The obsession with a ‘four-day-week’ is underpinned by one unworkable fact: if you work fewer hours you must be paid less.

Ignoring this risks devaluing the work of part timers, casual workers, and contractors whose hourly rates are based on standard five-day weekly breakdowns. These workers would immediately demand pay rises if the 9-5’s received a freebie day.

A reduction in wages for a four-day week is not what unionists, who have been pushing for this since 1817, advocate. They wish to artificially increase the value of labour by removing one day of work while retaining the same pay, effectively raising the value for each hour without improving quality, skill, or economic return. This would value those hours above what they are worth, threatening to cripple businesses and so, unless you are a public servant living off the labour of the private working class, a four-day work is a recipe for a capitalist collapse.

Is the assault on our economic system deliberate? We cannot rule out Labor’s puddle of drool for the destruction of capitalism. Their ranks are stacked with hardcore socialists, unionists, and other misguided utopians. To be fair, they could also be arguing in favour of laziness to appease a generation allergic to hard work, such as those who yearn for a Universal Basic Income without any care for the ‘slaves’ who would have to work extra hard to pay for it.

There is a delicious irony in that a four-day week with lower wages could be achieved in a situation of reduced taxation. Lower tax automatically increases the hourly take-home pay of work (not the value) for businesses and the individual, allowing a reduction in hours. The only loser is the wasteful, bloated Labor state and its union mates.

In other words, the smaller the state, the smaller the tax revenue, the closer capitalism gets to affording fewer working hours at a higher pay for greater prosperity. It is the socialist model of excessive welfare and tax that keeps a four-day week out of reach.

We know this is true because sole traders command their rates and hours on a flexible system. If they want to work ten days straight, they can. If they want a week off – no one is stopping them.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers doesn’t want a four-day week. His policies are designed to kill the gig economy and constrict work under the strong-arm of the union movement.

So forgive us if we roll our eyes at Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk green-lighting a ‘four-day school week’ for the ‘wellbeing’ of teachers and reduce the ‘cognitive stressors’ on children.

We are expected to believe that the most coddled generation in history, who spend the least amount of time learning a heavily watered-down version of core subjects, are ‘too stressed’ to survive what everyone else managed. Perhaps if teachers stopped telling these kids they are ‘going to die!!!’ because of ‘global boiling’ they might be less stressed…

The whole thing is enough to infuriate parents who are working two jobs each to cover the mortgage fees under Federal Labor’s spiralling interest rates. If they survive that, some truanting teen criminal apprentice is probably trying to break through their front window with a machete in Queensland’s youth crime crisis. Giving them an extra day off from their studies sounds like a great idea … said no one.

Are the teachers going to take a pay cut for this exercise in wellbeing? Of course not. The official line is they’ll ‘be working’ and ‘preparing lessons’ – something their predecessors managed while working a full week with holiday periods far more generous than the workforce at large.

Palaszczuk is doing an excellent job of making herself unelectable. At least the Queensland Opposition Leader, David Crisafulli, has been critical, calling it ‘worse than Optus’.

His words are a little weak if his intention is to bring down the government and claim victory.

‘No one wins when governments make policies on the run. Where is the consultation and communication? I think that is what parents and teachers are asking this morning.’

It’s not really Braveheart stuff.

In language that perfectly illustrates our failing education system, Education Minister Grace Grace said, ‘It would not be, you know, a situation where it’s, do whatever you want.’

As parents commenting on the news item said:

‘Aren’t parents a significant stakeholder here? What do they do? Leave the kids at home unsupervised? If there was ever a case for wrong priorities…’

‘Teachers get another day off, parents pay for more childcare. Seems fair.’

The Queensland Secondary Principals Association said to the Courier Mail that there were ‘no concerns raised … at this point’. Adding, ‘I think you will find that schools will provide more than just supervision for junior secondary students; it would be alternative learning that those teachers would be engaged in delivering.’

Oh good. More ‘alternative learning’ that has devastated the standards of education. ‘Alternative learning’ is a sickness propagated by teachers who cannot cope with the subjects they were hired to teach. What kids need is a return to tough standards, proper regimented school days, and a complete expulsion of activism from the curriculum. At the same time, any teacher who plasters gender-confusing flags, Marxist fists, or burning globes around the walls should be sacked. The five-day week isn’t stressing students out – it’s that sort of nonsense.

Kids need to learn real subjects within a proper structure like every other generation. They should spend more time in school, separated from the toxic social media cultures of TikTok, Snapchat, and the hailstorm of text messages that turns their life into a crucible of social pressure.

Supposedly the same curriculum will be crushed into four days – which means either students are wasting hours every day now or they are going to make those days longer. Picking Wednesday as the designated day off could not be a worse choice for parents. The natural conclusion is an increase in childcare. Is that a gift for Labor’s mates? It certainly isn’t what parents asked for.

‘Wednesday was decided upon to break up the cognitive load for students … Mondays have a lot of public holidays and Friday may not be as helpful in providing access to campus … this day would be for independent learning … students may elect to come into campus to work, study at home, undertake TAFE or tertiary courses etc.’

Or schools in Queensland could simply operate properly, five days a week, and get on with the basics of education. Every other generation managed it, most of them with blackboards, chalk, and a ruler.

Flat White is written and edited by Alexandra Marshall