In the end, paramedics rescued Chris Minns from a real-time emergency but the NSW government will still end the year bruised and battered.
After the high of its ambitious housing plan last week, the NSW government will stagger into Christmas after shielding punches from party heavyweight and union boss Gerard Hayes, who has labelled the Minns regime everything from naive to “young Labor on steroids”.
The Health Services Union secretary’s jibes ring true to some extent. One of Labor’s signature policies at the March election was ending the Coalition’s 2.5 per cent wages cap to allow it to pay essential public sector workers – including nurses, teachers and paramedics – more.
Emergency averted: NSW Premier Chris Minns and Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes.Credit:
But as the government’s protracted and messy negotiations with the teachers and now the paramedics have shown, scrapping the wages cap was the easy part. Brokering deals with a workforce that was promised a big pay bump is not so simple. It may have been naivety or inexperience, perhaps both. Nonetheless, Labor has learned some tough lessons along the way.
Hayes made it clear early on that he would not let the government off the hook. Just one month after Labor finally clawed its way back to government, Hayes publicly admonished Premier Chris Minns and his team for dragging their feet on promised wage negotiations with essential workers.
At the time, Hayes’ intervention did not bother the government. As the Coalition was sticking to its rhetoric that Labor existed solely to look after its “union mates”, some unkind words from a union boss allowed the government to bat away that argument.
But the ongoing argy-bargy stopped being a positive for the government. Instead, the battles, which have been brutal and bitter at times, have made NSW Labor look like it was prepared to go to war with essential workers rather than the union leaders.
The teachers’ pay dispute was the government’s first baptism of fire. After insisting that an agreement had been struck with Education Minister Prue Car and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, the then Teachers’ Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos accused the government of an “act of betrayal” after reneging on the deal.
Paramedics save Minns from a new year catastrophe
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13.12.2023
In the end, paramedics rescued Chris Minns from a real-time emergency but the NSW government will still end the year bruised and battered.
After the high of its ambitious housing plan last week, the NSW government will stagger into Christmas after shielding punches from party heavyweight and union boss Gerard Hayes, who has labelled the Minns regime everything from naive to “young Labor on steroids”.
The Health Services Union secretary’s jibes ring true to some extent. One of Labor’s signature policies at the March election was ending the Coalition’s 2.5........
© The Sydney Morning Herald
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