Expect more of the same, or worse

John Quessy
Secretary

The result of the federal election was undoubtedly a surprise to many and certainly highlighted the inability of opinion polls to accurately predict outcomes.

Whether this is a fundamental problem with their methodology or with the assumptions the survey companies make about key issues is now a contested area.

Democracy is indeed a strange beast and predicting the issues of greatest priority to voters is clearly a precarious pastime.

Whatever the issues playing most on the minds of the electorate were, they do not seem to have included education or industrial relations.

We are conscious that voting decisions are seldom made on the basis of a single policy but as a trade union and an education trade union we set out before the election to highlight the policy positions of the major parties on education and workplace rights.

In our view our members would be best served in these areas by an ALP government, but that was not to be.

Following so close on the NSW election the federal result should not have been a surprise because voters in this state returned a government resolute on dropping the current 2.5% wages cap to 2%.

The NSW electorate, including those dependent on public sector wage increases, voted to decrease the capacity for their own wages growth. In regard to their income they voted against self interest.

In Canberra, the return of a coalition means that government schools will remain underfunded and continue to fall well short of the agreed schools resourcing standard.

The Federal Government, which employs no teachers and operates no schools, will continue to construct and implement policy which impacts on and directs the work of teachers and schools without consultation or concern for the effect of that policy.

This is bad news for students and bad news for all those who use government school wages and conditions as a benchmark. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Teachers, in particular, will likely continue to experience the command and control from Canberra as AITSL, which continues to not represent teachers, adds to teacher workload with new demands not referenced to the daily realities of classroom practitioners.

We can expect more testing, more data collection, more reporting and greater accountability but less time to prepare and teach. Quite likely we will endure more lectures by those who don’t teach about what we are doing wrong and how we should be going about our work.

There is unlikely to be any trust in the professional judgement of the teaching force.

The Federal Government, which employs no teachers and operates no schools, will continue to construct and implement policy which impacts on and directs the work of teachers and schools without consultation or concern for the effect of that policy. Industrial laws will remain unchanged (or perhaps be toughened) to ensure that there can be no resistance or fightback.

Legal industrial action will only be allowed every three or four years during bargaining periods and after implementing authorisation processes which are designed to fail.

In the meantime, governments, government authorities and employers will continue to change or add to the work of teachers and school staff with impunity.

In short, more of the same but it could get a lot worse.