882 6PR PERTH MORNING PROGRAM (GARETH PARKER)

THURSDAY 24 APRIL 2020

INTRO

PARKER
We’re witnessing a couple of failures of leadership in this State at the moment, both
I think are serious. Failure number one is the SSTU WA – I was astounded when I
opened The West Australian this morning and saw a full page ad taken out by the
SSTU and authorised by the general secretary Mary Franklyn. That ad tells the
public, tells parents, that they should keep their children home from school. That is
directly contrary to the advice of the State Government, it is directly contrary to the
advice of WA’s CHO, and beyond that, the ad actually makes factually incorrect
claims about the advice of our CHO and the advice of the expert medical panel
whose advice about the safety of schools has not changed throughout this whole
crisis.

The SSTU – I’ve been holding my tongue for the most part about the conduct of the
SSTU throughout this crisis, particularly over the last 10 days or so. As you’ve heard
me say all the way along, leaders in this crisis have no good options, they only have
bad options and worse options, and I think it pays to show a generosity of spirit
when you’re trying to judge how leaders, both Government and non-government has
performed through this crisis. I think that for the most part in this country, we have
been blessed, that everyone is doing their best, everyone is trying to row in the same
direction, but I can hold my tongue no longer when it comes to the leadership of the
SSTU. This is a terrible misstep, this ad this morning, it is a failure of leadership and I
honestly think that Mary Franklyn and Pat Byrne and the leaders of the SSTU should
consider their positions in continuing to lead this union. This CV crisis has confronted
all of us in the community, it has forced everyone, every industry, to quickly and
nimbly and intelligently rethink and reshape everything that we do. In my judgment,
the SSTU has failed to live up to that. It has allowed fear trump science, it has failed
to engage in the specifics of the health advice in all its complexity from the country’s
leading experts and it has failed to engage in the bigger picture. Yes, the union is
right to draw attention to vulnerable teachers, those who are older and
immunocompromised. So it should. But the facts are that not one
immunocompromised or older teacher with concern for their own health would be
forced to front a classroom from next Wednesday. The SSTU is carrying on as though
its members are being asked to go and work in a hospital emergency room without
protective equipment. It is not the same setting and it is not the advice of the expert
health committee which has always been, and continues to be, that schools
represent a low risk for COVID-19 transmission. Since that advice was first issued,
the advice has not changed, and in the meantime, what’s happened – well, we’ve
closed the State border, we’ve put in regional borders, we’ve required returning
travellers to isolate for 14 days, we’ve tested anyone who’s got a symptom, we have
done sentinel testing, which gives you s level of assurance that community
transmission is not happening, by testing randomly swabs sent by GPs for other
issues – not one case has come back of COVID-19 from that process. We’ve recorded
one new positive COVID case since Monday, our cases have overwhelmingly, this this
State, been people who have returned from overseas, people from cruise ships and a
relatively small number of health workers, and there is no evidence of widespread
community transmission. It is not like the kids of WA have been taken to Bali for
their school holidays and they’re coming back with the virus. Everyone’s been at
home, we’ve been practicing social distancing and we have seen the results of that
social distancing in all the border measures and everything else. Yes, teachers are
being asked to make adjustments to the way they do their business. Yes, teacher will
have to make changes. I suspect that a majority of teachers are up for it, I’m talking
about teachers themselves, rather than their union. Yes, there’s uncertainty – well,
roll with it, roll with the uncertainty, roll with the changes, because everyone else is
having to as well. Supermarket workers are having to, police are having to, people
working from home are having to – everyone is trying to figure out how to do things
differently. I think the union as really damaged its reputation here, I think it’s let its
membership down, I think it’s harmed its creditability the community. There was a
chance here for leadership. The SSTU could have positioned itself as a
hero. Teachers could have been the heroes of this crisis, showing leadership,
allowing kids to get back to a degree of normality in a way that was in accordance
with the health advice that said that this is safe. They have missed that opportunity.

TRANSCRIPT WA EDUCATION MINISTER SUE ELLERY

Issues: State School Teachers Union advert taken out in the West Australian
newspaper urging parents not to send their kids to school next Wednesday.

Not formally proofed

PARKER
Sue, good morning. Were you surprised to see this letter in the newspaper this
morning, or this ad?

ELLERY
They actually told me yesterday that they intended to campaign to request parents
to keep their children at home. I’m disappointed with the content of the ad because
it is not an accurate description of the advice from the AHPPC, which is that body
made up of all of the chief health officers of every State and the national one, and I
think it claims, I think it’s trying to describe that, you know, the 1.5 distancing for
example and if the advice is that’s global and you have to do it across the entire
school in every element of what you’re doing – that’s not the case.
PARKER
I’m sorry, that’s an important point though, isn’t it, so there’s a factual error right at
the heart of the ad, the number one bullet point is factually incorrect.

ELLERY
That’s true and it’s also incorrect later on in the ad – they talk about those measures
can be carried out when limited numbers of students are attending, that is not the
advice. The advice has been from the beginning, and is now, that because of the low
risk of transmission, school are safe for staff and students and should stay
open. There is reference to distancing, but it’s about some very specific things. The
other thing that they talk about in the ad, sanitiser in every classroom, we received in
the department, 6000 litres of sanitiser this week, it will be available in every
classroom, regular hand-washing with soap and water has always been available in
schools and environmental cleaning at regular intervals during the day – we’ve spent
an additional $43m on ensuring that that happens. I think the critical point is, you
have to keep looping back to the essentials of the advice. I can understand that at
the beginning on this, which was probably only about seven weeks ago, but seems
like it was about seven years ago, it did seem, at first blush, that the advice about
school and the more general community, was inconsistent, and I can understand that
people thought, well why is that the case, why are we being asked to do something
when you go to the supermarket, like stand 1.5 metres apart at all times, and we’re
not being asked to do that in schools. And that’s for very specific reasons. Public
health advice is based on three things – the clinical aspect, the social aspect and
environmental…sorry, and economic, and you’ve got to attune those three things
depending on your circumstances. The clinical advice in respect to school is that staff
and children are not, are not, at increased risk of COVID-19 by physically attending
school. There has been no cases of student-to-student transmissions in WA, and no
cases of student-to-teacher transmissions in WA either. The social aspect is
important for schools because it’s really important that the education continues, that
vulnerable children are connected to all the other support services that school
provide, and economically, hundreds of thousands of West Australians will not be
going to work next week because they don’t have a job. We don’t want any more
workers not able to attend their jobs because they can’t send their children to school
and the health advice from the CHO makes that really clear. I asked the teachers
yesterday to consider this – if you are worried that that advice was wrong at the
beginning, then at least look at where we are now, and you made that point in your
commentary, if that public health advice was not sound and was not correct for
schools, get back in the second half of March, when we had students at schools,
when our daily cases of confirmed positives were increasingly, when there were no
border closures, when we did not have the additional cleaning in place, back then,
we would have started to see student-to-student and student-to-teacher. We would
have seen students and teachers and other school staff turning up at our hospitals
and our GPs with COVID symptoms, particularly in that second half of March. We
were having daily cases of 20 and above. On Monday 23 March, school attendance
had started to drop but we have 50% of students at school and we had 20
cases. Over the next three days, attendance dropped to 40% but cases continued to
go up and by the end of that week they were around the mid-30s. Now since that
point, we should have seen, if the health advice was wrong, we should have seen
students, teachers and other school staff turning up at emergency departments and
GPs with symptoms, and we did not, we did not. So if you did not believe the advice
at the beginning, and I can understand that it might have appeared like a mixed
message or inconsistent, if you didn’t believe it at the beginning, you just have to
look at the numbers of what happened since. Now I hasten to add we can’t be
complacent and we need to make sure we’re still looking after ourselves and
protecting the vulnerable and doing all the things we’re asked to do, but I think
teachers rely on evidence to inform their teaching practice, they need to look at the
evidence here.

PARKER
Do you think that the union is actually in touch, the union leadership is actually in
touch with what teachers on the ground want to do?

ELLERY
The interesting thing about the survey that the union did the other day was it
showed that, I think it was 90% of staff were worried about their safety, but 70%
supported schools reopening, so I think they probably do want school to reopen, but
I think they need – and I know it’s hard because this is an extraordinary time and
none of us have been through this before – they need to put their fear to one side of
a few moments and stop and read the advice and actually look at what has
happened, and if you take the time to do that, and I was looking at those figures back
on the second half of March at 1am on Sunday night when I couldn’t sleep, and I
tracked…I literally did this myself, I tracked the figures myself and if you take the
time to do it, you can see that the advice that we have been given so far and have
followed so far, has served us well, and I ask teachers to stop and look at that advice
and understand that people, both in the department centrally and all of those places
that support the running of schools, have been working so hard to make sure that
we’re able to do the things that we’ve been asked to do in schools so that we’re right
to go for those parents who make the choice next Wednesday to send their children
to school.

PARKER
What proportion of kids do you think will be in physical classrooms from Wednesday
week?

ELLERY
I don’t have a global accumulated figure yet, I might get one…

PARKER
Individual school shave been sort of polling their communities, haven’t they?

ELLERY
They have, and I haven’t seen that in an accumulated form yet, so I can’t give you a
number. My sense is that the majority of parents are feeling comfortable about
sending their children back to school, but I think parents are still going to be
considering over the weekend and they’ll make their decision. Either way, whatever
decision they make, their children’s education will be supported.

PARKER
Should the union’s leadership consider its position?

ELLERY
I wouldn’t go that far, and this union I work with on a regular basis – unions
represent the views of their members and I know that their members have been
expressing fear, so I understand that, but I ask them to stop and consider the advice
and actually look at whether or not it’s been proved to be sound, and I want to thank
the people in public health who have copped such an enormous questioning when
they were putting this advice out, you know, I want to thank them for the work that
they’ve done because so far their advice has been sound.

Ends…..