Arabic version: نقابة تحث السياسيين على تجنب زيارة مدارس تسمانيا

According to ABC News, the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Education Union is urging politicians and their representatives not to visit government schools for the rest of term 4 unless Premier Jeremy Rockliff apologises for a social media post about a school’s end-of-year event.

Rockliff wrote that he had been told there were efforts to “remove all references to Christmas” from end-of-year school celebrations and said he had asked the education department to “step in”. The northern Tasmanian school involved was not named in the post, but was quickly identified online and subsequently faced a social-media pile-on. The school had planned to rename its event from Christmas on the Hill to End of Year Extravaganza, while its calendar still listed multiple Christmas-themed events.

The union held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to discuss what it described as the distress and harm caused. AEU Tasmania branch president David Genford said parents and educators were “aghast” that the premier had not apologised and had “doubled down”. He called the actions “grubby politics and dangerous public actions”. A parent of a student at the school told 936 ABC Hobart that she had written to Rockliff about the impact on the school community, particularly teachers and education staff.

Rockliff said he had the right to express his opinion and described his public commentary as measured. He “utterly” rejected the union’s allegation that his actions constituted bullying, while previously condemning attacks on any individual or school. Treasurer Eric Abetz defended the premier, saying politicians of every political persuasion supported schools and teachers, and would attend end-of-year functions. Labor leader Josh Willie said Labor supported AEU members and said the solution was for the premier to apologise, visit the school, and support its staff and students.