John Della Bosca's 'Education Revolution' breaks the system

By

Maree O'Halloran

The NSW Labor Government knows the proposal to effectively end the statewide staffing system is bad policy.

NSW Minister for Education and Industrial Relations John Della Bosca announced by fiat on February 4 the effective end of a statewide staffing system. There is enough puffery in the Minister's staffing proposal to allow for media spin. Nevertheless, if implemented, this announcement marks the end of a public education system. It sets the pre-conditions for 2240 schools to be 'self-managed' and compete against themselves.

The actions of the NSW Labor Government have been dishonest and dishonourable. Mr Della Bosca argued in the media on February 7 that "it's important to maintain industrial harmony but not at the expense of good policy".

Yet he, along with every member of the NSW Labor Government, knows this proposal is bad policy. A fortnight prior to the state election in 2007, the then NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt said: "The NSW Government takes responsibility for making sure that every school in NSW is staffed with experienced teachers and we will continue to do so. The Coalition will destroy the NSW Staffing Agreement. We know they tried in 1989 and their desire to do so has just got stronger with Howard's industrial relations fixation". They believe in an unfettered market and the result will be chaos. Schools in less favoured locations will be forced to accept what they can and in many cases they will not have sufficient staff. A deregulated workforce would change forever public education in NSW. We would not longer be a public education system but rather 2240 schools pitted against each other. That is not the vision for public education that a Labor Government has."

In putting forward their 2008 policy each and every member of the Government is aware that they will hurt many schools and communities. Some of those communities will be the ones already suffering disadvantage.

I particularly feel for the teachers serving in geographically-isolated communities in NSW. They returned to work on February 4 to be told that the statewide staffing system is to be abolished. The Minister is currently mounting a pretence that incentive transfers will continue. The truth is that his staffing proposal allows any incentive or priority transfer to be vetoed at any level of the Department through to the principals at both the exiting and incoming schools. This was, in fact, former Prime Minister John Howard's proposition.

The Minister's media statement includes references to more incentives for remote schools. There is no doubt that more incentives are needed (along with a statewide transfer system). However, what is absolutely clear is that there is no additional money on the deck from the Government to provide new incentives.

Federation was proud to be a strong and active union in the Your Rights at Work campaign to defeat John Howard's WorkChoices legislation. Teachers were involved in every facet of the campaign from grassroots activities to providing invaluable assistance at ACTU/Unions NSW Sky Channel meetings.

John Howard's industrial relations agenda for teachers was so-called "performance pay", "hire and fire" at local level and individual contracts for teachers. It is, in fact, the transfer system which underpins a teacher's right to permanent employment, as distinct from limited tenure, contract-based employment. That is why John Howard intended to force states to give principals the statutory right to veto transfers.

It is not acceptable for the NSW Labor Minister to defend the rights of other workers and strip away the rights of principals, executive staff and teachers. Nor is it acceptable for the Minister to set in place the preconditions for all of John Howard's agenda for teachers.

Even at the level of mere courtesy, Mr Della Bosca throws out good industrial relations practice when it comes to the Federation and teachers. His media release was organised and distributed while Federation Officers were actually in a negotiation session about staffing with the Department.

The unilateral staffing announcement must be seen in conjunction with the Government's 2.5 per cent pay offer, the removal of teacher education qualifications for TAFE teachers and its refusal to employ the additional permanent teachers the system needs.

Put together the NSW Government 'Education Revolution' means lower standards for education, fewer teachers and a salary cut. I ask every member of the Federation to stand ready for sustained statewide action in support of Federation's major claims for 2008 - additional permanent teachers, a negotiated statewide staffing agreement and a guaranteed salary increase of at least five per cent per annum plus one per cent superannuation per annum.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 'Education Revolution' barely gets a guernsey at the Federal Government's 2020 summit. Education and training is not one of the 10 most important topics for Australia's future; instead it appears as a subset of 'the economy'. I suspect that the Rudd Government wants to avoid an open debate about its decision to adopt the Howard Government's flawed and unfair funding model. The federal education department's own review, not revealed until after the federal election, showed how corrupt the current model is.

Finally, as underlying inflation hits 3.6 per cent I think serious consideration should be given to the Australian Workers Union proposal to divert at least some of the promised tax cuts into superannuation. The long term benefit for workers and the economy will be greater than the benefit of the tax cut.

Maree O'Halloran is the President.

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