Budget delivers fairer housing measures for teaching profession

The Australian Education Union has welcomed the Albanese Government’s Budget tax measures which moves towards fairness in the housing and tax system, however expressed significant concerns about cuts to disability funding, including in schools.

AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said the housing tax measures are an important step towards addressing housing affordability.

“Tonight’s Federal Budget is about fairness,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“We have members across Australia who cannot afford to live in the communities they teach in. Many are locked out of house ownership and impacted by rising rents which impacts on the retention of staff and contributes to workforce shortages.”

“Tonight’s tax measures will help make housing fairer and more affordable for teachers, principals and education support staff who deserve to live in the communities in which they serve.”

“However, we are concerned about cuts to disability funding, including cuts to the NDIS and the $472 million in savings to disability funding in schools.”

“There are more than 200,000 students in the public school system who have been assessed as having a disability, yet receive no disability loadings. At the same time we have seen disability funding to private schools grow by $1.4 billion from 2020 to 2024.”

“A recent AEU survey of public school principals found they were re-allocating $147,000 per school to support students with disability from other areas of the school budget because of unmet need."

“Public schools educate the overwhelming majority of students with disability, yet too many schools are being forced to stretch already limited budgets to meet growing need.”

“Any budget savings in the disability sector have the potential to increase budgetary and workload pressures in public schools so we will be seeking further details about these measures from the Government.”

ENDS

Media Contact – Kylie Jensen 0402 298 728