Queensland Teachers Union’s members go on strike today. Crushing workloads, school violence, and the teacher exodus are high on their list of grievances. Joshua Barnett with the story.
When more than 36,000 Queensland teachers voted to strike for the first time in 16 years, they weren’t just focused thinking about how their salary compared to supermarket workers.
Nevertheless, Murdoch media framed it as a dispute over “greedy teachers’ pay,” with the Courier-Mail and News.com.au reducing the strike to a numbers game. “How do their salaries compare?” asked one headline, stacking teachers next to nurses, traffic controllers, and hairdressers, as if the issue were jealousy, not job viability.
The media use averages from Glassdoor, an unreliable resource for salary averages, and the insinuation that ‘teachers already have it good. ‘ This tactic inflates wages and omits working conditions, misshaping public perception.
Courier-Mail headline
For the teachers, however, it is also about violence in schools, crushing workloads, and teachers walking away from a profession they love, not because of pay, but because of burnout and a broken system.
Pay is just one single factor among a litany of poor working conditions, including school violence, staff shortages, teachers being hospitalised after assaults, or inadequate mental health support.
Youth crime crisis
There is a notable disconnect between the political and media focus on Queensland’s so-called “youth crime wave” and the lack of attention paid to school-based violence.
The Courier-Mail has dedicated an entire homepage to youth crime coverage, and the issue was central to the LNP’s state election campaign. Yet the same young people, when in classrooms, are part of an escalating pattern of aggression towards teachers, a concern raised repeatedly by the QTU.
Despite this, school violence remains largely absent from mainstream reporting, creating a gap between political messaging and the lived reality inside Queensland’s public schools. Even legal experts have questioned the evidence for the alleged crime wave, calling the crackdown “draconian” and lacking statistical foundation.
MWM spoke to a former Head of Positive Behaviour for Learning Teacher in Queensland, who said:
“I was often physically and verbally assaulted by students, often multiple times a day or week. In high school, the students will often swear or make disrespectful comments about your appearance and the way you act. They also actively seek out your social media and try to add your accounts to get dirt on your life and then share it around.
And then the is the fear of contacting home regarding issues at home. The amount of times i have been abused over the phone for calling home for support or to inform the parent of their childs behaviour. Often told ‘what are you going to do about your teacher to help my child’.”
Union demands
According to the Queensland Teachers’ Union, the upcoming strike is not solely about pay, but about addressing a broader set of workforce and systemic challenges facing state schools.
Key priorities include:
- Addressing the teacher shortage, which the union describes as critical and ongoing;
- Improving retention of experienced staff, citing concerns over burnout and high attrition;
- Establishing safer workplaces, in response to an increase in occupational violence and aggression;
- Reducing excessive workloads, including unpaid overtime regularly undertaken by teachers;
- Achieving competitive salaries, with the union arguing that current offers will see Queensland fall behind other states;
- Ensuring resourcing commitments are formalised, rather than left to discretionary or operational decisions.
The QTU argues that the government’s proposed agreement, which includes an 8% increase over three years, does not adequately address these issues. Union officials maintain that without substantive changes, challenges in recruitment, retention, and school safety will likely continue.
Union President Cresta Richardson stated that the goal is to “deliver the resources and education standards Queensland students deserve,” while General Secretary Kate Ruttiman noted that the current approach,
does little to address the teacher shortage crisis or ensure safe workplaces.
Since February, the Queensland Teachers’ Union and the Department of Education have held 17 negotiation meetings. Two formal offers have been presented by the department, both of which were rejected the second by more than 250 elected union delegates.
Following the impasse, the department referred the matter to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission for conciliation. The department has indicated that some issues raised by the union fall outside the scope of enterprise bargaining and should be addressed operationally, rather than through the certified agreement.
Conciliation is ongoing, and further outcomes will depend on the Commission’s assessment and the willingness of both parties to reach an agreement.
The QLD Minister for Education, John-Paul Langbroek, told ABC Radio, “I know remuneration is important, but conditions as well, and that’s why we are
working on conciliation with the teachers’ union and will continue to do so.
Even the government acknowledges the challenges facing educators. And while teachers want to know why they are managing overcrowded classrooms with no support, the Courier-Mail wants you to know how teacher salaries stack up against tradies.
The King’s School headmaster controversy deepens as boy is ‘clipped over the ear’
Josh is a professional musician and cameraman who is now working with Michael West Media to develop The West Report and other visual content across major social media channels