City locked down, streets flooded in Qld’s ‘biggest protest in decades’
More than 4000 teachers have made their presence felt on a day when city streets were locked down for one of the largest strikes in Queensland history.
More than 4000 teachers have made their presence felt on a day city streets were thrust into lockdown in one of the largest strikes in Queensland’s history.
Marching from South Bank to Parliament House, the united front of Queensland educators chanted “state schools, state schools” and “Crisafulli, pay us fully” as they continued their fight for better pay and conditions.
The rally ended about 1pm after a morning of strikes held across the state.
George St lanes as well as other city roads were blocked in the middle of the day because of the march.
Members from other unions — including the Independent Education Union, Queensland Midwives and Nurses Union, and Queensland Socialists joined the teachers in their strike action.
It’s the first time Queensland Teachers Union’ have walked off the job since 2009.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles said the strike was “a massive turnout from Queensland teachers”.
“…and it’s been decades since they’ve protested like this,” he said.
“I think it speaks volumes about how under appreciated they feel by this current government, and how the government really needs to sit down with them and negotiate effectively.”
Mr Miles said teachers told him they’d never been busier, they’d never faced greater challenges in the classroom, and they’d never felt less valued by a government.
“It’s been decades since they’ve taken this kind of action, and I think it just speaks to how teachers feel,” he said.
“I’ve always supported our teachers.
“And I think it’s our job to support.”
Union president Cresta Richardson admitted today’s strike was unlikely to be the end.
“Sadly, it probably wouldn’t end here today,” Ms Richardson said.
“This is not going to be easy.
“We have spoken today. This is a teacher voice that cannot be denied.”
Indoor playgrounds reported a surge in activity on Wednesday as parents took their children to the various venues.
Marketing Executive of Bounce Inc Alastair McCausland said they saw a 200 per cent increase of activity in their Brisbane and Gold Coast venues compared to, “a normal August day”.
“The vast majority of those bookings we saw did come through on the day, which is what we would expect,” Mr McCausland said.
“We had a lot of walk-ins. We were gearing up for it, but we’ve been happy with that result.”
“We understand it’s not a good situation for the teacher to be in, so our goal is just to make sure we’re helping to make parents’ lives a bit easier.”
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek this morning vowed to return to the negotiating table.
Mr Langbroek confirmed no schools had been forced to close their doors today.
Speaking at the Ormeau on the northern Gold Coast, Mr Langbroek said he would continue to negotiate “in good faith”.
“We’ve had 18 meetings over five months, there was a meeting yesterday and I’m looking forward to hopefully there being another meeting as early as later this week,” he said.
“I want to make it very clear that we know that while we’ve had (these) meetings it’s really important that we sit down together and we respect the rights of teachers to be well-remunerated.
“As a son of a teacher and my mum was a library aide, I know how important it is that they be remunerated and that they’re respected, and that’s something that we’ll do.
“So we’ve been very clear to make an offer that’s above inflation.”
Mr Langbroek said the talk would continue, even as unions refuse to rule further protected industrial action.
“I want to reassure parents and teachers and students that we’re confident that we can come to a negotiated settlement with our teachers and we’ll be able to do that because we’re continuing to negotiate in good faith,” he said.
“Of course, it is costly for the people who are not who are taking this industrial election, they lose a day’s pay, so we know that they’re passionate about the things that they feel strongly about, and that’s why the government has been so committed to working on those issues since we came to (power) nine months ago.
“Those issues to do with behaviour, bullying, red tape, and the things that have driven down morale and we know that teachers want to get back to doing literacy and numeracy.”
Mr Miles threw his support behind the state’s teachers, sharing to X a screenshot of messages from his daughter Bridie’s school admin asking why she was absent.
“She’s supporting a fair deal for her teachers,” he replied.
“Queensland stands with teachers for nation-leading pay and safe workplaces, and it’s time the LNP did too,” he posted alongside the screenshot.
But Ms Richardson said despite months of meetings, the government had chosen to make an offer that would place members at the bottom end of the Australian pay scale in three years.
“But this is really about conditions. We need to make sure that we can attract teachers, retain the teachers that we have, and have great conditions, not only in the city, but in the country as well. We need to make sure that our schools are safe,” she said.
“We need to make sure that schools are resourced properly, because they’re not currently resourced in a fit for purpose way, where we can support students and our teachers and our school leaders. So absolutely conditions are absolutely critical.”
Ms Richardson said they had been in “some conversations” with the education minister.
“We’re still in negotiations. We go into conciliation tomorrow, but yeah, we haven’t been able to reach an agreement at this point in time,” she said.
“Our members do more with less every single day. They’re picking up the load. They’re doing the planning of colleagues.”
Ms Richardson said they would be considering today what the union’s next steps were.
“Premier, we want to talk to you. Eight per cent is not enough over three years, and you know that our teachers are calling out for this.
“You know we need to reduce occupational violence in our schools. You know that we need more teachers and school leaders in our schools to support the best education for our kids in Queensland.
“I mean, we can afford an Olympic games, but we can’t afford to pay our teachers properly.”
Redcliffe Special School teacher Mick Turnball spoke to The Courier-Mail from the convention centre, saying that special school staffing had been slashed this year.
“It’s a horrible thing to happen where you have to sacrifice education because you’re trying to look after the health needs of the students,” he said.
Runcorn State School teacher Monique Welch said current classroom conditions were all she knew.
“We just want improved conditions for a better generation of kids,” she said. .
“I want all of the kids in my class to be able to have equal opportunities to learn. And at the moment, we don’t have that because we don’t have the resourcing, we don’t have the support, and we don’t have the funding that we need to make learning possible and to implement the curriculum in a way that’s authentic and meaningful for the kids,” she said.
Raceview State School Karen Stanton said as an early career teacher she had noticed they needed more support for students.
“ … and we need more help for our children and our families, and we can’t do that with the shortage of stuff that we have,“ she said.
It’s not just teachers in Queensland schools going on strike.
Queensland provides health and education services on the territory of Norfolk Island, located some 1470km from Brisbane and just 800km from New Zealand.
Queensland Teachers’ Union Members at Norfolk Island Central School are part of the protected industrial strike action.
Like many others, the school is on Wednesday operating under a supervision model.
QTU executive and teacher Maika Bailey said occupational violence in schools was one of the many reasons why school staff were striking.
“We need more than just pay – it’s about our working conditions,” Ms Bailey told the ABC.
“We understand today is going to be very difficult for a lot of our families and our communities, but we also want to thank them for supporting us in our decision.
“We don’t take this lightly.”
Ms Bailey said poor working conditions are causing teachers to “leave in droves”, causing staff shortages.
“Whole year levels are having to be taught science in the hall because they can’t find teachers,” she said.
“It’s got to stop somewhere.”
QTU General Secretary Kate Ruttiman will handle the Master of Ceremony duties in Brisbane, with other senior officers set to speak before an expected Brisbane crowd of around 4000 members.
It is understood around 4000 new members have joined the QTU in July alone.
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