CANBERRA -- The political headmaster has spoken.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has gone to the defence of teachers and educated government MP Andrew Laming after the backbencher decided use the school holiday period to question their work ethic.
The untamed social media user enraged the teaching profession last week by asking on Facebook whether teachers were "back at work this week, or are they 'lesson planning' from home? Let me know exactly".
Laming deleted the post under the weight of negative comments, but now the Prime Minister – the father of a teacher - has joined in, telling ABC Radio that Laming needs a lesson.
"I can tell you my daughter certainly had some concerns and next time I see him, I will pass them on to him," Turnbull told host Steve Austin.
"My daughter Daisy is a school teacher and she had a very strong reaction.
"So I think Andrew will have received some very emphatic feedback from teachers in his electorate and elsewhere."
Turnbull said he considered himself a "passionate" supporter of teachers and was proud of the work his daughter had done as a teacher.
"I have to say, of course I am biased, I suppose, with a school teacher daughter," he said. "But teachers work very hard; they are absolutely at the front line of our future, because it is teachers – charismatic, hardworking teachers – that change lives."
Laming, a Queensland MP, has spent a lot of time on social media lately, including a weekend spent at "war" with a Facebook meme page, "Simpsons Against the Liberals".