Stephen Mayne

I mean, I remember there was an old joke.

What do you call an Italian in Perth with three houses?

Lazy.

So that was the thing.

Perth was the land of opportunity and if you didn't have three houses, if you're an Italian migrant who could build a few things and you went to Perth with all the mining riches, if you hadn't accumulated three houses, you were lazy.

And that is just absolutely not where an Italian migrant or someone arriving in Australia these days, I mean, Christ, just getting one house would be a great effort these days, not three.

He talks about the productivity increases.

If the teachers had one week's less pay or less holidays, he's saying there'd be a 2.5% productivity increase in terms of the teachers working.

There'd be 2.5% more learning for students and the parents would be able to work 2% more in terms of working.

So...

he's saying that that would be quite a productivity lift and i guess with two income households it is i mean we're through it with our our kids have all finished school but it used to be a massive battle uh school holidays over summer and you would be cursing for the you know i know the private school sector they always joke that the more you pay the less they go but um

I don't know.

It is getting bigger in terms of the amount of overall non-contact days in the schools.

It's gradually increased over time with the extra public holiday here and there, like Dan Andrews and his grand final Eve holiday.

That was another one he threw in with the AFL grand final.

But how do you go about industrially negotiating that?

Because teachers aren't paid well.

That's part of the deal is you get excellent leave, best leave.

And if you're suddenly taking away leave, you'll have to pay them more

And can state budgets afford that?