Time capsule 1995

In a semi-regular column, we delve into our Newsmonth archives to uncover what stood out in the union, the teaching profession and the education sector, as well as politics and culture. Here we wind the clock back 30 years to 1995.

It was a year when Paul Keating ruled the roost in Canberra, while Bob Carr began his decade-long reign as NSW Premier.

It was the tail end of Keating’s tenure as Australia’s prime minister, but 1995 produced one of his classic barbs when he called Liberal leader John Howard a “political blancmange” and “a witch with all the rotten apples” who wanted to destroy the union movement. 

The year also heralded the beginning of NSW Labor’s 16-year stint in power after Carr narrowly defeated then Liberal premier John Fahey in the 1995 state election. 

John Aquilina replaced Virginia Chadwick as the NSW education minister. A chant at teacher strike action held a year later went: “No one could be meaner than Johnny Aquilina”. 

The NSW government commissioned Barry McGaw to undertake a review of the HSC in 1995 – his report Shaping Their Future: Recommendations for Reform of the Higher School Certificate was published two years later. 

Making the news

In the workplace

The Teachers (Independent Schools) (State) Award replaced nearly 300 individual school agreements. The top rate of salary (ST1) in the award was $43,868, although 2-year-trained and 3-year-trained teachers’ salaries topped out at $36,317.   

Full IEU coverage for support staff was won in 1994 and in 1995 the union delivered significant pay rises in the vicinity of 9% for this important sector of school staff. Support staff membership went from about 300 to 1,072. Today it stands at 4,570 members. Most support staff were on temporary contracts and hours were regularly varied from year to year. Securing permanent employment for these members would be an ongoing struggle for years to come.  

Adrienne van Gelder was elected as the new IEU president, taking over from John Quessy who stepped down to work as a full-time organiser with the union. Pam Smith was also employed as an organiser that year. Pam went on to become an Assistant Secretary, retiring only recently. She is still a proud IEU member.

The union also took an important step into the future when it advised members of its new Ozemail address.  

Shout out

In 1995, 1697 members joined the IEU – 203 of whom remain financial members today. Begging the reader’s indulgence, I am one of those members.

Returning to NSW after an eight-year absence, I commenced temporary employment at a school in the Broken Bay Diocese. At the time, the diocese was offering voluntary redundancies and threatening compulsory redundancies. I would like to send a shout out to my colleagues who worked at Mater Maria Catholic College at the time. 

I would particularly like to acknowledge Michael Hagan. He was the then IEU rep at Mater as well as being an elected member of the union’s Executive. A respected teacher and year coordinator, Michael had the chapter humming. He supported all the chapter members, which seemed to me to be just about every employee at the school.  He encouraged members to attend sub branch and Council meetings and kept them informed about union business.  

The IEU had just over 16,000 members in 1995. Thanks to reps and activists like Michael Hagan we now have close to double that number today.   

Published in the May 2025 edition of Newsmonth. Compiled by Dave Towson (Deputy Secretary) and Monica Crouch (Managing Editor)

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