In recent weeks we have seen teachers walk off the job across the electorate and the state.
Teachers have felt they had no other option but to stop work to highlight the chronic teacher shortage in our schools.
In our high schools our kids are spending multiple periods a day without a teacher missing out on valuable learning opportunities.
In recent weeks I have met with the NSW Teachers Federation, who fear this situation is only going to get worse as we come into winter.
Sadly, the NSW Department of Education has been asleep at the wheel on this issue.
It’s been 17 years since the work and salaries of teachers have been subject to systematic evaluation.
Since then the work of teachers and principals has changed significantly – the administrative burden has increased and the complexity of educational policy has become greater – but salaries and conditions have stagnated.
Which has meant less people are attracted to teaching as a profession and as a result fewer classroom teachers. Who suffers in all of this? Our kids.
The NSW Teachers Federation has undertaken significant work to come up with reasonable solutions to the teaching crisis, the Department of Education have so far rejected these solutions.
I’m already working with my parliamentary colleagues to force the NSW government to address this unacceptable situation they’ve put our kids in.
The teachers we have are great and they are doing their best – we have some real standouts – but the NSW government cannot continue to ask them to do more and more with less.
Our kids deserve better and so do the people who are teaching them.
MICE PLAGUE REBATE FALLS SHORT OF COMMUNITY EXPECTATIONS
It was a breakthrough moment last month when the NSW government finally admitted we’re in the middle of a mice plague and they should provide assistance – then the details came through.
Households and businesses could claim rebates for baits purchased, but only if you kept your receipt, and you made the purchase after May 13, and then you’d need to wait until July to make the claim.
The NSW government has now backed away from that position.
Due to intense lobbying from the community, the government have been forced to back date the eligibility to February 1, 2021, frustratingly you will still need receipts to make a claim.
I have been advocating for the NSW government to just provide the $500 or $1000 to all households and businesses in designated areas, which the government has the capacity to do and has done previously in flood impacted areas.
Current eligibility criteria:
• Households will be eligible to claim up to $500.
• Small businesses, including primary producers and sole traders, will be eligible to claim up to $1000.
• You can only claim one rebate per address.
• You can provide multiple receipts either online or in person through Service NSW for a one-off payment. You only have one opportunity to claim, you can’t make multiple claims.
• To be eligible to claim a rebate your mouse baits, traps or cleaning materials must have been purchased on or after Monday, February 1, 2021.
STAY SAFE INQUIRY INTO MOBILE SPEED CAMERA RULES
Since November last year I have been talking about the NSW government’s decision to remove mobile speed camera warning signs, recently it was announced that the Parliamentary Road Safety committee I sit on, Stay Safe, will hold an inquiry into these changes.
Last year the NSW government announced it would remove the warning signs from mobile speed cameras and triple their hours.
They said at the time this is in support of the ‘Towards Zero’ initiative.
The government made the change, without the oversight of the Parliament, to quote “reduce the number of road fatalities”.
Richard Barry continues fight for Vietnam National Servicemen’s campaign medal
Richard Barry OAM, of Narrabri, a National Service veteran of the Vietnam War, has for many years campaigned for medal recognition for a cohort of Australia’s National Service soldiers who served in the war. He tabled the following at a Narrabri RSL Sub-branch meeting in April and was unanimously supported by members: This is a complicated issue with a chequered history. I’ll abbreviate it to the best of my ability. In 1996 a group of my mates were discussing the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal (RVCM). They said blokes not entitled were wearing it whereas others who endured heavy battlefield […]