Page 606 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 March 2023

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Education and Community Inclusion—Standing Committee

Reference

MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (11.00): I move:

That:

(1) this Assembly notes that:

(a) the Australian Catholic University (ACU) published a report that shows:

(i) 75.6 percent of ACT principals faced threats of violence, the highest rate in Australia and 73.2 percent faced actual violence, the highest in Australia;

(ii) almost 60 percent of ACT principals are at risk of serious mental health concerns, the highest in Australia;

(iii) ACU investigator and former principal, Dr Paul Kidson, has stated “the ACT is significantly out of step with the rest of the nation and strong intervention was needed”; and

(iv) Dr Kidson further stated, “in no other environment should we expect these things to be acceptable and we don’t and shouldn’t expect them to be acceptable within schools”;

(b) a paper by the Australian Education Union reports that ACT public school principals carry a “crushing workload” at the expense of their health and do not have time to provide educational leadership. The report further states:

(i) almost all principals (94 percent) say the directorate lacks the resources to meet the necessary demands;

(ii) the gap between resources and outcomes is made up primarily by principals and teachers working excessive hours;

(iii) principals reported they “do not have the level of resourcing needed”; and

(iv) the Australian Education Union issued a public statement that said “The ACT Government must take real action to address principal workloads, or we risk losing the leaders of our profession.”;

(2) this Assembly refers this to the Standing Committee on Education and Community Inclusion, to address the principal workloads in ACT schools, including but not limited to, real hours worked by principals, violence, and threats of violence in schools and prevention methods and the administrative responsibilities laid on principals that should be conducted by the directorate; and

(3) the Committee report to the Assembly no later than 29 June 2023.

This is an issue that is urgent and has been litigated this week in question time and extensively in the media. It is, frankly, unacceptable. Recently, the Australian Catholic University published their Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey 2022 Data. It certainly makes for alarming reading. Nationwide, but particularly in the ACT, it shows that there is an unacceptable situation occurring in schools.

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