As this Journal goes to print there are 21 days left until the nominal expiry date of the current certified agreement in the schools sector.
QTU State Council met at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday 17 May.
The Queensland Teachers’ Union mourns the passing of one of its most charismatic and beloved comrades, Leigh - a man whose presence could light up a boardroom, fire up a rally, or quiet a room with a perfectly timed humorous interjection that cut to the heart of the matter.
As I’m sure you are aware, we are heading into what looks like a tough EB negotiation with the Crisafulli government for teachers and school leaders. It’s a blunt truth but one we have been preparing for.
QTU members across the state have been meeting with their local state Members of Parliament to discuss issues impacting upon our profession.
At the time of writing, the QTU continues to negotiate in good faith to address members’ EB11 claims, but there is still no offer.
The QTU has been the only registered organisation for state school teachers and leaders and their TAFE colleagues for more than one hundred years. Registration is central to what makes the QTU different from organisations selling membership.
Last year, the Department of Education notified the QTU of its work towards multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect the department’s online network and keep individual users, like teachers and students, safe.
Spitting. Threats. Online abuse. These aren’t isolated incidents — they’re part of the daily experience for too many educators. But let’s be absolutely clear: occupational violence is NOT part of the job.
Over the past year, the Queensland Teachers’ Union has worked to ensure that the department’s red tape reduction agenda delivers more than operational tweaks — it needs to deliver meaningful improvements to the working lives of our members.
QTU celebrations of Labour Day extended well beyond the weekend itself, with some events taking place later in May. These included celebrations in Toowoomba, Weipa, Bundaberg and Thursday Island. Thank you to members for turning out in strength, proudly displaying pride in their profession and their Union. Let's do it all again next year!
Where has the time gone? I cannot believe that 12 months has passed since National Reconciliation Week 2024. As I sit pondering what to write for this article, I reflect on the week that was, including my participation as a panellist for the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) Reconciliation and Education event (pictured below). Before, during and after this event, I was uplifted by the words of my fellow panellists as we unpacked what this year’s theme, “Bridging now to next,” means.
The QTU has stepped in to protect principals facing a cut in pay and classification.
The QTU has a long-standing tradition of supporting and investing in new educators. The QTU NEN program first began in 2012 — since then more than 175 new educators have participated and benefited.
The teacher shortage crisis continues to impact upon every aspect of the profession, with the decade-long failure to develop proactive teacher recruitment and retention strategies leading to catastrophic shortages across the state.
On 22 May, Public Education Day, I found myself in one of the most remote parts of Queensland: the Torres Strait. As the sun rose over the Coral Sea and the scent of salt hung in the air, acting FNQ organiser Deb McPherson and I boarded a small charter plane from Horn Island.
The QTU is considering appealing a QIRC decision that threatens TAFE members’ non-attendance time (NAT) entitlement.
Teacher mobility is essential for fostering educational equity and professional development across diverse geographic regions. In Queensland, the annual teacher transfer process plays a critical role in enabling the mobilisation of teaching expertise.
Across the TAFE footprint, workload is escalating. This is driven though continuing miserly public funding decisions. It results in attraction and retention problems for the next generation of teachers, and — in what has always been a mature workforce — this results in a cycle of intensification of workload as generational change fails.
In Queensland, the QTU exclusively represents members from state schools. This is not the case in Alberta, Canada.
The QTU is committed to eradicating discrimination in schools and TAFEs. One way we do this is by marking days of significance.
A long-serving teacher at Xavier College, an elite Catholic boys school in Melbourne, has been awarded more than $14,000 in compensation by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) after being found to have been unfairly dismissed.
QTAD Q&A
Watching the news in the past few weeks, I’ve been annoyed at how many items concern the stealing of cars, property and injury to innocent people who were looking after themselves and their property.
Please note that the AEC notices were published on 17/07/2025