The Liberal government has reaffirmed its commitment to a stadium over the needs of Tasmanians, ignoring educators' concerns about conditions in our schools.
Overworked and underpaid school staff were forced to take stop-work action today because this government refuses to take seriously their concerns about support for students, workloads, staff shortages and competitive pay.
After avoiding school staff protesting outside Parliament this morning, the Premier Jeremy Rockliff was given numerous opportunities in Question Time to commit to better resourcing in our schools.
Instead, he and his Education Minister Roger Jaensch continued their meaningless rhetoric about investing in infrastructure to grow the economy, and reeling off statistics about what they've done, while describing today's last-ditch stop-work action as unnecessary.
Meanwhile, they have not committed to fund a single measure in the Teachers Log of Claims and Plan for Lifting Learning and refuse to even consider decent pay increases for teachers and other public sector workers.
The Premier's stubborn pursuit of a $750 million stadium most Tasmanians don't want while refusing to act on educators' concerns shows how twisted his priorities are.
Tasmanians are telling Mr Rockliff to focus on real priorities like education, health and the cost of living. It is beyond time the Premier listened.
Josh Willie MLC
Shadow Minister for Education and Early Years
