Queensland teachers strike meeting in 2025As in Victoria, teachers in Queensland held statewide strikes for the first time in many years, after repeated below-inflation wage rises, growing work burdens, oversized classes, burnout, inadequate resources and worsening staffing shortages. Teachers voted for a “series of 24-hour strikes” at mass rallies during their first strike on August 6, only to have the AEU-affiliated Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) delay further action. Teachers have had no pay increase since July 2024, despite a severe cost-of-living crisis, which has been intensified by the criminal US-Israel war on Iran. And the last nominal increase in 2024 left teachers at least 6.5 percent behind inflation after an earlier 18-month pay freeze by the previous state Labor government when the COVID pandemic first broke out. Similar dissatisfaction with pay and conditions has erupted among teachers nationally this year, including stoppages and protests in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.