INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:34): Will the Premier advise why South Australian teachers (who are striking today) have effectively been offered a pay cut by the government in the current enterprise bargaining agreement? The current government offer of 9.75 per cent over three years is significantly less than the 13.5 per cent provided under the last enterprise agreement over the same duration, when the national average across Australia for all workers was at 4.2 per cent per annum in the public sector and 4.1 per cent per annum in the private sector. The government's offer of 3.25 per cent per annum is significantly lower and below CPI.

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee—Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Finance, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:35): The government has come forward with two offers during the past five months or so of negotiations. The original offer was worth $306 million over the life of the agreement, and then another new offer contained a new per capita funding model for the education system which provided $18.7 million for schools. We have provided funding for the wage increases, we have provided funding for the per capita funding model and we have provided funding for extra support for beginning teachers and for workload protections, as well as increased maternity and adoption leave of 14 weeks. We think that we have come forward with two good offers. During that period of time only one claim has been put forward by the teachers' union, that is, $2.8 billion. We have ruled that out. We will simply not be able to pay $2.8 billion, which is the claim by the teachers' union.

What we hope for is that the teachers' union comes back to the negotiating table. We are sorry that a strike took place today. We do not think there was a need for the strike. Just last Friday the independent umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission, put forward two recommendations: first, that the strike not go ahead today; and, secondly, that the parties return to the negotiating table and, if need be, use the Industrial Relations Commission to assist the union in trying to settle some of the differences that currently exist. We stand by our offer. We think it is a good offer, and we would like the teachers' union to have another look at it.