Page 3079 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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aspects of the detail of that in seeking to address some issues that have arisen around walking time and also test week, where different colleges have applied differently the face-to-face teaching requirement. We continue to work with college principals to resolve those issues, and I am confident that the work that my department, particularly the HR section, has been undertaking, will address those concerns.
Fundamentally—and this perhaps goes to the point of earlier motions and debates this week in this place—through this motion Mrs Dunne has now committed the opposition to a further amount of expenditure.
Mrs Dunne: I’m calling on you to do it. You didn’t have to do this.
MR BARR: An additional 21 teaching positions in the college sector would be in the order of about $2 million a year recurrent, perhaps slightly over, depending, of course, on what pay point those staff were at. If they were teachers at the top of the classroom salary rates, then their base salary would be in the order of $75,000 or thereabouts. That would be additional expenditure that we would have to find. The question, of course, is, given that face-to-face teaching hours in every other jurisdiction in Australia are higher than in the ACT—
Mrs Dunne: You decided to make the budget cuts.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Dunne.
MR BARR: Given that face-to-face teaching hours in the ACT are lower than in any other jurisdiction—
Mrs Dunne: The lowest common denominator.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Dunne.
MR BARR: Given that face-to-face teaching hours in the ACT are lower than in any other jurisdiction, and given that ACT college teachers teach fewer hours and have fewer teaching days than any other system in the country—
Mrs Dunne: You can’t walk both sides of the street, Mr Barr. Which side of the street are we on now?
MR BARR: Given that, the government felt that it was appropriate to pursue productivity efficiencies through the latest EBA round.
Mrs Dunne: Mediocrity in the colleges.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Dunne.
MR BARR: We put a position of, in fact, 20 hours with a combination of face-to-face teaching and pastoral care in our final offer to the AEU prior to entering arbitration. Now, in the end, the arbiter split the position and went for 19 hours.
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