Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for EDUCATION, Ms PALMER
Thank you, Mr President. I’m quite surprised to hear that the Secretary of the Department for Education, Children and Young People, who is the secretary to the minister who just answered that question, that correspondence generated by that Secretary is not available to the minister to table.
My question is to the minister for Education, Children and Young People. I note in your response – and at a human level I understand why – you didn’t address the fact that the Premier of Tasmania chose to insert himself into the decision-making of a Tasmanian public school. I understand that you acknowledge the significant impact of that decision on the school community – who are unable to speak out to account for the decisions made. They can’t speak for themselves. In some ways, what’s happened is an act of bullying.
Minister, given this precedent set by the Premier, what assurances can you give to school leadership teams across the state that they’ll be able to make these operational decisions with their school community without fear of political interference?
ANSWER
I thank the member for the second question. Some work is actually being done by the department, not in correlation to this particular event, which is considering a range of options across this space. For some time, both the department and I have been concerned about the impact online activity can have on schools, and on our workforce. We need to be consulting with a number of education stakeholders around this, and I’d certainly be happy to update the parliament once this work has concluded.
Any questions about what the Premier has said or done will need to be directed to him. Again, I reiterate that as the Education minister, the safety and wellbeing of staff and students is my highest priority, and through my department we’ve done everything we could to ensure that the appropriate support is in place for the school community as needed. Certainly, I’ve also been in direct and ongoing contact with the leadership of the school, offering my support. Again, every school should be a safe, inclusive and supportive environment.
