The Australian Education Union (AEU) has called for politicians to stay out of Tasmanian public schools for the rest of the school year unless the premier apologises over his handling of a row about Christmas at a Launceston primary school.
The AEU’s elected Tasmanian branch executive, made up of teachers and education support staff, unanimously passed two motions at an “extraordinary meeting” on Wednesday night.
The first calls for politicians and their representatives to be banned from visiting public schools for the remainder of Term 4.
The union said this would allow school communities to focus on “teaching, learning and end-of-year activities without further political disruption”.
The second condemns the handling of the matter by Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Education Minister Jo Palmer and “the distress this has caused members and the school community”.
AEU Tasmania branch president David Genford said the school community had “simply decided to change the name of its end-of-year event”.
He said the premier, “without having the full facts or following proper process”, wrote “an ill-informed letter” that sparked a “wave of abuse”.
“Parents and educators across the state are aghast that Premier Rockliff has not only refused to apologise for his actions but has doubled down on the public bullying of a dedicated northern Tasmanian school community,” he said.
Genford said subsequent comments by Liberal ministers had added to the “social media pile-on”.
Treasurer Eric Abetz shared an AI-generated image of a mother comforting her son about a cancelled nativity play, while Deputy Premier Guy Barnett congratulated the premier for “making it clear” schools should celebrate Christmas.
Genford said Palmer “failed to stand up for the school, protect its community and condemn her colleagues’ actions”.
“Such grubby politics and dangerous public actions must be condemned,” he said.
“Politicians are not welcome in Tasmanian public schools until Premier Rockliff apologises.”
Speaking to reporters, Genford said the ban applied to all politicians, not only Liberal MPs.
“We wanted to make it easy on schools to say there is a blanket ban on all politicians,” he said.
MPs who attend school events as parents would not be affected.
“If they are there as a parent, that is absolutely fine,” Genford said.
Genford said action of this kind usually only happened during teacher or public sector negotiations, but members had told the union they were angry and wanted it to act.
“Whether it was intended or not, he has started this backlash,” he said.
“He has tarnished the reputation of this school, and he needs to apologise and say, ‘Yep, I got it wrong.'”
He said principals did not “want to be the next person that could make a decision in their school and then get criticised by the Premier publicly”.
“I really feel as though the schools have become collateral damage to deflect from what has been happening with this Government over past week and week and a half,” Genford said.
Reports that the school’s acting principal had gone on stress leave were not correct, he said.
Labor leader Josh Willie said it would be “disappointing not to visit schools” but he stood “with educators and school staff”.
“Tasmanian schools deserve a government that has their back, not a government that paints a target on them,” he said.
Willie said principals and teachers he had spoken to were “livid with the premier”.
“There is an easy way through this where he apologises, visits the school and supports the staff and students moving into the future,” he said.
Government minister Kerry Vincent described the union’s call as “quite an amazing comment”.
“We all as politicians on all sides of the fence need to visit schools on a regular basis,” he said.
“That’s part of what we do and part of the community, so I’d be very disappointed if they are advocating that.”
Asked whether the premier should apologise, Vincent said Rockliff had “already stated his measured position”.
He said “the union continuing to make comments like that is probably more distressing”.
Last week, Pulse revealed the Launceston primary school had renamed its annual ‘Christmas on the Hill’ event to ‘Holiday on the Hill’.
The school told concerned parents that some students “from a range of cultural and religious backgrounds” were “unable to take part in performances or rehearsals that are centred purely around Christmas themes”.
The education department said carols and a visit from Santa would still go ahead.
In a letter to the department secretary, Rockliff wrote that he did not support schools “removing reference to Christmas in end of year celebrations or removing carols”.
Rockliff then posted on Facebook that he had asked the department to step in. The post attracted more than 8,000 likes.
On Tuesday night, he posted again, saying he stood by his expectation that schools “acknowledge and celebrate Christmas” and that there was “no excuse for attacks on any individual or school”.
