Tool Shed

Teachers' Pet - David Penberthy

This week's Tool of the Week is Dave Penberthy, the Daily Telegraph journalist who has led the charge on the NSW Teachers Federation over the past week.

	Dave Penberthy

Not that Penberthy should cop all the blame - he's not so much a personal Tool like our past inductees, rather he allowed himself to become a Tool for the Telegraph's latest round of union-bashing.

The assault included a series of front-pages that not only trivialised the issues behind the industrial action, but personalised the story and vilified the Teacher's leadership.

It's how the Terror works. The ideas are cooked up by a bunch of editors who would be better suited running a comic strip than a serious newspaper. Reporters like Penberthy are the told the angle the paper wants. Nothing personal, it's just their job.

One of Penberthy's problems has been that when the Telegraph goes hard, it needs a lot of space; lots of pictures and graphics to give the impression that there is solid evidence to back up their chosen editorial line.

In this case, the NSW Education Department appeared happy to oblige , providing screeds of statistics purporting to show how easy life was for NSW teachers compared to overseas colleagues. But as it has done so often throughout the dispute, the Department got things arse-up.

Take their comparison of NSW and New York teachers:

According to the documents provided to the Daily Telegraph, the New York salary is "$US48,710 average ($A79,280)." They compare this with "80% of NSW teachers (who) have nine years service, earn $50,175 as step nine teachers."

The problem is that the statistics do not compare like with like. The NYC classroom rate extends from $US31910 to $US70,000. A classroom teacher at the top of scale in NYC is paid $A114,754 compared with $A50,175 in NSW. (The NYC salary scale goes up to 22 years of service and rewards post-graduate study.)

The report also claimed working hours in New York City were "31 hours a week, primary and secondary." The Telegraph compared this to New South Wales "Secondary; 18 hours 40 minutes teaching a week; primary 21 hours, 40 minutes"

Thirty-one hours (actually 31 hours and 40 minutes) is the New York school week, not the face to face teaching load. Comparing like with like, the NSW school week is 32.5 hours.

So while they don't withstand any real scrutiny, at least the graphs look good.

Which is more can be said for the photos. In order to frame Tuesday's 'Three Amigos' front page, the Daily Telegraph assigned a photographer to follow Teachers Federation general secretary John Hennessy around for the day.

After some hours being tailed, Hennessy had had enough and decided to toy with the Tele. He got a cab driver to drop him off at the Liberal Party's headquarters in East Sydney - allowing the snapper to shoot off a roll of film while he waited in the Tories' foyer.

If anyone back in News Ltd HQ had realised the significance of the venue, they may well have had an even hotter story - albeit a set up. Alas, they were saved by their own ignorance.

And in the final analysis, it has been ignorance that has characterised the Telegraph's coverage of this dispute. As we've mentioned previously: by refusing to have an industrial relations reporter, when a big story breaks the Telegraph is left with nothing but cliches to run on.

While they were trotting out the standard line of the Teachers Fed leadership being out of touch with their membership; the Telegraph was missing the real story - that this was a grass-roots dispute driven by an increasingly hostile and exasperated membership.

As the Government and media have toughened their line against the union, the resolve of the membership has only increased - leaving a fracture in relations that has real repercussions for the entire education system.

And the point that anyone who understands the NSW union movement would tell you is that this is because, far from being a remote leadership, the Teachers Federation suffers from an excess of internal democracy.

Every month 400 members of the federation council meet to set policy; executive meetings are held every week. The Federation is more representative of its membership than any other organisation in the State. Every move by the leadership requires the support of the rank and file.

When relations between teachers and the government do break down, it is big news.

There is a story there about a profession that has been pushed over the edge. The Federation leadership have become the public face for that crisis and there is a genuine role in the media scrutinising their arguments.

But that's analysis - and there's no room for that at the Terror.

Check out the Toolshed.

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  Issue 46 contents

»	Carr Vows to Move on Casuals
»	NSW Government in Hot Seat Over Individual Contracts
»	Telstra Troubleshooter Bombs Stellar
»	Illegal immigrants Working Next Door to PM
»	Education Department Hit By Massive Fine
»	Victims Comp Changes Exclude Traumatised Worker
»	SOCOG Agrees: Ceremonies Not an Eisteddfod
»	Senate Guts 'Ships from Hell' Bill
»	Campaigners Seek Dissident Web Domains

»	The Soapbox
»	The Locker Room
»	Trades Hall
»	Tool Shed

»	The Real Big Fella
»	That's It For Labor
»	Join Australia's Gas Out
»	Tribute to Jennie

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