Teachers have been offered a pay rise of up to 32%. I’m turning it down

I’m a school teacher who has always voted for and supported the Labor Party, including handing out how-to-vote cards for my local member for Niddrie, Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll.

I write as one of 35,000 teachers and education support staff who took to the streets of Melbourne in March to fight for better pay and working conditions. Now rank-and-file members of the Australian Education Union are being asked to decide whether they think the in-principle agreement negotiated between the AEU and the Victorian government is adequate. I can’t in good conscience vote in favour of this deal.

I started my career teaching in government schools in Victoria 20 years ago. I have been a VCE teacher, and also undertaken roles as a year level coordinator, leading teacher and acting assistant principal. In that time, I’ve witnessed the workload and administrative burden on teachers and school leaders increase exponentially. Despite ever-increasing workloads, it is the commitment and professionalism of teachers that has driven a dramatic improvement in the quality of teaching and learning. As the Victorian government likes to celebrate – while still not fully funding our schools – Victorian students ranked first or second in 18 of 20 NAPLAN measures nationally.

Victoria has not yet reached full funding under the Gonski Schooling Resource Standard for government schools after the state government quietly delayed its commitment to reach these targets from 2028 to 2031. Until then, our schools, staff and students will continue to be asked to do more with less – below the level experts say every child needs to succeed.

Victorian teachers experienced a real wage decline of around 11 per cent over the life of the previous agreement due to inflation. This is one reason teachers were fighting for a 35 per cent increase over three years in our log of claims.

Some media reports have celebrated the in-principle agreement between the Victorian government and the union as a “win”, but those reports overlook some critical details. First, the government rejected a three-year agreement and instead proposed a four-year deal, with no back pay since the previous agreement expired in December 2025. As a result, there’s a significant gap. While the headline figure of 28 to 32 per cent sounds impressive, the vast majority of teachers and principals would receive a pay rise of 23 per cent in the first three years of the new agreement, and 4.9 per cent in the fourth year. It’s nothing to sneeze at, sure, but given the backwards position from which we’re starting, and