RENT
Until 1956 or thereabouts, Primary Head Teachers were the most active members of the Queensland Teachers Union. The majority, they sought better and more equitable conditions for all, from Teachers College lecturers to Infant Teachers. Then sectional interests arose. Branches of the QTU had always operated on geographical lines providing professional and industrial assistance to all teachers in a particular area. However, a special interest group was formed to represent secondary teachers since they were comparatively few in number. This Secondary Teachers Branch was then successful in having its representative, Mr. L.G.Grulke, appointed as General Secretary in 1956.
Despite the presence of ecumenical Deputy General Secretaries, Laurie Krebs and Ted Clarke, the QTU became more and more sectionalised. Special interest secondary teachers’ branches like South Brisbane [1960] and Far Northern were equated with mainstream district branches and made their presence felt. Foundation members Edgar Baldwin and Ray Costello of South Brisbane Secondary Branch later assumed the leadership of the QTU in turns with Gavin Semple from 1966 to 1978. Since 1964 until the present day, the President of the QTU has been a secondary teacher.
In 1966 a blatantly sectional Union plaint sought changes in the Teachers Award State to the effect that the larger-sized Primary School Head Teachers would receive $5588 per annum, compared to $6800 for a Secondary School Principal. An allowance of $150 was paid to the Head Teacher of a Primary School with a Secondary Department and there were some whose Secondary Department was larger than a Grade 3 High School, for which the remuneration was $6000. The running of such departments, always the preserve of Primary School Head Teachers, was referred to as a “$150 hobby”.
Northernmost QTU Branch members figured that Wage Commissioners might get used to approving of non-sectional plaints if every school leader wore the same title; and the term Principal was common terminology in North America whence most school literature emanated. This branch started to use the term on its correspondence and records; and school leaders around the state followed. Ray thought that the notion came from Brisbane, but it didn’t. There was no official introduction of the use of the term. It was not a Union or Departmental proposal. It just happened. It had no philosophical implications. Its use was purely mercenary.
Although differences of salary, administrative assistance and general conditions at the time were obvious and odious, the Industrial Court subsequently adjudged that Primary Head Teachers should pay rent for occupying school residences. It was a QTU proposal, hidden with the Union’s just claim for equal pay for male and female teachers. The subsequent kafuffle led to the formation of the Queensland State Primary Schools Head Teachers’ Association. The bogus salving alteration to the award saw a rise in salary for Primary School Head Teachers, but those who lived in school premises and provided 24/7 surveillance, ground care and on-the-job after-hours service now had to pay rent. The outcomes were divisive. Folk in the city could easily change house and shelve the after-hours toil. Those in rural areas were stuck.
RENT
[Tune: "The Hippopotamus Sing" of Flanders and Swann]
The blokes in the capital
Were wondering one day
How to keep all their Head Teachers quiet:
Said one, “If we nap at all
And move the wrong way,
We’ll soon have to handle a riot.”
Another said, “Give them a high-sounding name -
A PRINCIPAL every man Jack”;
But one of the sages
Said, “Let’s lift their wages -
I’ll tell you how we’ll get it back:
Rent, rent, glorious rent,
Nothing quite like it for crafty intent!
Just grant pay increases -
Then hack them to pieces -
We’ll shear the gold fleeces
With glorious rent!
I read in the paper, then,
That I had been blessed
With eight hundred dollars more pay;
I cut quite a caper then
And thought I’d invest
In a Rover or Jag right away ……
The amount of truth brought me down with a crash -
I still drive that ’58 Minx;
The tax is a crime, and
The super a “shime”, and
The rent is the worst thing that stinks.
Rent, rent, glorious rent,
Nothing so quickly turns dollar to cent!
They grant pay increases -
Then hack them to pieces -
Good Lord, how they fleece us
With glorious rent!
