Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

Tasmanian public school teachers feel like they have been set up to fail. That is the message I have heard in meetings over the past few weeks. Teachers have sat in front of me with tears in their eyes and told me they just can't do it anymore. They are underfunded, under-resourced and have their backs against the wall. We have a huge shortage of teachers in Tassie and there are a few reasons why. Some students are not finishing their degrees. Many are dropping out because they can't afford to do placements. They are required to do unpaid full-time work that prevents them from working a paying job at the same time. Some teachers are getting a few years in and are then burning out. They are using their own pay cheques to fund classroom activities and to buy lunches for kids. Others are leaving the state entirely. How do we keep our best and brightest teachers in Tassie when they can make more money by leaving? I don't understand. Teachers want funding to cover the bare minimum. We're not talking about the bells and whistles, just the necessities.

The federal government has met its end of the Gonski funding bargain but the states are dragging their heels. It's not the job of the federal government to reward the states going slow on school funding. States have to cover their share of the bill. It's not up to the federal government to make sure teachers are being paid properly. That's up to the states, too. At this rate, Tasmanian schools won't be fully funded until 2027. That is teachers being asked to do more and more with less than we know they need. And while we wait for that to happen over the next four years, we'll see more teachers leave and fewer teachers starting.

How we value our teachers, the key people who shape our children's start to life, says a lot about us as a nation. But it's got to be a team effort with the states pulling their weight. I know I'm in the teachers' corner.