QTU advocacy for beginning teachers
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 4, 20 June 2025, page no 19.
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.
QTU members know the impact the teacher shortage crisis has inside of the school gate. Members report collapsed classes across the school week, banking of non-contact time, and school leaders who have to be in front of classes rather than doing the complex work of leading. The work is largely unseen by the department, which continues to expect schools to implement change, adopt new policies, implement new curriculum, and continue to do all those things that would be expected of them if they were fully staffed.
That’s why the QTU and our federal body, the Australian Education Union, have been calling on Queensland and Commonwealth governments to adopt measures that both recruit more teachers into the profession and keep the teachers that we have.
In Queensland, the former Miles Government announced the Queensland Teaching Workforce Strategy 2024–2027, which included investing an additional $71 million into a teacher attraction, recruitment, and retention plan. To support retention of beginning teachers, the strategy committed $32 million to a new Beginning Teacher Support Payment for teachers who begin their careers between 2023 and the end of 2025 in a Central Queensland, Darling Downs South West, Far North Queensland, or North Queensland state school.
The QTU welcomed the imperfect announcement and continues to monitor its rollout. In part, the announcement was imperfect because it is outside of the certified agreement but uses a term that has an agreed industrial definition in the certified agreement. Clause 1.6 of the current agreement establishes that a “beginning teacher means a permanent or temporary classroom teacher, engaged for a term or more, in their first 12 months of teaching.”
The QTU became aware of a beginning teacher who the department deemed ineligible for the Beginning Teacher Support Payment because they had served a two-week contract in a Metropolitan school, prior to commencing their Darling Downs South West employment. The QTU successfully argued that, applying the agreed definition of beginning teacher meant that the teacher was not a beginning teacher until they commenced their regional employment.
In another case, a member employed in Far North Queensland was deemed ineligible, perhaps because they accessed parental leave or had prior service as a teacher aide. In any event, the member supplied a statement of service to the QTU and the Union successfully argued that the member was indeed eligible.
Both cases required patience from the members while officers advocated on their behalf. Eventually, QTU General Secretary Kate Ruttiman raised both cases directly with the Minister’s office, and it was only then, after several months of advocacy with the department, that the initial decision was overturned.
The QTU is aware of other members raising concerns about eligibility for the Beginning Teacher Support Payment. This remains an imperfect policy response that is outside of the certified agreement and for which the department has not published guidelines beyond those published on its website. On that basis, some members are deemed to be ineligible for the payment because they were employed for more than a term prior to their regional, remote, or very remote service.
The QTU is gravely concerned about the efficacy of some of the eligibility decision making and the impact of those decisions on retaining early career teachers. Beyond the scope of industrial and political backlash, the eligibility decision making is clearly at odds with the intent of the Queensland Teaching Workforce Strategy 2024–2027.
Sadly, the QTU is aware of early career teachers already losing faith in their employer because of the its Beginning Teacher Support Payment decisions, an experience that is leading them to re-evaluate their career goals and commitment to the teaching profession.