Statement by Maree O'Halloran and Bob Lipscombe

A letter to Teacher-Librarians

Dear Colleagues

As you may be aware, there is an election taking place for Senior Vice President of the Teachers Federation. I am a candidate in that election. Ballot papers will arrive shortly at your home address.

I bring 28 years of Federation activism, and classroom teacher experience in city and country, primary and high schools, as a mobile, casual and permanent teacher. I was a Fed Rep for over ten years, and have held numerous Association positions. After teaching social science, I retrained as a teacher-librarian, and worked for 12 years in high schools as a permanent, then, after taking leave, undertook casual work in primary and secondary school libraries.

In the past few years, I undertook research on teacher-librarian working conditions, then consulted widely, organised meetings across the state and a Campaigns Course, developed a Log of Claims, and then led negotiations for the Federation on that log of claims. These negotiations were based on what teacher-librarians had democratically decided were their priorities. This resulted in a breakthrough in recognition for primary teacher-librarians of separate personal RFF and administration time. In secondary, the Department acknowledged for the first time that supervision of un-timetabled students is a whole school responsibility, not just that of the teacher-librarian.

For many years, the Public Education campaign has seen me taking a leadership role. This includes addressing members and the wider community via Sky Channel, doing media interviews, developing and delivering trade union training and negotiating with DET and Government. This campaign is critical, for without additional funding there will be no further progress on issues affecting teacher-librarians, as the DET has thus far refused to agree to any of the claims which involve a monetary cost.

This campaign continues.

Letter to TAFE TA Sep 14, 2007

sally4svp@yahoo.com.au
Dear Linda
Please find herewith a response to your letter of 5 September 2007.

The roles of the union are:

• the invigoration of the membership to unite, protect, and enhance working conditions
• speaking authoritatively on professional issues which are the essence of teaching in all sectors
• continuing to fight for social justice and equity in the wider Australian political context.

The current structures of the union were set in place in the early 1970s to try to ensure proper representation of all members in the decision-making bodies, with Associations electing their representatives to Annual Conference and Council and Council electing the Executive from amongst its members.

I support the maintenance of these structures.

Federation must remain united, and continue to derive strength from the participation of all of our members, from the more experienced to the most recent, no matter where they teach or work.

I will never support any dilution of the representation of members.

Within that context, I want to introduce new ways of incorporating the views of members - to work as an adjunct to, but never a replacement of, the decision-making forums of Association, Council and Conference.

As a follow-up to the Cornerstones Conference in 2006, I organised a seminar with visiting Canadian public policy thinker, Heather-jane Robertson, and Randall Pearce, who conducted the 2005 membership survey. The purpose of that seminar was to explore ideas about new and enhanced ways of gathering the views and commitment of members, and enhancing commitment to policies and activism. I am keen to explore some of the ideas developed at that seminar.

I believe this would have a beneficial effect for TAFE TA within the framework of Federation. I believe it would allow for TAFE to retain its own identity, but also for the rest of the membership to engage with TAFE. As public educators, we have a community of interest best served through unity of purpose and ideals.

Obviously, as one of three presidential, and four senior officers, I would be working collaboratively as part of a team, as well as with Executive, to further develop any such strategies.

You asked me to address the main issues facing TAFE TA members over the next year. i see these as:

Above all else, the very viability of TAFE as the pre-eminent provider of vocational and further education is under threat from both Federal and State governments. Privatisation, under-funding and the increasing impost of fees – ie cost-shifting to students are all components of that.

Australia has a huge skills gap, which TAFE should be filling. That depends on proper support from governments. It is disappointing in the extreme that the federal ALP is still struggling to prioritise TAFE and have not yet made an announcement about TAFE funding.
Supporting and getting behind the National TAFE claim is essential.

The federal election cannot be seen as an end in itself. If the coalition is re-elected, then the attacks on TAFE through Industrial Relations arrangements and privatisation through Australian Technical Colleges will continue. If Labor is elected, the job will be to ensure that along with a change of government there is a change of policy direction.

At state level, renewal of the TAFE teaching workforce is one of the major issues of concern. It is not inconceivable that entire sections of colleges will retire from the permanent workforce in the next few years.

Federation has made gains in achieving permanent teaching positions in TAFE in the past few years. This is an outstanding victory for TAFE activists and the union as a whole. However, the continuation of the permanency campaign is critical, not only for the betterments for members this implies, but also for the existence of TAFE as a stable, reliable and iconic PUBLIC provider of training and further education.

As well as personnel renewal, TAFE institutes also need infrastructure renewal. Australians, living in a developed and rich country, with record surpluses derived from the highly skilled, often TAFE-educated workforce, deserve and require state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure. Australia’s prosperity cannot be assured by a race to the bottom in terms of pay rates and working conditions. It depends on a highly skilled and educated workforce. That’s what Australians need from TAFE.

Yours sincerely

Sally Edsall

Communicating with voters

It's all been a bit confusing over the last week or so, with Fed Reps receiving two faxes - one from another candidate and one supporting that candidate.

Quite a few people have asked me whether they are obliged to pass these faxes on.

The answer is no! They are private communications, not official Federation faxes, so you are free to deal with them as you see fit.

During an election, no resources of the Federation can be used, so all mailouts and other communications are paid for privately and organised outside work time.
Mindful of the demands placed on Fed Reps, and that seeking assistance to draw attention to election campaign material is a private matter, not an official Federation activity, I have chosen to keep requests of Fed Reps to a minimum.

A leaflet and poster will be mailed soon, and I will therefore be very grateful if you would distribute them to Federation members at your workplace. It is really important to encourage people to vote, so that the democratic structures of the union are amply demonstrated.

Congratulations to Maree and Bob

At close of nominations, Maree O'Halloran was elected unopposed as President, and Bob Lipscombe was elected unopposed as Deputy President. The term of office is 2008-2009.

Students and Work - You're Gold....If You're Fifteen Years Old

SMH banner the day the report was released

This research was independently conducted by Think: Insight and Advice. The brief was dveloped as a result of teachers' concern about the impact Work Choices is having on some students. It was conducted amongst Year 10, 11 and 12 students, and is now being extended to TAFE students.

Randall Pearce, who conducted the reaearch reported along with me at Annual Conference. Read about Randall's report to Annual Conference here.

Read the full report here.

Follow-up work is being co-ordinated now to work out great new strategies for communicating with young people, their parents and employers.

Read a report about that here.