What we learned today, Wednesday 1 February
Thanks to everyone who has been following along on the blog today. Here is what made headlines:
The former human services minister Alan Tudge appeared before the robodebt royal commission to testify on his involvement in the scheme. During the lengthy hearing, Tudge denied he was responsible for his department’s failure to check the legality of the scheme, and that the issue didn’t cross his mind “until [he] read about it in the newspaper” years later.
The 6mm-8mm radioactive capsule lost between Pilbara and Perth was found on Wednesday morning, Perth officials confirmed. They described it like “finding a needle in a haystack”, with the search covering an area of 1,400km. Officials are not aware of any injuries, and the site has been surveyed to ensure there is no contamination.
Clergy abuse survivors and supporters appeared at St Mary’s cathedral this morning to tie ribbons along the fence to commemorate victims. They pleaded with church staff not to remove the ribbons ahead of George Pell’s funeral service tomorrow, and an agreement was reached to leave ribbons on a significant section of the fence.
Meanwhile, NSW police conceded to LGBTQ+ campaigners who will go ahead with protests outside St Mary’s cathedral tomorrow during the funeral service for Pell. NSW police sought to ban the group from marching outside the cathedral. However, after negotiations a new route was agreed upon – across the road.
A new Senate inquiry report has called for Australia to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation. The Coalition has called on the government to act on this, saying it will “offer bipartisan support for any action by Australia to implement the recommendations”.
And that’s a wrap on today’s blog. Have a lovely evening and see you back here tomorrow morning!
Updated
Teachers ‘burning out’ as chronic NSW shortage deepens
As NSW schools grapple with a chronic teacher shortage, resignations are for the first time outstripping retirements and principals are clocking up to 70 hours work a week, AAP has reported.
Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos on Wednesday told a parliamentary inquiry the shortage was worsening, with vacancy lists growing more than three fold in the past two years despite the government launching a $125 million recruitment drive.
There are more than 3300 teaching vacancies across the state.
Gavrielatos said:
That often cited, much heralded (recruitment) strategy has delivered three people from overseas and five mid-career teachers - one of whom has already left.
It is a failure of delivery in education ... our kids are missing out, our teachers are burning out.
More teachers are quitting than retiring and there’s an 83 per cent increase in insecure work (temporary contracts), according to official figures.
Gavrielatos said regional and rural areas were particularly disadvantaged, with 55 per cent of all vacancies outside major cities.
NSW Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said shortages were adversely impacting educational outcomes. He told the inquiry:
A single vacancy in a secondary school means up to six classes may not be covered by an appropriately qualified teacher - that’s potentially 190 students whose learning is likely to be impacted every day.
There can be a real difference between statistics and figures on a page and people in front of classes.
It’s not enough just having any teacher in front of the class. Students need to have their teacher in front of them every day and their teacher needs to be a teacher of that subject.
