Page 5837 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011

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MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (3.43): I am delighted to take the opportunity to say a few words in this debate. It is certainly very good of Ms Porter to raise these issues today and to continue her very strong interest in the education portfolio.

Mr Hanson: Did you write it for her?

MR BARR: I will ignore the interjection of the shadow minister. A year ago I indicated in a major speech to this place the importance of better pay and better careers for ACT teachers. I indicated that the government would be seeking some significant reforms to the teaching profession as part of what was then a forthcoming EBA. It is terrific to see, after what was admittedly a difficult and complex negotiation, that we have been able to achieve a range of significant reforms in this area.

Reform in education is not easy. I think we have heard in this debate some of the reasons why it is difficult at times. It is always easy for shadow ministers to take the cheap populous route and to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to significant reform. It perhaps raises the question of who, if not the ACT government, is going to drive these sorts of reforms to the teaching profession because we all knew that the teaching profession was stuck in the 1970s in terms of its industrial relations regime. It was stuck in the 1970s in terms of professional development.

Every credible commentator on education reform in this country has observed that the questions about teacher evaluation have been complex ones, but ones that have needed to be addressed. Through this enterprise bargaining agreement and the in-principle acceptance, we have a couple of significant reforms. Firstly, we can finally say that the era of advancement by exhaustion for teachers is over, that we now have a situation where younger teachers can apply for advancement much more quickly than the long, slow march year by year to the top of the classroom teacher scale.

The accelerated progression opportunities contained within this agreement are significant. They mean that younger teachers can reach the top of the salary scale much quicker. With our capacity as an education system to retain those teachers and to provide them with the sorts of incentives to stay in the public education system, their work will be valued and going the extra mile, as so many teachers do, will actually be rewarded. These are critical reforms.

Equally, we have done something about the very flat career structure for classroom teachers. The best and brightest classroom teachers, if they wanted to earn six figure salaries, had to move further and further away from the classroom. That nexus has now finally been broken. There is the capacity now within the ACT system for teachers to stay in the classroom, to mentor and develop younger teachers, to take a leading role in the development of best classroom teaching practice. They can do this while staying in the classroom. That is contained within this agreement.

I think it is critically important that the government—this is certainly something that we will do—extends this opportunity for that career structural reform into the non-


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