The WorkCover claims Queensland Education doesn’t want you to know about

Details from thousands of horrific WorkCover claims made by abused Queensland teachers – including workers being punched, stabbed, kicked, spat on and sexually assaulted – have been redacted by the Department of Education, triggering claims of a cover-up.

Details from hundreds of horrific WorkCover claims made by abused Queensland teachers as part of a Right to Information request were not considered to be of public interest, and were redacted by the Department of Education.

More than 2000 incidents were detailed in the 112-page document into the assault and injuries to Queensland teachers and school staff, which took The Courier-Mail more than six months to obtain.

It included workers being punched, stabbed, kicked, spat on and sexually assaulted, plus countless claims for psychological injuries after witnessing attacks or being the subject of abuse, bullying or false allegations.

However, it was the redacted information that has raised eyebrows with readers and the LNP, who accused the state government of “covering up”.

At the time of the request being finalised, a Department of Education principal information officer informed The Courier-Mail that the decision had been made to allow only partial access to the documents, because “disclosure of certain information contained in the documents would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest”.

“I have determined that the disclosure of third party personal information contained in the documents would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest,” the officer wrote.

“Disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to cause a public interest harm by revealing the personal information of the relevant individuals’ and prejudicing their privacy.

“I consider that significant weight should be given to these factors favouring nondisclosure.

“On the other hand, disclosing the information would not materially advance the general public interest which favours disclosure of government held information.”

While the redaction of key personal information, such as names, schools, and any unique injuries, was expected, other parts which were redacted appeared to be in contradiction to previous Right To Information requests.

A previous application for similar information disclosed what region of the state the incident occurred in – which The Courier-Mail had requested. But this information was fully redacted.

The previous RTI request also did not redact seemingly innocuous descriptions of injuries, such as “left” and “right”, which was redacted on every occasion within the current request.

The Department of Education and Education Minister Grace Grace have previously come under fire over multiple instances of a lack of transparency with regards to public schools.

Education Minister Grace Grace officially opening the Brisbane South State Secondary College. Pics Tara Croser.

Among the changes was the scrapping of a key report previously published by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, which detailed each school’s Year 12 results.

The decision to scrap the report entirely, made by the Ministerial Senior Assessment and Tertiary Implementation Taskforce in April of last year, means the vast majority of school results will never see the light of day.

Though some schools may individually choose to publish their results no requirement exists for them to do so, with results also not automatically included in school annual reports, or on the national MySchool website.

Instead, only statewide data is broadly published.

And since 2019 student attendance rates, school disciplinary absence data and enrolment figures are no longer published in centralised reports, as they were previously, however are available in individual school annual reports.

The department was this week asked why the RTI was so heavily redacted and why teachers were being silence from speaking out about the violence and abuse they’ve suffered. The department did not respond.

LNP education spokesman Dr Christian Rowan said parents deserved to know the truth about what was really happening inside classrooms.

Dr Christian Rowan accused the state government of hiding information. Picture: Tara Croser.

Dr Rowan accused the state government of creating a “culture of secrecy and cover-ups”.

“Queensland parents have a right to be asking what the government is hiding,” Dr Rowan said.

“A government in the dark does nobody any good, especially when it comes to violence in Queensland schools.

“Our teachers are doing an incredible job under immense pressure and the reports of increased assaults on staff is deeply concerning.”

The Courier-Mail readers also accused the government of hiding information.

“Why the heck is information on assaults and other criminal actions of school students only be made available through an FOI request?” Angela said. “It is criminal behaviour and the public needs to know this upfront. And the malarkey about the child’s rights has become a cop out.”

Another reader also commented: “This Government is more concerned with how things look rather than how things are.”

A reader who claimed to be a current teacher said the system was broken. “Yet the department can’t quite put their finger on why there is a teacher shortage. Like many, I am ‘this close’ to leaving the profession.”

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