If the Australian Education Union had accepted the pay freeze instead of choosing a pay rise our schools could afford existing staffing levels and families would not be inconvenienced by strike action.
The Liberal Government is committed to fixing the $1.1 billion budget black-hole left by Labor and the Greens, and we're getting on with doing just that.
As a result of the AEU choosing a pay rise over a pay freeze we now cannot afford the existing levels of staffing in Tasmanians schools.
The Department of Education has to find savings equivalent of 266 full time equivalent positions across its workforce of about 7,600 staff. This is half the savings Labor and the Greens imposed in 2011.
Not one employee will be sacked. These savings will be made through the usual instruments of government including the Workforce Renewal Incentive Program.
Already, 556 Department of Education employees have submitted expressions of interest in the Workforce Renewal Incentive Program.
The Liberal Government has invested a record $1.4 billion in education, including a five per cent increase in direct funding through school resources packages.
No school will lose more than two FTE positions as a result of budget savings, and importantly 95 per cent of schools will make reductions less than the maximum.
The AEU again put its self-interest first in choosing to strike at a time designed to maximise disruption to parents and students and warning teachers they're "on their own" in the event of anything going wrong.
With 136 schools advising they could not provide adequate supervision for our children and with uncertainty about transport for many students I was left with no choice but to declare tomorrow a student free day, to ensure the safety of our children.
We care about students' safety and we are taking prudent and responsible action.
Every school will have a contingency plan in place, as is the case on any student free day.
In the interests of safety, I remind parents to not send their children to school tomorrow.
More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff
More Media Releases from the Minister for Education and Training