School camps
Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (09:38): I want to raise a matter that I hope will be addressed by the Minister for Education, who I note is here at the table, and it is in relation to school camps and the impact that the teachers pay agreement has had on school camps themselves but also on the ability of students to attend school camps. No-one denies fair pay for the hours that are being worked, but what has happened here is there has been a lack of compensation to fill in the financial holes that schools are facing because of this directive that teachers either have to have time off in lieu or be paid. Schools cannot afford in their own budgets the gap to pay the teachers, and time off in lieu is not an option because of the teacher shortage. What we are finding – I am hearing this from schools regularly – is they are making shortcuts on school camps, even if they can afford to have school camps at all, and I have a number of school camps in my electorate that have seen a huge drop-off in attendances. So I would ask the minister to please address this issue. School camps are an important part of our education curriculum. Allow students to go on school camps and also support the operators of these school camps. Schools should not have to make a decision based on financial hardship as to whether they can send their students away for this very important part of the education curriculum.