Queensland Teachers’ Union member quits over ‘progressive’ agenda

A longtime member and delegate has quit the Queensland Teachers’ Union, saying it has become a puppet of the Labor Party and more interested in progressive agendas.

A veteran Queensland Teachers’ Union member and state council delegate has quit the union, saying it has become a puppet of the Labor Party.

Brisbane manual arts teacher David Frarricciardi, 42, said he was offended at some of the behaviour he witnessed as delegate on the QTU state council for six years, and a school union rep for 12 years.

Des Houghton: Palaszczuk’s election hoax

Des Houghton: Qld needs vision of past to move forward

Des Houghton: High Court judge Pat Keane’s attack on the media shows ‘jaundiced’ viewpoint

Frarricciardi said QTU claims of political impartiality were laughable.

“During my six years at the centre of the union I saw war-room-style call centres established in the lead-up to state and federal elections, where volunteers would sit and cold-call QTU members in marginal electorates and pressure them to vote for the Labor candidates,” he said.

Frarricciardi said the union-funded demographic studies to support the election “war rooms”.

“A straw that broke the camel’s back for me came when I was when as a rep I rang my organiser for assistance and was told that she was too busy with the election campaign to call me back,” he said.

“True story.”

The QTU is one of the state’s most powerful unions with 46,724 members.

It is influential in shaping government policy, and in recent years has supported progressive social agendas in schools.

This had upset many members, Frarricciardi said.

QTU president Kevin Bates would not comment on Frarricciardi’s specific claims, but rejected suggestions the union was in bed with the ALP.

“We are not affiliated with any political party and never have been,” he said.

David Frarricciardi has quit the Queensland Teachers’ Union, saying it has become an ALP puppet. Picture: Des Houghton

Bates said QTU members had diverse political views and members had run for Parliament as candidates for One Nation, the LNP, the ALP and the Greens.

Bates said the QTU did an impartial assessment of education policies before the election.

It did not recommend a Labor vote.

“We then left it to our members to decide,” he said.

However Frarricciardi said he had seen pro-Labor bias first hand.

He said he became especially concerned at a state council meeting when he learned the QTU executive was ready to support candidates who “share our views”.

“In other words, they wanted to support Labor candidates,” Frarricciardi said.

At one meeting while debating possible funding options Frarricciardi said he openly advocated supporting candidates who were pro-education and not necessarily pro-Labor, and tried to amend a motion accordingly.

“However I was shouted down by a prominent member of the executive (also a Labor Party figure), who said, ‘You will never find a Queensland teacher who would be stupid enough to vote Tory.’ ”

Frarricciardi was disturbed by another “unpleasant episode” showing the QTU in a bad light.

It happened when then education minister John-Paul Langbroek addressed an annual conference.

Unionists were determined not to let Langbroek’s voice be heard.

“All the lights in the room at the convention centre were ordered to be changed to green, and delegates were told to hold up signs saying, ‘We want Gonski,’ while hissing at each of the minister’s statements.”

QTU president Kevin Bates

Frarricciardi said he was not aligned to any political party.

He simply wanted the union to focus on teachers, without championing political and social causes.

“I joined (the QTU) entirely out of fear, yes fear,” he said.

“We were told that we needed the might and strength of the QTU to protect us.

“There were bad people out to get us and without the QTU in our corner we would not stand a chance.”

However he said the union was not politically neutral.

“So we all know that the QTU is a machine for the ALP,” Frarricciardi said.

“But what else has crept in?

“If you want your boy to wear a skirt to school, or your daughter to use the boys’ toilet, then the QTU is the organisation to call.

“I asked a number of times what some of these progressive agendas had to do with my rights at work.

“I also asked why my union dues paid to send two of the QTU executive members to Paris to speak on how Queensland schools are embracing LGBTQ.’’

Frarricciardi said the QTU was happiest when pushing “rather odd” left-wing agendas.

He said many QTU members agreed with him.

Frarricciardi had intended to start his own union, but when he saw the breakaway Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland was recently set up, he joined that instead.

Here I declare that the TPAQ is a sister union to the Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland, to which I sometimes give advice as a media consultant.

Frarricciardi said he would urge the TPAQ to concentrate only on industrial matters such as workloads, class sizes, reporting requirements, playground duties and after-school meetings.

Frarricciardi put his complaints in a letter to Bates.

Bates admitted that in the past call centres had been set up. They were manned by volunteers to call fellow members to explain policy issues.

Des Houghton is a media consultant and former editor of The Courier-Mail, Sunday Mail and Sunday Sun