Mr FINCH: A flaky disk.
Mr Bailey: You know all about computers, Fred.
Mr FINCH: It is not a matter of knowing about computers, but a matter of commonsense.
A look at the wad of press releases from the opposition and the union over the last year alone shows that they are continually crying wolf. Young students in the gallery would be well aware of the story of the boy who cried wolf. If the opposition keeps going, it is likely to choke on its own propaganda.
Mr Bailey: You are making a proper goose of yourself.
Mr FINCH: The member for Wanguri again leads with his ratty chin, and be it on his own head. He is well and truly represented among this wad of releases - there are probably 100 pages of it - that forecast doom and gloom. In November, the union president,
Page 1968
Chris Sharpe, indicated a demand for 300 new teachers in the Territory service for this year. Later, he changed his estimate to 200. As usual, almost on line with previous years, only 120 were required, and found.
The member for Wanguri and his master, the secretary of the teachers union, Mr Crossin, referred recently to a shortage of relief teachers. They said there would be a drastic shortage and that there were only a handful. In fact, the year began with 244 relief teachers on the books, 154 of them in Darwin. There was an almost identical number last year. That is the end of that one.
What about the cry of late resignations that we had from members of the Labor Party, echoing the same figure as their union masters? They said that 70 teachers would leave in the last few weeks of the holidays because they had found jobs interstate. They would creep up on us in the last weeks of the holidays and put in their resignations. That number suddenly became 12. That was no different from what might normally happen in the last few weeks of the holidays.
In retailing these supposed statistics relating to supposed teacher shortages, they are jumping on the band wagon of the Deans of Education who, naturally enough, are looking after their own bailiwick. Let me tell members opposite that 30 more primary teachers were produced by Northern Territory University last year than were able to find permanent jobs. Much of that surplus relates to their desire to stay in Darwin instead of going to places such as Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. How many enrolments do we have in the Faculty of Education at NTU this year? In higher education alone, which is not only undergraduate teachers, there are 45 extra. We heard the doom and gloom that HECS would kill our university. However, already there are 45 extra enrolments in the education faculty.
Let us not have this continual crying of wolf by members opposite. Victoria produces 2000 teacher graduates a year. How many does it employ? It employs 500. 1500 are looking for jobs. People come to the Northern Territory from Victoria. They are prepared even to accept a reduction in salary because they like the way things happen here. They will drop a level or 2, in order to take those jobs. Let us have no more of this continual carping and whining about a shortage of teachers, about difficulties in recruitment and about not being able to obtain relief teachers.
The member for MacDonnell said that every Aboriginal school in his electorate was short of teachers. That was before school started - therefore, he had pretty good vision. Let me bring him back to the 2 or 3 at most in the whole of the southern region that were missing. Today, we are 7 teachers short in the whole of the Northern Territory, out of 1850. People have been appointed to most of those positions but have not yet arrived.
Mr Bell interjecting.
Mr FINCH: The member for MacDonnell interjects again. He and the member for Stuart were carrying on about staffing Aboriginal schools for full enrolment versus average attendance plus 10% - the generous situation that we have. I challenged the member for MacDonnell to show me a classroom of 50 students. He still has not come good. He could not tell me how many schools in his electorate were actually short of teachers in the end. He
Page 1969
could not do so because it is not true! When he and his computer-whizz shadow spokesman for education came up with their education policy, what did they say about the staffing of Aboriginal schools? Did they tell us how many million dollars it would cost to have teachers sitting there, waiting in case kids came to school? No! They skulked away, crying in the public arena for all of January. When it came to the crunch of including it in their policy, they did not have the guts to do it.
When the time comes, I shall remind them that it is part of their platform - another $5m or $6m they will have to find. They will have to explain to Territorians why they would have teachers sitting there, waiting for kids to come to school when other services will go without as a direct result. They may well choke on their own propaganda. At the moment, they are dancing to the tune of the education union ...
Mr Bailey: When are you going to respond to the PAC report?
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: Why don't you ask me a question?
Mr Stirling: He just did.
Mr FINCH: Ask me a question about which parts to take up or not take up.
Mr Bailey: No. You have a responsibility to ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order! You will refer your comments through the Chair. I am not giving another opportunity to the member for Wanguri immediately to take the call. I shall make that call.
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, they are mere puppets on a string. They are mere puppets on the union string.
Page 1970
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016