Mr STIRLING - 1995-08-23
Territory teachers have sent a clear message that they do not want to be part of a single enterprise agreement either. Teachers say that the agreement will mean that they will slip to fifth on the national scale of wages and that this will contribute to the Territory's inability to recruit teachers in the climate of a national shortage of teachers. Will the minister intervene in these negotiations to protect the position of Territory teachers and, most importantly, students needing to obtain the best possible education?
ANSWER
What an extraordinary request, Mr Speaker. I have been a member of this Assembly the best part of 12 years and, over those 12 years, I have been told repeatedly by members opposite - and it is a view which I support - that issues relating to the administration and operation of the public service should not be subject to political interference. What do we have now? The Commissioner for Public Employment, the employer, is negotiating an agreement with the trade unions as the representatives of the employees ...
Mr Ede: He has failed.
Mr HATTON: It is the view of the Commissioner for Public Employment that, in our enterprise, the Northern Territory government, there should be one enterprise agreement. However, because that does not suit the member for Nhulunbuy's masters in the Trades and Labor Council, he comes into this Chamber and asks whether the minister will interfere politically in these negotiations for an enterprise agreement. I find that extraordinary.
In relation to a number of operational issues in the Department of Education and the teaching service, I had a meeting with the Australian Education Union within the first week of my becoming Minister for Education and Training. The AEU raised with me a number of issues of an operational nature. Those issues are being addressed. From discussions in my department, my understanding is that, in relation to most of the issues raised by the union in
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the course of the enterprise bargaining process, a series of working groups have been established already in the Department of Education to address them. That process is already under way.
I wish the union would tell its members the truth. Only this morning, I heard that one of the major concerns among teachers, following the mass meeting that was held yesterday, is that the union is telling them that their automatic incremental increases are under threat. That is a lie. There is a proposal that there be limitations on increases for people who are tested and found to be demonstrably incompetent. That is a very rare event. The union is saying that there would be cuts to every teacher's incremental increases. That is a lie. Those are the sort of scaremongering tactics that the Australian Education Union is engaging in in an attempt to increase its support among teachers.
I believe that the operational issues and concerns which teachers have, many of which I understand and sympathise with, can be addressed. However, they are a totally separate exercise to the negotiations on the enterprise bargaining agreement to determine salary movements which will provide for increases common to public servants. I note that the Australian Education Union does not mind accepting every other one public service condition provided to public servants generally. It wants separateness only in relation to wage negotiations.
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ANSWER
What an extraordinary request, Mr Speaker. I have been a member of this Assembly the best part of 12 years and, over those 12 years, I have been told repeatedly by members opposite - and it is a view which I support - that issues relating to the administration and operation of the public service should not be subject to political interference. What do we have now? The Commissioner for Public Employment, the employer, is negotiating an agreement with the trade unions as the representatives of the employees ...
Mr Ede: He has failed.
Mr HATTON: It is the view of the Commissioner for Public Employment that, in our enterprise, the Northern Territory government, there should be one enterprise agreement. However, because that does not suit the member for Nhulunbuy's masters in the Trades and Labor Council, he comes into this Chamber and asks whether the minister will interfere politically in these negotiations for an enterprise agreement. I find that extraordinary.
In relation to a number of operational issues in the Department of Education and the teaching service, I had a meeting with the Australian Education Union within the first week of my becoming Minister for Education and Training. The AEU raised with me a number of issues of an operational nature. Those issues are being addressed. From discussions in my department, my understanding is that, in relation to most of the issues raised by the union in
Page 764
the course of the enterprise bargaining process, a series of working groups have been established already in the Department of Education to address them. That process is already under way.
I wish the union would tell its members the truth. Only this morning, I heard that one of the major concerns among teachers, following the mass meeting that was held yesterday, is that the union is telling them that their automatic incremental increases are under threat. That is a lie. There is a proposal that there be limitations on increases for people who are tested and found to be demonstrably incompetent. That is a very rare event. The union is saying that there would be cuts to every teacher's incremental increases. That is a lie. Those are the sort of scaremongering tactics that the Australian Education Union is engaging in in an attempt to increase its support among teachers.
I believe that the operational issues and concerns which teachers have, many of which I understand and sympathise with, can be addressed. However, they are a totally separate exercise to the negotiations on the enterprise bargaining agreement to determine salary movements which will provide for increases common to public servants. I note that the Australian Education Union does not mind accepting every other one public service condition provided to public servants generally. It wants separateness only in relation to wage negotiations.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016