Federal schools funding and free TAFE locked in!
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 3, 23 May 2025, page no 10.
At the time of writing, the Australian Electoral Commission is continuing to count votes in the 2025 federal election. However, the Albanese federal government has been returned with a historic majority.
Even though the Crisafulli government in Queensland signed on to a bilateral agreement with the Albanese government in the final days of the 47th federal parliament, the federal Liberal party refused to back in full school funding for state schools. Worse than this, the federal opposition also committed to abolishing free TAFE if elected.
For more than a decade after the Gonski report was handed down in 2011, QTU members have been working with community members to secure full funding of state schools. When we finally saw progress, there again remained a prospect of it being taken away or watered down again with a lack of commitment from the federal Liberal Party.
The results of the 2025 federal election will solidify the federal government’s commitment to school funding and hopefully finally see this issue settled as a contested policy space at a federal level. The funding wars (like some of the culture wars) should now be over.
Throughout the campaign, QTU members participated in the For Every Child and #FreeTAFE campaigns, letterboxing more than 15,000 homes across the electorates of Blair, Leichhardt, Moreton, and Ryan. This was on top of the participation of other members and community supporters in the national “Do Your Block” campaign, also sharing messages about state school and TAFE funding. This means more than 45,000 residents were exposed to the messaging we put out in these electorates.
This work was reinforced through direct voter engagement at pre-poll and on election day, with members reporting positive responses from members of the community on booths from Cairns to Ipswich and in electorates held previously by Labor, the LNP and the Greens.The campaign also included digital advertising on social media and streaming platforms.
As part of our campaign work with the Queensland Council of Unions, QTU members lobbied federal MPs and candidates about the need to extend access to ten days reproductive health leave to other workers beyond the Queensland public service by adding it to the National Employment Standard (NES).
QTU members will be engaged in MP delegations with existing and newly elected MPs and Senators in coming months to ensure that the new parliament does what it can to support the teaching profession. We face an ongoing teacher shortage crisis, and they need to pull the levers that will make the job of teaching and leading schools easier, as well as ensuring trade and skills training continues to be delivered by TAFE, the trusted public provider.
This work will focus on federal tax treatment of the profession, student debt relief, incentives for rural and remote work, and investment in public education infrastructure.
If you would like to engage in this work, please contact your Organiser for more details.
