grodscorp@grods.comWho’s Labor? Who’s Liberal?
 | Posted by The Editor on Monday 14 April 2008, 7:22 am Categories: Education, Politics Tags: AEU, JohnBrumby, PayNegotiations, teachers, Ted Baillieu, TheLiberals |
Victorian Premier John Brumby chants that education is his number one priority like a mantra, but utterly fails in making it so — Victoria can proudly claim that it has the lowest paid teachers in the country. After months of negotiations with the teachers’ union (following months of the government refusing to negotiate at all) the union has reduced its ambit claim of 10% per year to nothing more than pay parity with NSW teachers. But Brumby won’t budge from the government’s standard offer of a barely-CPI 3.25% rise per year with anything over this figure to be offset by productivity gains. Ask any teacher where there’s room in their work day for extra productivity and they’ll probably laugh at you before punching your lights out.
But here’s the weird thing: Victorian opposition leader, the Liberals’ Ted Baillieu, is promising to make Victorian teachers the best paid in the country if elected in 2010. This shit’s messing with my mind.
GrodsThink Ep.31 (16/9/08)
Monday 14 April 2008, 9:48 am #blogcomment
So much for Labor being for the workers…
Monday 14 April 2008, 10:12 am #Steve D
Who cares? Chase the money!
I’ll keep Labor until I’ve finished study (ie. they won’t give me money for studying anymore), then I’ll get the Liberals back and collect my tax cuts :D :P
Monday 14 April 2008, 10:29 am #Wah
It’s smart policy by the Libs. By getting in early they can possibly rid themselves of the “guilty party” tag when it comes to education cuts and putting so many teachers on casual pay.
What they have to do next is convice everyone that paying teachers more won’t come at the expense of schools and education resources.
Monday 14 April 2008, 10:43 am #The Editor
But why should teachers have to sacrifice their salary to pay for educational resources? The current government uses that argument and it’s insulting in the extreme.
Monday 14 April 2008, 11:33 am #Wah
I’m not saying they have to sacrifice anything. I’m saying that you’d want to make sure the Libs actually increase the whole education budget to pay for the pay rises, and not rob Peter to pay Paul.
Monday 14 April 2008, 11:37 am #The Editor
Sorry, Wah. Misunderstood what you were saying.
Monday 14 April 2008, 12:44 pm #THR
Voting Lib is not the answer. The last time Victorian Libs were in charge of the purse-strings, the public service was decimated.
Clearly, the ALP here are doinig a poor job of improving things. This is evident not only in the education sector, but also most of the public service.
I think the solution to this problem needs to be industrial, not parliamentary. And some unions need to start doing some hard work.
Tuesday 15 April 2008, 11:48 am #wilful
Sorry, I missed the logic leap between best paid and best.