Page 2095 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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counterparts, and how many teachers will be able to access the funding included in the budget in order to retain them in the system because they are the best quality teachers?
MR BARR: The government offer that has been put forward to the Australian Education Union has salary increases in the order of 16 per cent for deputy principals, taking the salary from around $98,000 to approaching $115,000. It involves reclassifying deputy principals into the principal pay structure and providing opportunities for professional development and career advancement for the deputy principal class across ACT schools.
In relation to initiatives around six-figure salaries for classroom teachers, we have indicated a desire to do two things in this area. Firstly, to allow accelerated advancement for classroom teachers through the current salary scale, to ensure that the advancement can occur in more than one-year lots. At the moment it is a very long march, Ms Hunter, from a graduate teacher to the top of the classroom teaching scale. Our offer to the Australian Education Union provides for a doubling of the advancement, so that you can move forward two increments each 12 months rather than one.
In relation to six-figure salaries for classroom teachers, we have provided a new category within the classroom teacher structure that is at the same pay rate as the current school leader C salary, so providing two streams—a teacher leader, teacher mentor role in the classroom and a head of faculty role, if you like, taking in a more administrative role, but aligning salaries, increasing them both, so that in light of the agreement, over three years, you will see those leading teachers with six-figure salaries, delivering on the ACT government’s commitments in this area.
Housing—demand
MS BRESNAN: My question is to the Minister for Housing and it is about increasing demand for public housing. Minister, a report issued last week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that by 2020-21 demand for public housing in the ACT would increase by 30 per cent. Given you have said today that this demand is too expensive to meet, minister, how are you going to respond to this problem? Will you table in the Assembly the costings you have referred to in the media?
MS BURCH: I am quite happy to outline the estimated costs that got to $1.4 billion.
Ms Bresnan: No, table them. Table them, thanks.
MS BURCH: I will write them down and then table them. The average cost of a property we have put at $400,000, which is the same costing that we put to our aspirational target of 10 per cent that we have also made a commitment to do. Just on the Greens’ and our target, we have agreed that we have an aspirational target of 10 per cent of the total housing stock in the ACT to be 10 per cent. That line for us is $1.1 billion.
Recently in regard to the CEO Sleepout, where there was lots of data on homelessness, Ms Bresnan put a media release out asking the government to meet the 30 per cent demand equating to public housing. To do the sums on that at $400,000
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