Page 838 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 6 April 2022
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current vacancies. It says, “Though she’d advertised for a replacement she still hadn’t had any applications.” A principal added that casuals were “few and far between” and that the school was unable to find relief teachers to fill the gaps “most days”.
I turn more directly to what is happening at Calwell. The Australian Education Union again said:
Our members tell us that they are scared when they’re faced with that situation, that they fear for their safety in those circumstances.
And this comes out in the Auditor-General’s report on teacher quality that was noted in this place last week at a public hearing. We heard that many staff did not have the time or resources to do their jobs effectively. The committee heard:
Not all our staff had access to the technology they needed to do their work—
How do you blame COVID on the fact that staff do not have the technology to do their work? Is that COVID as well?
—especially casual teachers and learning support assistants. Further, there is not enough devices to be able to give every staff member a device to be able to perform their work.
I do not think that the fact that they do not have the technology and the devices they need to do their job has anything to do with COVID. Some schools do not have a school library or staffroom because that space has been converted to classroom spaces, while others are teaching in modified corridor spaces. That is not new. It is not a COVID-related incident that you are expecting teachers to teach in what was a library or a school corridor. Not all staff had access to technology and many teachers were unable to attend professional learning. That list would be harrowing, but it is not all, and not by a long shot.
Let me say again the words of the Australian Education Union regarding what we have heard in Calwell:
The action taken by the ACT work safety regulator is a damning indictment on the ACT Education Directorate and starkly highlights their failure to provide a safe working place for our members and a safe school for their students.
Since the AEU first raised safety concerns around the dire circumstances confronting staff and students at the Calwell site in 2021, the Education Directorate has continually failed to recognise and act effectively to address serious, ongoing staff shortages, oversized classes and incidences of occupational violence. It is the responsibility of the Education Directorate to ensure that their schools are properly resourced for the program they are expected to run and for the needs of their students. They have failed to uphold this responsibility.
The situation raises a significant number of concerns, and these have been raised by the union. These were canvassed this morning. The minister has suggested that this is isolated, that this is a one-off, that it is rare, when we have one in five teachers saying
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