Under the 12 years of Liberal National Government, teachers in New South Wales were among the worst paid in Australia and leaving the profession in droves.
It was time for a fresh start for our teachers.
My Government was elected to improve the pay and conditions for teachers and to encourage the best teachers back into the profession.
As your Premier, I remain committed to this goal.
I want to make it clear; the Government has NOT walked away from any negotiations.
We have from day one been committed to constructive discussions with the NSW Teachers Federation, with the shared goal of delivering a significant increase to our teachers’ salaries.
This is a key part of our plan to fix the teacher shortage crisis left by the previous Liberal and National Government.
We agree with the NSW Teachers Federation that our teachers need a pay rise and they need it now.
That is why we’ve abolished the wages cap and the agreement we’re working towards would make first year teachers the highest paid in the country.
We have offered an increase for beginning teachers of 19.5% over 4 years – most of which is paid in the first year. This is $38,000 more compared to the previous Government’s policy.
Teachers have told us that we need to take the workload off them and give them more support.
To give them that support my government is creating 10,000 permanent positions for teachers and a further 6,000 permanent positions for administrative staff.
On top of this, we are in the process of hiring an additional 400 full-time support staff and have delayed the roll-out of the new curriculum to reduce the administrative burden on our teachers and get them back in the classroom, teaching our kids.
My goal is to deliver a nation leading agreement for teachers in NSW.
However, we can’t do this alone, that’s why we’re continuing to negotiate with the Teachers Federation for a fair outcome for teachers and the taxpayers of our State.
Yours sincerely,
The Hon. Chris Minns MP
Premier of New South Wales
Member for Kogarah
