Mr BAILEY - 1996-10-08
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a copy of an open letter to Territorians from the Council of Government School Organisations (COGSO).
Leave granted.
Mr Stone: Did you write it?
Mr BAILEY: I will pick up the suggestion from the Chief Minister that I may have written a statement issued by COGSO. It typifies the attitude this government has to the peak organisation representing school parents. I had no involvement in, nor any knowledge whatsoever of, what COGSO has done. Unlike the minister, I did attend the COGSO conference just after the last sittings. He was supposed to be one of the guest speakers there but did not bother even to show up.
Mr Stone: Who?
Mr BAILEY: The Minister for Education and Training. I received an invitation to the COGSO conference which said that the president of COGSO, the president of the Teachers
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Union and the Minister for Education and Training would be speaking. Unfortunately, the minister chose not to be there.
This is the strongest condemnation parents have made of the state of education in the Territory since self-government. In the letter, the president of COGSO states categorically that teacher morale is at its lowest ever, that the teacher shortage is worsening and that a great division exists between parents, teachers, principals and senior staff and the department. The letter also describes the minister's opposition to parental involvement in schools as `perplexing'. The minister must accept responsibility for this situation. Will he now tell Territorians what action he intends to take to heal the deep problems in our education system?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the member for Wanguri is a great one for skirting round the facts. He knows that, on the last sitting day, I was excused from this Chamber at lunchtime to attend a ministerial council meeting on education. COGSO was advised well ahead that we had a clash of dates. The ministerial council meeting called for that Friday was, I thought, rather important. It covered, of course, all the vocational training ...
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr FINCH: The member for Wanguri demonstrates that he has absolutely no idea of the complexity or the importance of some of these matters.
Mr Bailey: No one was sent to represent you at COGSO.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: With regard to COGSO'S open letter, I have simply not had a chance to meet with that organisation to explain a few facts of life. Immediately after the industrial dispute had been, by and large, resolved, COGSO decided that I was a naughty boy because I did not allow it to be involved in the industrial negotiations. Quite clearly, it had no role there. The commissioner himself said that he did not have a role there. Normal industrial negotiations, part of the EBA process, are a matter between the employer and the employees.
It was bad enough that COGSO was upset because it thought it had a specific role to play, when it had been parroting the AEU's line about the separate EBA for months. What it should be concentrating on are the conditions that apply - conditions that were offered some 9 months before - that will affect the children in the classroom. That is its charter. It is not its charter to become involved in the politics of an industrial dispute. If it wants to use its members' money for an advertisement that is all about healing wounds, then I have given it some constructive advice. However, to publish a letter like that, which is not only confusing but that is, in some respects, quite wrong, heals no wounds whatsoever.
There are some suggestions there about recruitment problems. Let me tell honourable members that we have received 750 applications this year from people seeking to take up jobs in the Territory next year. Some 260 have been interviewed already and another 50 will be interviewed in Melbourne and Adelaide later this month. We need 120 or so. In addition ...
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Mr Bailey: So what are you doing in New Zealand, looking for them?
Mr FINCH: At this moment, we have officers in New Zealand. Australia has some shortages in some specialist secondary areas. I think you should be commending officers of the department for being first out of the blocks in New Zealand, hopefully to pick a handful of specialist secondary teachers. They are ahead of the rest of the nation.
Mr Bailey: It is because we are losing ours.
Mr FINCH: We have been through all that nonsense. The honourable member spent the whole of the week following the end of the dispute castigating the government, instead of saying that it was all over and teachers should get on with the job and provide some real education for our children. They have conditions that are second to none in the country, and the highest salaries. Our schools have the best student-teacher ratios and the best classrooms. We are looking now to ensure that the key managers, the principals, obtain a fair shake as well. I ask the member for Wanguri to take a deep breath. The fight is over. Let us get on with the job of bringing our schools back to where they belong - at the top of the tree.
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Leave granted.
Mr Stone: Did you write it?
Mr BAILEY: I will pick up the suggestion from the Chief Minister that I may have written a statement issued by COGSO. It typifies the attitude this government has to the peak organisation representing school parents. I had no involvement in, nor any knowledge whatsoever of, what COGSO has done. Unlike the minister, I did attend the COGSO conference just after the last sittings. He was supposed to be one of the guest speakers there but did not bother even to show up.
Mr Stone: Who?
Mr BAILEY: The Minister for Education and Training. I received an invitation to the COGSO conference which said that the president of COGSO, the president of the Teachers
Page 1632
Union and the Minister for Education and Training would be speaking. Unfortunately, the minister chose not to be there.
This is the strongest condemnation parents have made of the state of education in the Territory since self-government. In the letter, the president of COGSO states categorically that teacher morale is at its lowest ever, that the teacher shortage is worsening and that a great division exists between parents, teachers, principals and senior staff and the department. The letter also describes the minister's opposition to parental involvement in schools as `perplexing'. The minister must accept responsibility for this situation. Will he now tell Territorians what action he intends to take to heal the deep problems in our education system?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the member for Wanguri is a great one for skirting round the facts. He knows that, on the last sitting day, I was excused from this Chamber at lunchtime to attend a ministerial council meeting on education. COGSO was advised well ahead that we had a clash of dates. The ministerial council meeting called for that Friday was, I thought, rather important. It covered, of course, all the vocational training ...
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr FINCH: The member for Wanguri demonstrates that he has absolutely no idea of the complexity or the importance of some of these matters.
Mr Bailey: No one was sent to represent you at COGSO.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: With regard to COGSO'S open letter, I have simply not had a chance to meet with that organisation to explain a few facts of life. Immediately after the industrial dispute had been, by and large, resolved, COGSO decided that I was a naughty boy because I did not allow it to be involved in the industrial negotiations. Quite clearly, it had no role there. The commissioner himself said that he did not have a role there. Normal industrial negotiations, part of the EBA process, are a matter between the employer and the employees.
It was bad enough that COGSO was upset because it thought it had a specific role to play, when it had been parroting the AEU's line about the separate EBA for months. What it should be concentrating on are the conditions that apply - conditions that were offered some 9 months before - that will affect the children in the classroom. That is its charter. It is not its charter to become involved in the politics of an industrial dispute. If it wants to use its members' money for an advertisement that is all about healing wounds, then I have given it some constructive advice. However, to publish a letter like that, which is not only confusing but that is, in some respects, quite wrong, heals no wounds whatsoever.
There are some suggestions there about recruitment problems. Let me tell honourable members that we have received 750 applications this year from people seeking to take up jobs in the Territory next year. Some 260 have been interviewed already and another 50 will be interviewed in Melbourne and Adelaide later this month. We need 120 or so. In addition ...
Page 1633
Mr Bailey: So what are you doing in New Zealand, looking for them?
Mr FINCH: At this moment, we have officers in New Zealand. Australia has some shortages in some specialist secondary areas. I think you should be commending officers of the department for being first out of the blocks in New Zealand, hopefully to pick a handful of specialist secondary teachers. They are ahead of the rest of the nation.
Mr Bailey: It is because we are losing ours.
Mr FINCH: We have been through all that nonsense. The honourable member spent the whole of the week following the end of the dispute castigating the government, instead of saying that it was all over and teachers should get on with the job and provide some real education for our children. They have conditions that are second to none in the country, and the highest salaries. Our schools have the best student-teacher ratios and the best classrooms. We are looking now to ensure that the key managers, the principals, obtain a fair shake as well. I ask the member for Wanguri to take a deep breath. The fight is over. Let us get on with the job of bringing our schools back to where they belong - at the top of the tree.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016