Conference Statement 2025

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 5, 1 August 2025, page no 16.

Each QTU Biennial Conference considers and ratifies a statement setting out the Union’s direction and priorities for the next two years. This is the 2025 Conference Statement.

Acknowledgement
The Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) acknowledges the Elders and Custodians of the lands on which we live and work. We honour their knowledge, traditions, and ongoing contribution to education and culture. We are committed to ensuring First Nations voices guide decision-making and that all schools, TAFEs, and workplaces are culturally safe and inclusive.

Who we are
For more than 135 years, the QTU has been the professional and industrial voice for Queensland’s teachers, school leaders, and TAFE educators. We are a democratic, member-driven union committed to justice, inclusion, and public education. We are united in delivering fair salaries, safe workplaces, and professional respect. Our membership is diverse in identity and opinion. Our democratic spaces allow open debate and ensure members’ voices are heard. This culture builds unity in action and trust in our structures.

Our values
We act with professionalism, courage, unity, and a steadfast focus on members. We are democratic in structure and collaborative in purpose.

Campaigning
Over the next two years, we will:

• campaign to address the teacher and TAFE educator shortage by tackling workload, securing better pay and career structures, ensuring housing and incentives in rural and remote areas, and restoring respect for the profession
• ensure employer accountability in the prevention of and response to sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment in the workplace
• advocate for the implementation of comprehensive anti-racism policies and practices across all workplace environments
• promote employer responsibility in eliminating workplace violence, to create safe and supportive environments where teachers can teach, leaders can lead, and students can learn effectively
• advance gender equality and advocate for inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ members and students
• influence national agreements to ensure fair funding and equity across public education, including on Norfolk Island.
• push for the implementation of the Australian Curriculum in a way that reduces standardised testing and supports professional autonomy
• respond to the impact of digital technologies and AI in education, without compromising working conditions.
• challenge the inequities created by current models of inclusion and RAR, and advocate for fair resourcing for students with additional needs
• strengthen the recognition of the QTU as the voice of the profession, growing our membership, deepening engagement, and developing activists through targeted campaigns, training, and involvement in decision-making
• secure the viability of TAFE as Queensland’s public provider by campaigning for improved salaries, reduced workload, and recognition of its critical role in education and training
• stand in solidarity with the teachers, students and education unions struggling against racism and colonial violence, support the right of teachers to educate for peace through the curriculum, and support teachers and other educators and all those who are enrolled in public education who are impacted by war and violence, both locally and internationally.
   

Commitment to diversity
Our strength lies in our diversity. We are a union that reflects and respects the many cultures, abilities, and communities of our members. We continue to stand against all forms of discrimination, racism and harassment and actively support LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Growing the Union
The success of our work relies on building a stronger, more engaged, and sustainable union. We commit to retaining, recruiting, and empowering members across Queensland, ensuring our collective voice drives real change.