Teachers Dispute

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Will the government resolve the EB agreement with the teachers' union this year?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:51): I thank the member for Morialta for his question. I certainly remain hopeful that we can do that. Of course, I would like to see no more disruption to our schools by any further industrial action. I have said in this place on a number of occasions in response to questions from the member for Morialta that I didn't think it was necessary for industrial action in the first place because we have remained negotiating at the table in good faith with each other, and that continues now.

There is not even a disagreement, which is uncommon, I think, in these enterprise bargaining negotiations. There is no disagreement on what the priorities should be. We have said from the outset that our teachers need to be paid more; there is no doubt about that. We have said from the outset that we need to do something about workload. That's an issue here in South Australia, it is an issue nationally, and an issue that the education systems are seeing internationally. We are agreed on those things. The union put forward two key priorities in terms of how to tackle those workload and salary issues, a pay rise, which of course is one of the issues that we are not in agreement on, and an increase in non-instructional time, which we are now agreed upon in terms of the quantum—one hour. What we are not agreed upon is how quickly they can be rolled out.

We have made three offers in pretty quick succession since 21 July, when the union officially lodged its log of claims. Since then, we have made three offers. We have moved our position, increased the total package on each of those three occasions. The first was a record, the second surpassed that and then the third again. Of course, what I need to be able to do and what the government needs to be able to do is to look the workforce in the eye and tell them that the things we are committing to as part of the enterprise bargaining agreement are things that we can deliver.

A salary increase of 8.6 in the first year and 5.5 after it was clearly not achievable. The union has now moved its position on salary, but we remain in a disagreement around how quickly the extra hour of non-instructional time can be rolled out.

The reason that that is a complex thing to do is twofold. Of course, in order to increase non-instructional time by an hour without reducing the amount of class time that students actually get, we need to backfill the teacher who goes to have an extra hour of non-instructional time, and that requires additional staff. The example of an extra hour per week across the system requires more than 500 teachers.

Of course, when we look at the premise of the union's enterprise bargaining claim here, it is around a national teacher shortage crisis. Fortunately, here in South Australia, we have protected ourselves against that, and the election commitment the Malinauskas Labor government made around increasing permanency is certainly a key part to that, but we do have about 60 vacancies at the moment, fortunately nothing like the Eastern States, but nonetheless that is certainly an issue—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Teague interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Heysen, it is not the moment for a soliloquy. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: So, of course, we have committed to a seven-year rollout because we believe that is what is achievable in terms of recruiting the workforce to actually be able to backfill those teachers and deliver an extra hour of non-instructional time without reducing class time. We are still at the table and still hopeful that we can come to a resolution without further industrial action, without further disruption to our education system.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!