Teachers in power: Thank you, Graham Perrett
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 2, 11 April 2025, page no 6.
The QTU’s longstanding position is that the voice of the teaching profession needs to be heard in the corridors of power. That is why the QTU supports politicians who are teachers themselves and who have demonstrated their commitment to the profession.
One such politician is Graham Perrett, the federal MP for Moreton, who is leaving Parliament at the next federal election.
An English teacher and a teacher union official (of our comrade union, the IEUA-QNT), Graham was elected as the federal member for Moreton in 2007. For more than 15 years, he has remembered his roots, been a strong advocate for the teaching profession and school education, and a friend to the QTU.
His door has always been open to delegations of QTU members and Union officers, and he has been a regular guest at QTU events.
Parliamentary Hansard shows that Graham Perrett listens, learns, and takes the fight back to the halls of power.
In 2013, Graham stood shoulder to shoulder with QTU members and the Nyanda SHS community after the Queensland Minister for Education announced the school's closure. Graham took that fight from the Moreton electorate directly to Canberra, where he called for a judicial review of the decision and for the intervention of the Federal Minister.
In 2018, Graham shared the outrage of QTU members and the Yeronga SHS at the treatment of Mojgan Shamsalipoor, a student who had fled a violent and harrowing life in Iran, but was arrested, transferred, and detained in Darwin. Again, Graham used his place in Parliament to amplify the voice of teachers and the community.
More recently, following a visit to the Barrett Adolescent Centre in the Moreton electorate, Graham Perrett delivered a speech in Canberra that championed the work of its teachers.
Thank you, Graham. You have shown why we need more members of our profession in Parliament.