Why Should We Reward Failure?

Many years ago, I was minding my own business in the city when I was accosted by a group of striking teachers, clamouring that I ‘support’ their demand for more pay. Why, I asked, would I pay anyone more money, when they were so clearly failing at their job? After all, education results – the teachers’ job – have been steadily declining for the last few decades? Even before Covid, Australian students were nearly a year behind where they were 15 years before.

If any other profession was performing that badly (apart, maybe, from politicians), there’d have been mass layoffs a long time ago. Instead, they’re back, demanding yet more and more and more, for less and less.

There may be professions with a more outsized sense of their own worth than teachers, but apart from ‘celebrities’ and, again, politicians, it’s hard to think of one. More than anything, though, teachers live in mortal terror that someone, somewhere, is getting something they’re not.

Public school teachers in Victoria are currently the lowest paid in the country. Having rejected the state government’s offer, the Australian Education Union (AEU) is asking for a 35 per cent pay rise over four years.

Thirty-five per cent? What do they think they are? Politicians?

Just how much of a pittance are these poor, Dickensian slum children paid, for the 40 weeks of the year they actually work?

The starting salary for a graduate teacher in Victoria is about $78,000. In NSW, it’s more than $87,000 and in the Northern Territory, it’s more than $92,000.

It’s beginning to look less that Victorian teachers are underpaid and more that the rest are grotesquely overpaid.

To put those salaries into perspective, the average starting wage for a graduate in Australia is $72,000. And that’s for working two more whole months of the year.

The government made its offer of 18 per cent last week, nine months after talks on a fresh pay and conditions deal began.

The AEU’s Victorian branch president, Justin Mullaly, said educators had been disrespected by the offer.

Again, to put that into perspective, the average Australian employee received wage growth of less than 10 per cent over the last three years.

So, these arrogant chalkies want to be paid more money, growing faster, than other workers, even while their productivity slides down the gurgler.

Who’s ‘disrespecting’ whom?

If the Allan Labor government really values the work of Victorian teachers, principals, and education support staff, they must come forward with an offer that addresses their real concerns.

No, if these outrageously entitled public servants want to be valued by everyone else, they might want to start lifting educational results.

Instead, it’s all hands out and no results to show for it.

Victoria’s top education union leader says further strikes could be on the horizon if today’s industrial action doesn’t result in successful negotiations with the government.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Victorian branch president of the Australian Education Union Justin Mullaly said the government had not been paying attention.

“We’ve been negotiating for a new agreement for teachers, education support staff and principals for nine months,” he said. “We’ve been seeking funding for schools for a lot longer than that, and the government hasn’t delivered on either front.”

What is he blithering about? Victoria, like the rest of Australia, has increased education spending, year on year.

All for less and less return.

The only (poor) excuse they’ve got is that they’re not different to the rest of the taxpayer-funded class, who’ve rewarded themselves outrageous pay rises even as their productivity stalled across the board. The only people lazier and more grotesquely overpaid than public servants are miners.