Biennial Conference 2023: Conference Statement 2023
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 , 21 July 2023, page no.14
Each QTU Biennial Conference considers and ratifies a statement setting out the Union’s direction and priorities for the next two years. This year’s statement included the following objectives for
the period between now and the next Conference in 2025.
The full statement can be found at www.qtu.asn.au/conference-2023
Our Priorities
Campaigning
QTU campaigns will focus on our members’ industrial, professional, and legal issues. We will work collaboratively with the AEU to achieve school and TAFE funding that meets the needs of every student, in every school and TAFE in the country.
This Conference endorses a campaign agenda that:
- realises the three-part-process proposed by the Uluru Statement from the Heart and commits to campaigning with our First Nations members and peoples to ensure a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament
- addresses the causes and symptoms of the teacher shortage crisis, including:
- working with members and the government to develop plans to address workload, including ensuring that the Comprehensive Review of School Resourcing recognises the complexity and challenges of the work of teachers and school leaders and allows them to focus on the teaching and learning of students within their schools
- campaigning for salaries, career structures and working conditions that protect and value the profession
- providing teacher housing and other incentives to attract and retain teachers and school leaders in rural, remote, and regional Queensland and Norfolk Island
- restoring respect for the profession
- builds on the work already commenced to address gender inequality in the system
- influences national agreements in schools and TAFE to ensure that, in addition to providing the funding that our system needs, they act to support public education and educational equity, including agreements between the federal and state governments for provision of education on Norfolk Island
- recognises the challenges of implementing the Australian Curriculum and the emergence of artificial intelligence within education, and continues to oppose the conduct of high stakes standardised tests (e.g. NAPLAN)
- provides for professional autonomy for teachers and school leaders
- maximises the recognition of the QTU as the voice of the teaching profession and the only union for Queensland’s state school teachers, leaders, and TAFE educators
- commits to increasing member engagement through building member skills and capacity for union work, including campaigning and workplace activism, and mechanisms for measuring membership engagement in the democratic processes in the QTU, e.g. numbers at branch meetings, campaign involvement, training events, feedback opportunities and membership density.
- ensures that emerging trends in education, e.g. virtual schooling and digital technologies, do not compromise working conditions or add to workload
- delivers healthy and safe workplaces that prioritise the wellbeing and security of employees.
TAFE
The Union will continue to advocate for improved working conditions and salaries for educators as part of EB negotiations with TAFE Queensland and Central Queensland University.
Commitments to ensure the ongoing viability of TAFE as the public provider of training in Queensland must be realised and delivered on. As such, the QTU commits to continued participation in AEU-led TAFE campaigns.
Celebrating and protecting diversity
Conference reiterates our long-standing commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ members and students and to actively opposing homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and all other forms of discrimination.
Growing our Union
The achievement of our objectives is predicated on building an even stronger Union by continuing the vital work of developing and encouraging our members’ involvement and activism. The strength and capacity of our Union to improve the lives of our members and the students we teach depends on it.
We renew our collective efforts to grow our Union in a sustainable way. We will adapt the strategies that have proven effective, such as measures which retain existing members, targeted recruitment campaigns and new educator engagement, and adopt new strategies to further extend our reach and impact.