Early childhood educators are increasingly frustrated with the lack of action on fair pay from the Turnbull Government.

Educators are urging parents to keep their kids at home on March 27 as part of the next big step in their fight for fair pay.

‘Keep You Children at Home Day’ will allow educators all over the nation to highlight the current educator wage crisis and to put pressure on the Turnbull Government to address this as a priority.

As the end of the year draws closer, workers are finding it harder to maintain composure and keep spirits high due to the heightened busy period.

Staff morale and mental health are crucial all year round, but with the increasing workload that comes with the end of the year, many feel the pain of stress, overexertion and exhaustion.

For Education Assistant Tiffany her daily commute from Ellenbrook to her work in Redcliffe is her worst nightmare.

With only two roads leading in and out of Ellenbrook the outcome of her drive to work is always the same – slow, long and irritating.

The 48km return journey takes her up to two hours every day and amounts to more than $200 every fortnight in fuel.

But sadly this isn’t an uncommon story among Ellenbrook residents, and that is why so many of them want a rail line.

Over the past nine years the Barnett Liberal Government have lied and broken promises on local transport. In 2008 it was the Ellenbrook rail line and in 2013 it was MAX Light Rail.

And under the Liberal’s plan Ellenbrook residents could be waiting another 30 years. 

United Voice members are calling on the government to act immediately on recommendations made by a parliamentary inquiry into the Independent Public Schools Initiative.

The report by the Education and Health Standing Committee, which was tabled in parliament on Monday, slammed the State Government’s handling of the model and made 21 recommendations to improve the system.

In particular the committee found the State Government chose “mainly high‐performing schools to be the first to become Independent Public Schools to increase the likelihood that the initiative would achieve its objectives”.

The Closing the Gap report for 2016 was released yesterday, showing important targets around education attainment and attendance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are not being met.

Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer, Troy Coleman, puts the lack of progress on these goals down to a need for more Aboriginal and Islander staff in schools.

"Indigenous staff numbers need to be increased. We need more AIEOs, but we also need more Indigenous Principals, Teachers, Admin staff and especially Indigenous people in leadership positions at the Education Department.

There needs to be a greater spread of Aboriginal people in general, so there is more of our way of doing things out there,” says Troy. 

In 2014 the Barnett Government cut over 100 AIEO positions from the education system in WA. A subsequent Productivity Commission report found WA had the lowest literacy outcomes for Aboriginal students of any state in the country.

This is not surprising to Troy.

"Indigenous people in schools are leaders, by removing us it removes many of those positive role models for our young people to aspire to. 

The State Government have handed down a budget that will plunge WA into a massive debt of $30.9 billion and a $1.3 billion deficit, for 2015/16.

The Liberal Government has pursued an aggressive privatisation agenda, planning to sell multiple public assets including the TAB and leasing the Fremantle Port.

United Voice WA Secretary Carolyn Smith has labelled the budget, “A fire sale.”

“Colin Barnett has sent a clear message to the people of Western Australia, everything must go,” she said.

“He’s prepared to sell off assets that have taken generations to acquire and he is going to sell it all off in a fire sale. Schools and Hospitals have been sneakily targeted too."

Ms Smith said the government was planning staff reductions for next year, even though WA has two new hospitals opening. 

The Report on Government Services released today by the Productivity Commission, reveals Aboriginal students in Western Australia have the lowest outcomes in literacy and numeracy of any state in the nation.

The report also found the WA average for numeracy amongst Aboriginal students was 70.7%, compared to the national average of 76.2%.

United Voice Secretary Carolyn Smith says at a time when Aboriginal students in WA are clearly struggling, the State Government has made the wrong decision to cut more than 110 Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer positions from the system.

“This government should be committed to closing the gap, not ripping away $4.7 million from AIEO funding,” she said.

“AIEO’s play an essential role in the lives of Aboriginal students and help them to get the best start possible.”

United Voice member Troy has been an AIEO for the past five years.

He says the role of an AIEO incredibly important.

“We try to look after the wellbeing of children,” he says.

“This can mean many things like home visits, it could mean (helping with) food, it could mean pastoral care, it could be emotional care.

High schools in Western Australia are set to be worse off under the Barnett government’s newly released, Student Centred Funding Model.

More than $40 million will be cut from secondary school budgets, to be redirected towards primary schools, with more than 240 schools set to lose funds.

These funding cuts come on top of the $200 million that was cut from the education budget last year.

United Voice WA Secretary Carolyn Smith says it is irresponsible of the state government to allow money to be cut from already struggling high schools.

It’s being labelled as one of the most unfair budgets in Australian history, targeting low-income families, pensioners and the sick.

United Voice members are angry at the Abbott Government increasing the retirement age to 70, cuts to family benefits and a $7 sick-tax to see a GP.

Delegate Geoff says the federal Budget is targeting people who are already struggling.

“It’s unfair because they said everyone was going to feel the pain but there’s more pain to the low paid than there is to the higher paid,’ he said.