Queensland’s new focus on fixing staff shortages by poaching interstate and overseas teachers, health workers, police officers

The Department of Education campaign set to roll out later this year follows a state government trend of trying to poach interstate and foreign workers.

Queensland will launch a fresh recruitment raid on interstate and overseas teachers as its current programs fail to make a dent in classroom shortages – as seen in a recent trial recruiting tradies as industrial technology and design teachers.

Education Minister Grace Grace said the Department of Education is developing a new campaign focused on attracting teachers from interstate and New Zealand to Queensland state schools.

Ms Grace said the campaign, to be launched later this year, would spruik the state’s wage deal as “some of the best pay and conditions in the country”.

“A new campaign will focus on the increasing number of individuals and families seeking to relocate to Queensland and highlight the brilliant opportunities available to beginning and experienced teachers and their families especially rural, remote, and regional communities across the state,” she said.

Education Minister Grace Grace speaks during Question Time in state parliament last month. Photo: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell.

A Victorian teacher who relocated to Queensland has no regrets, saying his new position at a Gold Coast primary school is “chalk and cheese” compared to his old job in Melbourne.

Corey Micari has urged the Department of Education to “sell the lifestyle, weather and (school) culture” in Queensland if it wants to lure to interstate and overseas teachers.

Mr Micari did a secondary teaching degree and got a full-time position at Barton State Primary School in Melbourne.

But after two years, he moved up to the Gold Coast in 2021 and has worked as a Year 5 teacher at Trinity Lutheran College in Ashmore ever since.

“My whole life, I wanted to live somewhere else … and I had always liked holidaying in Queensland,” Mr Micari said.

“The environment, working conditions, families, and students – it is chalk and cheese for how much nicer it is at the school where I am now.

“The kids here just don’t compare, even though I had some nice kids at my old school.”

Mr Micari said the Department of Education’s upcoming campaign should sell the Queensland lifestyle, not just the teaching position.

“Money is relative, I probably would have moved up here for less money if it meant I got what I have now,” he said.

Trinity Lutheran College Year 5 teacher Corey Micari with students Mackenzie Kennedy, 10, Kayla Hansmeyer, 10, Jessica Auckland, 10, and Peyton McFarlane, 10. Photo: Adam Head.

The interstate and overseas teacher recruitment raid comes as other state government departments roll out campaigns to poach workers from interstate and overseas amid staff shortage crises in the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Health.

Early last month, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced up to $70,000 in cash to lure health workers, with extra incentives available for those who fill vacancies in the regions.

To date, the new scheme has attracted 786 expressions of interest – including 150 from overseas and more than 400 from interstate.

At the weekend, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman announced a $21.96m package to give final-year nursing and midwifery students – from Queensland, interstate, or overseas – a $5000 cost-of-living bonus for doing their hands-on training in regional and remote communities.

Meanwhile, the QPS announced in February that foreigners with policing experience would be eligible to apply to join under a new agreement.

The service has also since announced extra financial incentives, including a $20,000 relocation allowance for interstate and overseas officers.

A QPS spokesman said the service had received more than 11,000 inquiries from potential applicants in 21 countries to date, and as a result, more training programs for these skilled international police are planned for 2023 and into 2024.

In the education, troubles with recruiting locally had been highlighted by the $9.9 million Trade to Teach internship program – retraining tradesmen as industrial technology and design teachers – which only had 30 people in it, equating to $330,000 taxpayer dollars per person.

But Ms Grace pointed to the success of the $200,000 Teach Queensland Style campaign from July 2017 to April 2019 after it netted 400 full-time teachers – 324 from interstate and 76 from overseas.

“We have always had a dual approach: to encourage more Queensland residents to become teachers, and to attract teachers from interstate and abroad. Covid-19 has obviously had an impact on our ability to do the latter,” Ms Grace said.

Member for Moggil Dr Christian Rowan is the LNP’s shadow spokesman for Education and the Arts. Photo: NCA NewsWire / Josh Woning.

LNP education spokesman Dr Christian Rowan, who quizzed Ms Grace on teacher recruitment campaigns from 2015 to 2023 in a Question on Notice, has slammed the government’s strategy as a “desperate” attempt to address the classroom shortage.

“The Minister’s response only underscores the Labor State Government’s failure to deliver a comprehensive teacher workforce strategy,” he said.

“Having failed to address the ongoing teacher shortage crisis, including attracting and retaining local Queenslanders, the Labor Minister for Education is now trying to desperately recruit teachers from interstate and overseas.

“If the Labor State Government is serious about recruiting more teachers, then they can begin by immediately addressing teacher wellbeing and safety, as well as housing, teacher workloads, and red tape.”

Data released earlier this year revealed the rate of Queensland Department of Education staff packing in their jobs has hit a five-year peak, after an alarming two-year surge.