Lindy Nolan

Motherhood motions are a way of making it almost impossible for anyone to oppose a proposal. In
the 90s at the second largest school in NSW, almost 30 people weren’t union members, and
routinely broke strikes. This writer refused to be Federation Rep, despite being asked for two years.
Once she knew who walked the walk, instead of just talking the talk, knew who she could trust, she
let the Fed Rep know she was interested, if he was happy to step aside. (He realised he’d lose any
election and agreed.) Behind closed doors, lots of fights were happening. False accusations against
teachers, violence and threats, etc, etc. Finally, when three separate teachers approached her with
problems before she got into her staffroom, she knew it was time to act. The committee – all
trusted, militant and sensible – worked out a motion. A motherhood motion. Like, “Everyone should
be kind to mothers”.

Their motion was this: “Every member of the school community, students, teachers, staff, visitors
have a right to safety. If departmental directives conflict with this, the Federation members at —–
School demand the right to safety first.” Unless they were on playground duty, every teacher,
whether they were union members or not, attended, except for the principal and one deputy. Over
130 teachers crammed into the staffroom. The other deputy was ashen faced as the list of events
were publicly raised, thinking he might come under attack. Teachers gasped as they learned the
truth, like a teacher told to return a knife to a student, “because it was his property”.

Then the motion was put and carried unanimously. It told the principal we would support him 100%
if he had to stand up to the department. But if he didn’t support safety, we were coming for him!