Three hundred teachers from across NSW rallied outside NSW Parliament House in Macquarie St on June 4. They were joined by members of the Public Service Association, the Fire Brigade Employees Union, the NSW Nurses Federation and other unionists.
The teachers left a session of the New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF) council to protest the Liberal government’s plan to strip away conditions and limit wage rises of public sector workers.
At the rally, the NSWTF councillors declared their support for other public sector workers and the unions NSW campaign against the changes.
Council authorised its senior officers and federation executive to take whatever action is necessary to defeat the attacks on teachers wages and conditions.
Speakers at the rally included NSWTF president Bob Lipscombe and Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon.
During the protest, the government moved to shut down the parliamentary debate on the controversial industrial relations bill.
Greens MP David Shoebridge, who was taking part in the attempts to filibuster the bill inside parliament, said: “The new coalition of Barry O'Farrell, Fred Nile and the Shooters Party today took the extreme step of shutting down debate in the upper house of the NSW Parliament," Mr Shoebridge said.
“This right wing cabal of the Liberals, Nationals, Fred Nile and the Shooters has broken a 100 year tradition of open debate in the NSW Upper House in a direct attack on the democracy in NSW.”
Shoebridge said muzzling the debate “set a dangerous precedent, and should be a warning sign of how Barry O'Farrell and his right-wing crew intend to proceed over the next four years”.