Howard Government declares war on teacher unions

By Maree O’Halloran and Sally Edsall

The Federal Government's radical industrial relations policies may hurt teachers.

In the wake of the Howard Government's election victory, it is essential that members examine very closely the policy intentions of the incoming government.

In their "Plan for Higher Standards and Values in Schools", the Coalition policy mentions teacher unions in a derogatory or negative sense no fewer than seven times, as follows:

"We will not allow Mark Latham, Labor and the Teachers' Unions to weaken our efforts. We will take a stand against Teachers' Unions who: "

• Reject any form of assessment 'based on set year-level standards of achievement'; "
• Call on members to boycott state-wide tests which assess children against national standards; "
• Use school children to push their political agenda; and "
• Are committed to a High Court case to stop all federal Government funding for religious schools."

"Against strong opposition from state Labor governments, the Coalition Government introduced literacy and numeracy testing for all students in years 3, 5 and 7...These tests provide the only indication of how well our children are achieving against national standards. Despite this, teachers' unions still frequently boycott these tests."

"We will be requiring all schools to publish school performance information in order to provide parents with objective data to assess schools and to have specific information against which to hold schools accountable....This year the Labor Government in Western Australia back flipped from supporting this policy after the Teachers' Unions criticised them. A Coalition Government will make funding to the states and territories conditional on their providing this information to parents. Unlike the states, we will not back down to Union pressure."

On strengthened autonomy for principals, the policy states: " it is time that expensive bureaucracies and Teachers' Unions got out of the way and let schools manage their own resources and staffing arrangements."

On male-only teacher scholarships: "Labor opposed this sensible and responsible approach, caving in to the teacher unions and other special interest groups who refuse to recognise there is a problem."

"Parents have a right to be suspicious that Labor, which is beholden to the Teacher Unions, will not implement the important reforms outlined in the Coalition's plan for standards and values."

"State Labor Governments have not stood up to the Unions. A federal Labor Government would be the same. Consider [this example]:

• The NSW Labor Government has a law which bans any information being released that allows one school's performance to be compared with another...."

The strongly-worded anti teacher union rhetoric evident in this policy document is indicative that unions like the Federation are due to come in for concerted attack as the Howard Government ratchets up its aggressive industrial relations stance which is wholly antagonistic to unions.

Many of the details of their policies were placed on the Liberal Party website only days before the election took place. There was scant attention paid to their Industrial Relations intentions in response to questions asked by Federation prior to the election.

Federation wrote to each of the Coalition, Labor, Greens and Democrats asking for responses to several benchmark issues. Federation's letter sought a response to the proposition of "a fair industrial relations policy recognising workers' right to organise and collective bargaining". The Liberal Party' Federal Campaign Director, Brian Loughnane's response was: "On workplace relations, the Coalition supports flexible workplace arrangements that provide choice for workers and employers."

Mr Loughnane closed his letter, dated September 21, by saying: "Throughout the election campaign we will be progressively announcing further policies outlining our vision for Australia's future.

"Once announced, these policies will be available at www.liberal.org.au and www.nationals.org.au."

The Liberals placed their policy "The Coalition's Plan for Higher Standards and Values in Schools" on their website on 3 October. This was too late for Federation's election analysis, which went to print on September 23, in order to reach members in the week before the election.

The full text of Federation's letter and each of the parties' responses can be read on the Federation's website at http://www.nswtf.org.au/campaigns/federal_election/index.html

Another policy (placed on the Liberal website the day before the election, October 8) is the Coalition's policy for Australian Industry. It includes: "Under Labor, the full potential of our workforce was sacrificed to shore up union power", "Labor is threatening to reverse...essential reforms, to deliver more power to their union mates. Labor intends to return to a more centralised system, abolishing Australian Workplace Agreements and enhancing union control over workplaces."

The attack is not confined to unions, but includes state Industrial relations judicial bodies: "A re-elected Coalition Government will further entrench individual choice by introducing new legislation to protect the rights of individual contractors. These rights are being attacked by State Labor governments and unions through State industrial relations tribunals."

Immediately afterwards, industry representatives came out promoting swingeing changes. Business Council of Australia President Hugh Morgan said on the ABC program Lateline on October 11 that the system of workplace agreements needs to be enhanced further. Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said: "I think we need to get a better bargaining process in place. We've got a new round of bargaining coming up next year and I think that needs to be dealt with through new legislation which is in the senate at the present time.

It'll curb the access to strike action in relation to bargaining, it will deal with a whole range of issues about cooling off periods, access to the secondary boycott legislation, it will just toughen up the bargaining process."

In the Australian on October 12 Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Peter Hendy was quoted saying that business wanted a long list of legislation that had been blocked by the Senate to be reintroduced. Mr Hendy is quoted saying that the first issue for the Government should be to establish a "national system of industrial relations in this country".

What he is referring to is a federal takeover of state based industrial relations systems, including awards, tribunals and courts, such as the one the NSW Teachers Federation operates within.

Maree O'Halloran is the President and Sally Edsall is the relieving Editor.

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