Australia news live: China hits back at Penny Wong’s comments; Victorian teachers due to begin strike

China’s foreign ministry says ‘relevant countries’ should ‘stop stirring up tension’. Follow live Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Federal education minister says teachers should be paid as well as ‘they possibly can be’ The education minister, Jason Clare, appeared on ABC News Breakfast this morning as Victorian teachers go on strike today for the second time this year. The teachers do the most important job in the world. I want to see them being paid as good as they possibly can be. We know that when you pay people more, more people want to do the job. In New South Wales, we’ve seen the evidence of that … I know the Victorian government’s got a big offer on the table here of a 28% pay rise, which would be even bigger than New South Wales. So that’s a good thing and I really hope that the Victorian government and the teachers can get together and sort this out for parents and for our kids as quick as possible. I think that the government is determined to get a good outcome here for our teachers and I’m pretty confident that this will be worked out. Continue reading...