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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (19 August) . . Page.. 2852 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

that. I just want to put on the record that that was happening under the Carnell government, and it did have an impact on the people I was at school with, on my educational outcomes and on the work of the teachers, because it cut them to the core that they had to stop doing the extracurricular activities that they loved as much as we did. And it did have an impact on the learning that we were getting.

Every community and every parent want the best outcomes for our children and they expect the taxes that they pay to go towards providing the best possible education for their children. However, the best possible outcomes come with the best possible schools and the best possible educators. It is unreasonable and unfair to expect people to do the best possible job unless we pay them the best possible wage.

MRS CROSS (8.32): Mr Speaker, for a very long time professions such as ministries of the church, nursing, and teaching were considered vocations; that is, they were callings, and those who responded to the call did so or were considered to have done so out of a form of altruism. No doubt this was true in many instances, and I myself have known teachers and nurses whose dedication to serving their fellow man was and is exemplary.

What is most important to the true teacher is the contribution he or she can make to the positive and balanced development of children. These are the people whose main roles in life and contributions to society lie ahead of them. These children are our future.

Over the years teachers have often had to carry out their tasks amid the apathy, antipathy, even hostility of some sections of society. They frequently cop criticism and are often made scapegoats for society's failures in addressing problems that are not within the power of a teacher to resolve. No doubt some criticism is deserved, but I am not going to go into that at the moment.

What I want to highlight is the way in which society in general takes for granted the vocational dedication of teachers; how it expects the teacher to be all things, do all things, even to the point where absolutely stupid suggestions are being made in some quarters. There is a suggestion that teachers ought to remain working at school until 5 o'clock or some such time so that they can look after children until it is convenient for their working parents to resume responsibility for them. What utter arrogance! For God's sake, don't people who make suggestions like this realise that some teachers are also working parents, that some of them too have children in child care waiting to be picked up.

It is amazing just how society, or parts of it at least, so sanctimoniously take teachers for granted. Teachers are so often taken for granted that it has become part of the general expectation of the community. This feeling is well known by all who have ever been part of the teaching profession.

There is a strong feeling amongst some teaching friends of mine that they are embarrassed to say they are teachers. At dinner parties they feel bad if they are in a situation where they've got to speak about their occupation. This is a dreadful indictment of our society.

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