Page 3974 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 December 2021
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The residents of Belconnen are very proud of the Belconnen town centre. The residents of Woden and Weston Creek love and are proud of their town centres. The residents of Gungahlin want more from their town centre, and that is what I think we should try and deliver in this place.
I look forward to seeing the ACT government progress this issue with whatever levers it has. I look forward to the cinema project being completed and I look forward to booking a movie ticket in the Gungahlin town centre soon. I look forward to inviting fellow members of this place, even the ones that like to engage in personal character attacks, to do so.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Education—teachers
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (3.34): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) that the ACT Division of Australian Education Union recently released their study called Under-staffed, under-resourced, under-appreciated: The teacher shortage and its impact on our schools—the biggest survey of ACT public school educators ever conducted in the ACT;
(b) that study found:
(i) nearly all respondents (97 percent) said they work more than their maximum weekly hours. This includes working on the weekends, evenings and during periods of leave or stand down;
(ii) 79 percent say they work excessive hours every week:
(A) 59 percent of classroom teachers say this happens every week; and
(B) 70 percent of primary level classroom teachers say this happens every week;
(iii) almost all teachers report working unpaid overtime every week with more than 40 percent of them working 10 or more hours, and even more hours when weekend work is included;
(iv) teachers regularly supply classroom materials and resources from their own pockets; and
(v) according to the report “The harsh reality is that ACT public school teachers subsidise the ACT Government’s spending on education to the tune of at least $75 million every year on salaries alone”;
(2) further notes:
(a) wage theft is a major issue in modern Australia, is criminalised in some states and is being reviewed in all others;
(b) the Australian Council of Trade Unions has claimed wage theft has reached “epidemic” proportions and the exploitation of workers is widespread, while Victorian Minister for Industrial Relations, Tim Pallas, has said “wage theft is an insidious crime”; and
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