Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Werriwa, I will advise the House that, as you can see, the clocks are not working, so at the 4½-minute mark I will give you a 30-second notice. I call the member for Werriwa.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm reminded of the old proverb: it takes a village to raise a child. For each and every one of us there were hundreds of influences, both big and small, that formed us into the people we are today. The journey into adulthood was not easy and we needed all the help we could get, which brings me to our teachers—those we've entrusted with a large proportion of the responsibility to help guide and nurture our children. I've been told by teachers that, whilst the job is not easy, it can be very rewarding. However, too often we leave our teachers to shoulder this responsibility on their own, trying to face ever-rising challenges with ever-dwindling resources.

In my state of New South Wales, the state Liberal government's policies, such as the one called Local Schools, Local Decisions, led to the government abdicating its responsibility in the education centre, and this has cascaded into a staggering amount of casualisation in the teacher workforce. It has caused an increase in what are called full-time equivalent temporary roles. In layman terms, it means a teacher who is expected to work all the same hours as a full-time teacher, but who could be unemployed next week, regardless of how well they do. In just over a decade, there has been an 82 per cent increase in the number of temporary roles. Now over one-third of all teaching positions in New South Wales are temporary or casual.

I don't think you can expect someone to perform to their best ability when they aren't even sure whether they'll have a job next week. Why, then, are we doing this to the people who are responsible for educating our children? There's not much incentive to go full time either. The average full-time teacher is contracted to work 40 hours a week, but often ends up working more than 60, and less than half of those hours involve face-to-face learning. There is no overtime and no benefits. All this takes its toll. A recent survey found that 60 per cent of teachers were considering leaving the profession within the next five years. Just last year, one in nine young teachers walked away from the profession. With all of these challenges, is it any wonder that there's such high burnout?

Since we were elected, the task for the Albanese government has been clear: we need more teachers and we need to keep the teachers we already have. That's why we're committed to working with state and territory governments to get all schools to 100 per cent of their fair funding level. That's why I'm proud that the member for Blaxland was able to reach an agreement late last year with education ministers across all of the states and territories for a national teacher workforce action plan.

As part of this plan, the Albanese government will invest $328 million, which includes $159 million for 4,000 additional university places for teachers, $56 million for bursaries, $68 million to triple the number of mid-career professionals shifting into teaching and $30 million for teacher workload reduction. That's why we've made it that teachers who have worked for up to four years in very remote Australia can apply to receive a reduction in their HELP debt, and that's why we're delivering on our election promise to invest over $200 million this year to help every school in the country through the Student Wellbeing Boost and it's why all of the education ministers have agreed to a new five-year plan and over $300 million in federal funding to deliver the National Student Wellbeing Program. On that last point, any parent will tell you that the past few years have had an undeniable impact on student mental health. It should not fall solely to teachers to manage our children's wellbeing in schools. Schools will now, if they want, be able to choose a qualified student wellbeing officer or chaplain to support students. No-one will ever have to say that school is easy, not for students, parents and certainly not for teachers, but the Albanese government refuses to put this vital issue in the too-hard basket. Labor stands by teachers and always will.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise with enthusiasm tonight to talk to the motion put by the member for Reid to recognise the extraordinary contribution made to our past, present and future by teachers, principals and school support staff. I come to this place, indeed, with a long-standing interest in education. I hold education policy wholeheartedly to blame for me being here today, having had the remarkable opportunity to work in education at both the national and state level, with Dr Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop federally and in Victoria with then premier Ted Baillieu and former education minister—my dear friend; the former member for Nepean—Martin Dixon. Education stands at the centre of my inspiration for this place, knowing full well that if we get education right we stand to solve so many of the problems which plague Australian families. Education is how we assure our nation's aspirations and prosperity.

I take the opportunity to briefly thank the many mentors and collaborators with whom I have worked in education over the last 2½ decades in this place, in particular professors and vice chancellors Glyn Davies, John Dewar, Peter Coaldrake and Margaret Gardner; and in the domain of schooling Field Rickards, Ben Jensen, Melodie Potts and Donna Hutchinson. Indeed, I thank my dear friend Mathias Cormann for tolerating my 4 am texts, which after all fall at dinner time in Paris, ruminating about the impact of COVID lockdowns and ChatGPT; on the OECD's PISA outcomes, the results of which I look forward to as most people look forward to Christmas.

Teachers are vital to this country's prosperity. They are vital to our culture and our impact as a nation. They are vital to our wellbeing, our curiosity, our capability in life. Teachers not only change lives but they build lives. Today we need to teachers, thousands of teachers, thousands of young people, to come into this profession across so many different settings, not just the classroom.

Last week I officially opened the Abacus Learning Centre in Hastings, a building which seemingly miraculously appeared within 12 months and now provides one on one education and assistance to ASD children and their families. Specialist teachers work with children from across the peninsula in this wonderful fit-for-purpose space, which resulted from a $1.2 million investment from the former coalition government.

Last week I also visited the Oakwood School in Hastings where teachers and teaching assistants work with young people who have stopped attending school. They quietly and determinedly bring them back to education with respect and empowerment. There are campuses in Rosebud and Mornington doing great work there too. Like Abacus, the program at Oakwood is carefully designed to meet the needs of each individual student. Students work with their class teachers and the tailored program focuses on developing each child's literacy and numeracy skills, as well as working on positive behaviours.

Then on Friday afternoon I met the joyful little people at Little Gum Early Learning centre in Dromana, with their loving educators who provide a combination of occasional care within an educational setting. After that I headed to the dynamic, vibrant and positively exuberant assembly at Eastbourne Primary School, located in Capel Sound, to present young environmental leaders with their responsibility and service badges.

These four different education settings demonstrate a greatness both in teaching and in school leadership through managing complex needs and preparing students for a transition to mainstream schooling, vocational or other tertiary education and employment; by managing school disengagement, often resulting from family trauma; by providing early childhood education, as well as educative play; and by providing the celebration of community, curiosity and adventure, which so many of our school communities embody.

School leadership is vital to encourage, nurture and inspire the future generation of teachers. I feel blessed to have met so many of our remarkable school leaders this year—people like Nick Schneider and Assistant Principal Michelle Bremner, reinventing literacy and phonics training at Baxter Primary School; Amadeo Ferra, currently leading the peninsula special school in Dromana; Ross Patterson at Balcombe Grammar in Mount Martha; and the gorgeous, a word I use intentionally for its technical meaning, principal of Eastbourne Primary School, Stephen Wilkinson.

But it would be remiss of me to finish this intervention without reference to the teachers who changed my life and without an expression of my lifelong gratitude to them: firstly, to the poor woman in kinder, whose name I do not recall but whose often-worn outfit of blue jeans and orange T-shirt I recreated in miniscule detail on 'come as your hero day' in kinder; to Anoush Boulhomme and Madame Margaret Rodgers, who took me from a francophone neophyte to a fluent French speaker and year 11 Alliance Francaise competition nationwide winner; to my Australian history, economics and politics teacher, Andrew Barnett, whom I blame for almost everything in terms of my interest in and pursuit of public life; and finally to Professor Greg Craven, who at university taught me to think, to argue and, above all else, to write and has put up with me and my well-argued strident views ever since.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Teachers do much more than teach. They have the power to transform lives. Like the warmth of the sun on a seedling, their attention and care turn children into scholars, sportspeople and creatives, or a touch of all three. I still remember my year 6 teacher. Her interest and encouragement were enough. Several decades later—several careers later—and now raising my own children, I am for teachers. There is no question that my most engaging visits, the ones that leave me with the broadest of smiles, are to my local schools. The children are balls of energy, curiosity and wisdom. 'From the mouths of babes' is the utterance. Not far, standing like sentinels, are their devoted teachers, skilfully marshalling the life force in children towards purpose and self-exploration. They make it look easy; however, the reality is very different.

Teachers are struggling. The past 10 years have seen a 16 per cent decline in school-leavers taking up teaching. With a 50 per cent completion rate, followed by 30 to 50 per cent leaving the profession within the first five years, the teaching pipeline is leaking. This degree of attrition has set off alarm bells. The drivers include excessive paperwork, unpaid work and mental health effects. 'Get the system off our backs,' said one experienced teacher. Another who left my electorate to work in a high-needs area that she grew up in—altruism runs high in the teaching profession—is now contemplating leaving the profession altogether. High needs among students, exhausted parents, disengagement and, in many cases, hostility from parents towards teachers are an all too pervasive problem.

AITSL found that only 40 per cent of teachers' time was spent in face-to-face teaching, completely back to front. How did we get to this point? Australia's teacher shortage has been 10 years in the making but, like other public facing professions, was exacerbated by the pandemic. Virtually overnight, teachers became IT experts, therapists and infotainment specialists while divided by screens. Back in the classroom, they had to contend with disengaged children who had fallen behind while battling repeated bouts of COVID. The Australian Education Union, at the parliamentary long-COVID inquiry that I held at Cabrini Hospital in my electorate, testified that five to six bouts of COVID and long COVID were not uncommon amongst teachers. My response was that this is completely unacceptable and it is one of the reasons I am chairing a clean air forum at parliament next week.

Parental pressure compounds teachers' stress, edging them closer to a tipping point. As a community, we need to recalibrate our expectations. A child's formal learning environment may be school, but what goes on at home is just as important. Teachers are not miracle workers. They are all doing the best they can under some pretty trying circumstances. I have seen what better looks like. Principal Sally Lasslett from Hester Hornbrook Academy, an independent school in Prahran for young people 15 to 25 years of age who have fallen through the cracks, does things differently. The school staff wellbeing program is an exemplar of what is needed to promote teacher retention. It includes mandatory debriefing with psychologists every fortnight, a flexible work model with four hours work from home each week and planning days and days off in lieu so that teachers are optimised to deal with the complexities facing their students. The power of teamwork runs strong in this institution, and their school awards ceremony was a joyous affair that screamed pride.

The Albanese government's National Teacher Workforce Action Plan sets out 27 recommendations to be actioned by the Commonwealth and subnational governments, with $159 million to train more teachers in early childhood, primary and secondary education, $56 million for scholarships worth $40,000 to encourage high achievers to become teachers and $68 million to triple the number of mid-career professionals that switch, like Andrew, an engineer I met in Malvern, who is retraining now to be a teacher. We are investing $20 million in professional development and in a campaign to promote teaching as a career. Importantly, $30 million will help trial new ways of reducing teachers' workloads.

The meaning of life is to find your gift; the purpose of life is to give that gift away, said Picasso. At present, our teachers are like miners toiling away under heat and pressure to unearth talent. In that future we are shaping, they will be seen as social engineers, driving social mobility through the most powerful tool there is: education.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion of the member for Reid relating to the teacher shortage. I speak to this motion because I believe that, apart from parenting, teaching is the most important role that has the greatest impact on our country's future. We all know the majority of a person's thinking and behaviours are developed in their formative years, and the older we get the more difficult it is to change our thinking and behaviour—except for you, of course, Deputy Speaker Sharkie. This is why the value of parents and educators should never be underestimated. I've never been an educator; however, my mum was the primary school teacher her entire working life, some 50 years, in the Queensland state school system. I have close friends who are either teachers, principals or deputy principals, and my wife is a teacher's aide, so, fortunately, I was able to have great conversations with them when preparing this speech. I also have a great relationship with the schools in my electorate of Longman and have been privileged to obtain the views of some of those educators this month.

The Commonwealth provides around $760 million per annum in university funding for teacher education, which is a significant investment and rightly so—what price on a child's future? So why are fewer and fewer people taking up this vital vocation? For many years, teachers were held in very high esteem and were considered pillars of communities. Some of the feedback I've received from people at the coalface on why people are leaving the profession of teaching or are not taking it up at all suggests that many new teachers have come from stable family backgrounds and struggle to deal with students who are from unstable family backgrounds and who have behavioural issues unfamiliar to them. Those who have been in the profession for some time comment on the fact that disrespectful antisocial and/or violent behaviour has risen dramatically over the past couple of decades. One teacher told a story of asking a student to join the class, as they going to a swimming lesson, and she was told to 'go away' and that she was a 'stupid' teacher. The teacher expressed she was thankful that it was this mild, as previously she had been sworn at and even physically struck. Another long-term teacher said that academic outcomes would be greater if teachers didn't have to focus on teaching students life skills that parents used to teach their children, such as manners, personal hygiene, sex education and respect. Every moment our teachers are educating our children on these matters is a moment they are not teaching them reading, writing, history, science and the like.

One of the biggest deterrents amongst most teachers I spoke to was the often long and arduous process when a complaint was made against a teacher by a student, colleague or parent. There have been instances where cases were drawn out for as long as two years, and often the defending teacher was not even notified for months after they'd been exonerated of the complaint. There was also comment made about the lack of consequences for those students, parents and colleagues where allegations and were proven to be false.

A report in the Australian Financial Review today reported that 50 per cent of principals had been physically threatened—simply outrageous. After the feedback, what are the solutions? Where do we go from here? Some suggestions I have heard from educators include: more investment in parenting courses and education on how to be a parent—if parents taught their children what parents are supposed teach, then teachers could focus and spend more time teaching what they are meant to teach; a more streamlined process for complaints and allegations against teachers, with time line limits on decisions to reduce stress on those who are eventually found innocent; real consequences for those who are found to have made false allegations; and a more diverse range of education delivery.

Once principal shared that our current education method suits just 30 per cent of students. That means 70 per cent of students are bored, disengaged or simply not understanding the information being taught to them. I have two of these alternative schools in my electorate of Longman, Horizons College and Alta-1, which both provide excellent alternative education for those students who are disengaged with the traditional school system. We need more focus and investment in more alternative types of education so that we can provide quality education to a broader range of students.

Many behavioural issues are created in our schools due to students feeling inadequate or even stupid because of how we measure competency or because they are bored or switched off as their education system doesn't suit their learning style. I sincerely thank our teachers for all you do under extremely frustrating circumstances. I promise you that I will do all I can to ensure that you have the working environment you and our children deserve.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.