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Australian Education Union members will walk off the job for rolling strikes. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\nEducation Minister Jo Palmer says she is \u201cbeyond disappointed\u201d the teachers\u2019 union has rejected the government\u2019s latest pay offer, confirming public schools will close across the state next week.<\/p>\n
Schools in the north-west will shut on Tuesday, in the north on Wednesday and in the south on Thursday as Australian Education Union (AEU) members walk off the job for 24-hour rolling strikes.<\/p>\n
Palmer said the closures were unavoidable.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur priority must be keeping children safe and so we have no choice but to close down our schools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the only way that we can guarantee the safety of our children, which is my priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australian Education Union members will walk off the job for rolling strikes. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
It is the second offer the union has knocked back and Palmer was particularly critical that the AEU\u2019s elected leadership rejected it without putting it to a vote of members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am beyond disappointed that they haven\u2019t put it to our teachers for them to have a vote,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Palmer talked up the deal as addressing the key concerns teachers had raised with her over the past year, including more school psychologists, pay rises for most teachers, teaching assistants and assistant principals, increased allowances and incentives and funding for professional learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have worked on this deal for months and months now, hand in hand with the union,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But the AEU sees it differently. President David Genford said the offer included a requirement to discuss public service cuts while failing to properly address workload and fair pay.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/a358ab57-7pu8efhgbz9pquj_u9bnw_ohp9h.jpg\")
Education Minister Jo Palmer says she is beyond disappointed with the union. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n
\u201cIt beggars belief that this government thinks it is acceptable to make an offer to educators that seeks to include a requirement to discuss public service cuts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Genford pointed to unsafe workloads, rising school violence and a recruitment and retention crisis as issues the government was ignoring.<\/p>\n
He accused the government of prioritising \u201cshort-term political interests\u201d over long-term improvements for students.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the timing of the dispute was politically motivated ahead of her election in Rosevears, Palmer deflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just completely focused on the outcomes of our students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The strikes are set to begin on Tuesday.\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Education Minister Jo Palmer says she is \u201cbeyond disappointed\u201d the teachers\u2019 union has rejected the government\u2019s latest pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-555612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}