Bronwyn Jennings

Members of the Teachers and Education Support Staff Alliance (TESA) have been re-elected to the state-wide council of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU) in elections that took place in October. TESA also contested the four senior officer positions: branch president, branch deputy president, branch secretary and branch deputy secretary.

Australian Education Union national president Angelo Gavrielatos has condemned the federal government's plans to allow the creation of league tables that compare Australian school results. He spoke at the Victorian AEU branch conference on August 1.

The Victorian state government has been forced to reveal that over 150 state schools have been closed or merged with other schools since 1999.

Teachers in Victoria have been dealt another blow, with greater powers being handed to the Victorian Institute of Teaching as part of a review of the VIT launched mid-2007.

The Australian Education Union has called for a $2.9 billion investment into public education in order to support literacy and numeracy strategies. The AEU has called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to make this the first step in his so called “Education Revolution”.

Federal education minister Julie Bishop has announced a tender process to trial performance-based pay in schools. Australian Education Union (AEU) federal president Pat Byrne described the scheme as “cash-for-grades”, and called for more federal funding for state education.

GEELONG — For several years, Victorians from all sorts of backgrounds have made an annual trek to Avalon, near Geelong, to view the acrobatics of dozens of international aircraft. It has become a family weekend for hundreds of

GEELONG — One hundred people attended a January 18 "picnic for peace" on the Geelong waterfront, initiated by the Geelong Greens. Federal ALP member for Geelong, Gavin O'Connor spoke out against a war on Iraq outlining the

GEELONG — “Successive Australian governments had shameful policies towards refugees and now the Howard government is going to create more by throwing its support behind George Bush's war on Iraq”, Brigitte Ellery,

Since its formation in October, Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) has organised hundreds of people to campaign in defence of refugees. With 16 RAR groups having been formed, the network has boosted the fight to close refugee

BY BRONWYN JENNINGS & TRISHA REIMERS The collapse of insurance giant HIH, the relocation of an Arnotts factory from Melbourne to Brisbane, and rumours of plans by retail company Target to relocate its head office from Geelong to Melbourne have

BALLARAT — Bans imposed by trade union members at Ballarat University have broken the stalemate in negotiations between management and staff. The bans, which came into effect on November 13, were imposed on exam supervision