EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SALARIES

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:22): My question is for the Minister for Education. Is the minister having difficulty managing responsibly the financial affairs of her department? The A-G's Report has shown that the number of DECS employees earning over $100,000 a year has jumped from 605 to 888 in just one year, an increase of 283 (that is almost 47 per cent). The Auditor-General also noticed a decrease in the overall DECS staffing levels by 169 and a decrease in students attending government schools. So, fewer teachers, fewer students, but more fat cats.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:23): Yes, I feel the member for Unley was not listening to the Treasurer. He started off this afternoon explaining that, over the past few years, there has been what one might call bracket creep or increases in salary—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: This means that policemen and teachers now can earn more than $100,000.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: I for one say how pleased I am that the most experienced teachers, the best leaders in our schools and our best teachers, earn more than $100,000. It is a fabulous piece of information. For those of you who have not had an opportunity to look at the Auditor-General's documents—and I am sorry it will take me a while to find the exact page—it is quite apparent that the number of executives in DECS in 2007 was 32. And do you know how many executives there were in 2008—31. And so, the increase in the number of people earning over $100,000 were teachers. They were leaders, they were people at the coalface. Now I understand those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley I have called to order. I warn him.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: Those opposite do not support teachers earning more than $100,000. They do not want our leaders to be recognised, they do not want our principals to be properly remunerated, and the irony is that they have the nerve to criticise these people. Remember whom they have criticised: policemen and teachers. They are not criticising executives, who do not go near teachers; they are criticising people at the coalface—the workers. So it is absolute nonsense and total hypocrisy for them to come in here and suggest that the Treasurer pay the entire claim of teachers, because they do not support the workforce whatsoever. It is totally despicable.

On top of that, there is a difference in the number of employees from time to time in any large department—a $2 billion-plus department with many thousands of staff. The day that the Auditor-General counts heads—it is literally a head count, not full-time equivalents—those head counts were different, because I understand that on the day when they did that headcount there were fewer temporary relieving teachers. There was fluctuation, so it is meaningless, but they will take every opportunity to attack our teachers, who really are the backbone of our education system, who every day work hard. And now, for political reasons they will attack the teachers. All the time they criticise; and, what is more, they criticise public education.