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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 51 ..

Mr Humphries: It is easy for him; he does not live in the ACT.

MR STEFANIAK: That is right. It is interesting to read from a Socialist Worker pamphlet in relation to a rally to be held tomorrow outside the Legislative Assembly. Despite the fact that the Opposition will not say how it is going to be paid for, even the socialist workers are putting in their two bob's worth. They say in their document:

The government has recently threatened that public service pay increases could only be funded by an increase in Canberra household rates of over $1,000 in some cases. Despite the acceptance of this by the leadership of the teachers union, Resistance believes that education is a right ... Increased education funding should come from taxes on big business, not through extra taxes on the community.

Unfortunately for the socialist workers, there is not any big business in Canberra, and taxing business is not a terribly effective way of getting taxes anyway - especially small business, which is being taxed to the hilt as a result of some 13 years of neglect by Federal Labor. There is a real problem in our community, in that Australia and Canberra are in a recession. Times are tough. People have to realise that, and what the Government has offered is more than reasonable in the circumstances. It is a very reasonable offer in tough times - times of low inflation, we should not forget.

I am going to speak now on the education bans. I reiterate my calls, which I have made on several occasions, for the Education Union to lift them. It is most unfortunate, to say the least, that the AEU has banned all after-hours activity in schools. What a nonsense! What do they mean by voluntary after hours?

Mrs Carnell: It is not voluntary.

MR STEFANIAK: It is not voluntary, as the Chief Minister says. Do they think that teachers are paid around $42,756 for the top of band 1 for working what would amount to a 30-hour week, 40 weeks per year, when public sector employees are working 37 hours or more for a 48-week period during the year? Teachers' salaries have been determined taking into account the full range of activities they undertake in outside hours, and it is quite incorrect and, I think, quite improper for representatives of that union to refer to unpaid voluntary work outside of normal school hours. Those things have always been taken into account in the ACT. The teachers union has consistently made the point in the media that it is voluntary, but that is wrong. It is interesting that they have consistently made the point that teachers do those extra duties outside of class time teaching in any claims they make to industrial relations bodies when they come up for additional salaries. They have argued about the demands of parent-teacher evenings, assessment, curriculum development, musical productions, drama, sporting activities, student counselling and excursions, and those things have always been taken into account in setting their wages, certainly in the ACT. Let us not have any more talk about voluntary after hours activity.

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