Mackay members secure housing win
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 1, 14 February 2025, page no 10.
Mackay teachers and school leaders have succeeded in having their school added to the Housing Incentive Scheme, a huge win in their campaign against teacher shortages.
Mackay SHS had a particularly good showing of members at last year's rally against the teacher shortage crisis acutely impacting upon their city and its surrounds. They were venting their frustration about the collapsing of classes and the impact on the education of their students.
The rally put the issue on the radar for the state election and attracted local and national media attention, prompting the department to add Mackay SHS to the list of schools receiving the Housing Incentive Scheme – a huge win for that school!
Those members, along with other schools in North Queensland who have recently achieved the same through disputes (William Ross SHS, Townsville SHS), should be congratulated. Not only were the Mackay rally and another in Sarina strong shows of solidarity that resulted in wins for those centres, they also inspired other places to follow in their footsteps, including Townsville-based members who moved a motion to hold a rally in Term 1 – watch this space!
Having said that, there is more to do. One of the problems in both Townsville and Mackay (though felt more acutely in Mackay) is the lack of housing. A housing incentive scheme is only as good as the supply of housing. Also, while centres like these gain access to such incentives, other centres see “the writing on the wall” in terms of what may be coming. A town like Collinsville exemplifies this. They are facing a teacher shortage, and struggle to see an end to it when incentives are offered elsewhere. This emphasises a need for a more differentiated approach to solving the crisis, rather than a piecemeal approach, as is current.
What is clear is that while regional HR teams are doing what they can with the few teachers they have, the teacher shortage crisis is still not a priority for the department centrally. Its slow movement on incentives and even slower moves on workforce planning and the transfer rating and mobility review show a disdain for regional communities. Borderless recruitment and classified officer relocation does not work for regional centres. There is work to do here.
In the meantime, the department’s continued failure to provide guidance to school leaders on how to equitably manage industrial breaches in schools and safely manage risks continues to be unacceptable. It is for this reason thatthe QTU is working on a WHS issues resolution process with members at Thuringowa SHS. It is hoped that the lessons learned from this process can be applied more broadly.