OVA data vindicates our campaign
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 131 No 1, 20 February 2026, page no 7.
Welcome back! I truly hope everyone had some downtime over the holiday period to de-stress and process the year that was.
I’m extremely proud of how our members carried the weight of our profession under very difficult conditions last year.
We saw our members vote democratically, strike and fight as one against a government that showed it doesn’t value or understand our current challenges and the conditions we find ourselves in day-to-day in our school communities.
We now enter arbitration and will present our claims before the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. We expect a fair and professional hearing, and will be representing our members in the same way.
The member of our Union team most experienced in enterprise bargaining, our General Secretary, Kate Ruttiman, will take leave from her current position in the first half of this year. Over the break, we saw Deputy General Secretary Leah Mertens take the reins, and we now welcome Brendan Crotty to the General Secretary role for the next six months.
Brendan, as many of you know, brings an extensive history and wealth of experience to the role. I look forward to working with him to continue making sure teachers and school leaders across Queensland are represented with strength and respect.
As many of you will have seen in the media, fresh data released by the government over the break showed massive increases in reporting of violence and aggression in our classrooms over the past three years.
This data told the story we have been clearly telling our community, our government, and our employer during EB11. Again, our Premier gave us platitudes but no action. At least the pattern is consistent and we know where we stand.
Most importantly, this data and the government’s insipid reaction truly vindicates our historic action last year. I’m so proud our members bravely took a stand and committed to fight for each other and our school communities.
We will face new challenges this year. We will need unity and commitment to ensure the change we deserve is achieved.
The Crisafulli government is responsible for delivering safe classrooms. It is the Crisafulli government’s teacher shortage crisis. We will make sure each and every Queenslander understands that public education deserves better and that you deserve respect — and salaries and conditions that show it.
I look forward to visiting your schools this year and personally thanking you for the work you do.