By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — Opposition to the proposed state government cutbacks in education is growing following the largest strike of teachers in Queensland on August 4.
At a meeting between the Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens, and education minister Pat Comben on August 10, QCPCA president Rosemary Hume demanded that the government give a written guarantee that there will be a real increase in the education budget. They also succeeded in gaining a government commitment not to implement a Department of Education report which recommended the merging and clustering of schools.
Comben was forced to cancel an overseas trip on August 7 to deal with the growing opposition. Queensland Teachers Union members will begin their pickets of politicians to protest the cuts to education this week.
Premier Wayne Goss made a personal appeal to the ALP's 8000 members to stand by the party on August 10. Goss wrote letters to every party member after ALP backbenchers, ALP committees and unions demanded that he consult them before they went ahead with any cutbacks.
In another development, Comben admitted that no graduating teachers would be given a position in the first six months of next year. 2000 student teachers will join over 10,000 unemployed teachers.
The Goss government has agreed to review all proposed cuts except those in education. In an attempt to explain the apparent vendetta against education, ACTU Queensland branch secretary Dawson Petie said on August 10 that the QTU would have a better chance of convincing the state government to drop the proposed education cuts if the union was affiliated to the ALP.
QTU vice-president Shane Groth said the union remained strongly opposed to affiliation. He told the Courier Mail that it would be a "very serious charge indeed if we are being hung out to dry because we are not affiliated with the party. It would mean they are persecuting us. There is no way the QTU would ever affiliate. We don't believe that one affiliates with your employer as it is a basic conflict of interest."
The nurses' union voted to become affiliated with the Labor Party last month at the height of the dispute over cuts to health, rail and education. Transport unions are affiliated with the ALP. The Railway Services Union disaffiliated as part of their campaign against the cuts.