TEACHERS DISPUTE

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:02): My question is to the Premier. How will the government's 2.5 per cent public sector wage growth policy impact on his commitment to accept the decision of the Industrial Relations Commission in the enterprise bargaining dispute between the government, the Australian Education Union and the 20,000 public school teachers and TAFE employees?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (15:03): Mr Speaker, I will answer that question, although the employment minister could do so. It is outside. We have made an offer in good faith. The teachers, I would hope, would be mindful that it might not be a bad deal to accept, but that is going through arbitration. These questions were asked by media at the budget press conference. The opposition is awfully slow on the uptake. From memory, I said in a number of interviews that the teachers' EB is not included in this exercise: it is going forward. We have accepted a provision that we have in the budget (and I am not going to reveal that publicly). We have made a public offer, so the member can calculate that, of what we think the outcome of that enterprise bargaining negotiation will be, but our future savings going forward are not reliant upon the outcome of the teachers' dispute.