Category Archives: New South Wales

Concern ‘culture of fear’ will remain within NSW Health after new watchdog ruled out

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Creation of new ombudsman was recommended by damning inquiry into regional health services

Experts worry that a “culture of fear” within the New South Wales health system will not be stamped out and patients will be at risk, after the state government ruled out the creation of a new independent watchdog as recommended by a recent inquiry.

Handing down its response to the damning parliamentary inquiry into regional health on Thursday, the government said it supported in part, or in full, 41 of 44 recommendations, and “noted” the remaining three.

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Sydney train strikes: Dominic Perrottet bets the house on a public relations war

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The NSW government is hoping that frustrations over disruptions will turn sentiment against the rail union

Dominic Perrottet’s 11th-hour decision to press the nuclear button in the long-running dispute with rail workers is a high-risk gambit. The New South Wales premier has bet the house on his ability to win a public relations war against the union.

For months, the state government has insisted that rail strikes that have crippled Sydney’s transport network are “politically motivated”.

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Australia news live: PM pays tribute to Gorbachev as ‘one of the true giants of the 20th century’

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Anthony Albanese will meet with premiers and chief ministers today for the national cabinet in Sydney

Jobs summit should support apprenticeships in female-dominated trades, independents say

Independents are calling for more investment in female-dominated trades like textiles and floristry ahead of the government’s jobs and skills summit to be held tomorrow.

This jobs summit must not become fixated on getting only the high-vis industries out to work and leave the pink workforce at home yet again … We have women who want to work. We must enable them.

There’s been too narrow a view of what are the apprenticeships and trades, it’s been a very bloke-centric approach.

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Sydney train strike: NSW premier says ‘this ends today’ as he threatens to tear up industrial agreement

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Dominic Perrottet says he will meet the rail union in court if workers reject government’s final offer

The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has issued a sensational ultimatum to the state’s rail workers, vowing to tear up their industrial agreement and meet the union in court unless they accept his government’s final pay offer.

Amid the latest round of chaos on the state’s rail lines on Wednesday, a visibly angry Perrottet said that after 58 meetings he would no longer bargain with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) over a new enterprise agreement.

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Sydney braces for train and bus strike tomorrow as unions meet with NSW transport minister

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Combined rail unions say industrial action would be halted until end of September if government agrees to pay rise

As Sydneysiders brace for yet another day of disruptions on the train network on Wednesday, the heads of the state’s rail unions will be locked away with the New South Wales transport minister, David Elliott, in a bid to finally end a months-long industrial standoff.

The meeting – held amid another round of industrial action by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) – marks the latest flashpoint in a protracted battle between a government beset by industrial strife and a union movement increasingly determined to flex its muscle.

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Chris Dawson found guilty of murdering wife Lynette in Sydney 40 years ago

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Supreme court verdict in case that was the subject of popular Teacher’s Pet podcast will be appealed, Dawson’s lawyer says

Christopher Dawson has been found guilty of murdering his former wife four decades ago on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Dawson, 74, had been accused of killing Lynette Dawson in 1982. Her body has never been found and Dawson has always maintained he was not involved in her disappearance.

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Amid the grandstanding, Sydney’s new stadium leaves same issues unresolved

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The Allianz Stadium has been rebuilt at a cost of $800m but the harbour city still lacks the right grounds in the right places

Walking into Sydney’s new Allianz Stadium feels a bit like walking into an old house with new fixtures. Everything is a bit brighter and works a little better – the couch somehow feels closer to the TV and that pesky leak in the roof has stopped – but the foundations are much the same.

That isn’t all that surprising given the architectural firm that designed the old 42,500-capacity venue is the same firm that designed the new 42,500-capacity venue. But it does prompt a query: if a stadium is demolished and rebuilt to look strikingly similar, was it rebuilt at all? If the New South Wales government had not spent $828m on it, could we say it had really happened?

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Free degrees for Victorian nurses could cause workforce shortages elsewhere, unions warn

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Australian nursing and midwifery groups say Victoria’s scheme could see aspiring nurses leave their home states

Free university degrees for budding nurses in Victoria could exacerbate nationwide workforce shortages and pit states against each other, unions and peak bodies have warned.

The Victorian government on Sunday announced plans to pay the entire HECS debt of more than 10,000 nursing and midwifery graduates. Under the $270m scheme, all new domestic students enrolling in undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses in 2023 and 2024 will receive up to $16,500.

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Recycled water for drinking should be considered for Sydney, new strategy finds

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NSW government should also consider having additional desalination plants and plan for new ‘rainfall-independent’ water sources, report says

A new water strategy for the Sydney basin says the New South Wales government needs to look urgently at investing in alternative sources of water, including more desalination plants and large-scale recycling of wastewater.

But the state’s minister for water, Kevin Anderson, skirted around the most contentious part of the report: the consideration of large-scale recycling into the drinking-water system.

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NSW introduces seven-star energy standards for new homes

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Renovations valued at more than $50,000 will be subject to the new NSW government planning policy

Tougher energy standards for new homes will be introduced in New South Wales, but small residential blocks and shopping centres won’t have to adhere to them because of developers’ concerns about added complexity and costs.

Under a new policy announced on Monday, new houses and high-rise towers will need to have a seven-star energy rating, while large office buildings must show the ability to become all-electric-powered.

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Comanchero bike boss Tarek Zahed to face murder charge after dramatic arrest in Sydney

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Tactical police fired bean bag rounds into Tarek Zahed’s black BMW on Edgecliff street

Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed will face a Sydney court on a murder charge just months after narrowly surviving an attempt on his own life.

The sergeant-at-arms of the outlaw motorcycle gang was arrested in dramatic scenes on Sunday when tactical police fired bean bag rounds into Zahed’s black BMW on an Edgecliff street.

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Pocock urges Labor to scrap tax cuts – as it happened

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Independent senator David Pocock says circumstances have changed ‘so much’ since stage three tax cuts policy was legislated. This blog is now closed

McManus: normal part of bargaining to have industrial action as a last resort

McManus is asked if she wants workers in specific business to regain the right to strike in support of workers in other business (otherwise known as sympathy strikes or solidarity action).

Not in support of workers in another business – together. It is a normal part of bargaining to have … as a last resort, to take industrial action, and that is what happens in countries that have multi-employer bargaining, and there [are] not more strikes, there is more pay rises.

Essentially when workers have an option to do that, obviously it means the option to have a better outcome, and a better outcome more quickly.

Basically, workers’ bargaining power has been smashed over that period of time That’s why we have a problem, a huge problem, with wages growth and unless we address that issue, that is not going to change.

We think [sector-wide bargaining] should be open to all, but obviously a lot of places … they are getting pay rises at the moment. They can access the bargaining system.

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Perrottet government faces challenge from new wave of teals in NSW’s 2023 state election

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Community-based groups are looking for candidates but they may find it harder to gain traction than federal independents

The Perrottet government will face a wave of community-based independent candidates at the next state election running on platforms of integrity in NSW politics, sustainability and local development issues.

Community-based groups, some of which include people who worked on federal campaigns for “teal” candidates, are being set up along the north shore of Sydney and in the east.

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How an Indigenous Australian artist ‘astonished’ a giant of American art

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Sol LeWitt never met Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who began painting in her 80s, but he was blown away by her work. A new AGNSW show celebrates their unlikely link

He was one of the 20th century’s pioneers of modern American art; she was the Anmatyerre artist who put Australian desert painting on the world stage.

Sol LeWitt and Emily Kame Kngwarreye never met, yet one had a profound effect on the work of the other, and led to one of the largest collections of Utopia art outside Australia. LeWitt became a huge fan of Kngwarreye, and of the distinct style produced by the Indigenous Australian artists working in Utopia, Northern Territory.

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Schoolboy who raped girl at Blue Mountains party to be held in youth detention for at least two months

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Magistrate says teenager ‘has shown no contrition’ but accepts his prospects for rehabilitation are ‘strong’

An unremorseful teenage boy who attacked and raped a fellow high school pupil at a house party in the Blue Mountains will be held in youth detention for at least two months.

The boy was initially involved in consensual activity with his victim before pushing further, sexually assaulting her six times and intentionally choking her over a two-hour period in the living room of a home west of Sydney.

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Poor mental health could result in $7.4bn in lost productivity in NSW, report finds

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Exclusive: Research shows increase in depression and anxiety could result in hit on economy by 2025

Lost productivity due to poor mental health will see almost $7.5bn ripped from the New South Wales economy by 2025 if more is not done to support workers and businesses, according to a new report.

The Impact Economics and Policy report – commissioned by the NSW Council of Social Service (Ncoss) – looked at the compounding impacts of repeated natural disasters and the pandemic on the mental health of the population.

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Snow blankets Blue Mountains as cold weather moves across NSW

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Icy conditions brought thunderstorms, rain and snow in higher parts of the NSW tablelands and northeast

Residents in the Blue Mountains woke to a blanket of snow on Wednesday morning as a cold front moved through New South Wales.

The icy conditions brought thunderstorms, rain and snow in higher parts of the NSW tablelands and northeast on Tuesday, while a “cold blast” swept the rest of the state.

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Fight over CFMEU’s ability to preselect candidates threatens to split NSW Labor left

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Attempt to stop union from voting has prompted the soft left to threaten to divide the faction

An ugly preselection brawl within the New South Wales Labor left has threatened to split the faction ahead of the next state election, amid accusations of “rorts”, legal threats and ongoing criminal charges over allegations of union officials accepting bribes.

At the centre of the intra-factional fight is a bid by the hard left to block the powerful CFMEU and its allies from installing the prominent barrister Cameron Murphy into a winnable spot on the party’s upper house ticket ahead of the March election.

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Former PM says he did not misuse secret ministerial powers – as it happened

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If Morrison saga was playing out in the corporate world, he would have been stood down from job, Christine Holgate says

Former Australia Post boss, Christine Holgate continues to weigh in on revelations former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to the finance portfolio, overseeing her independent review without her knowledge.

I feel extremely disappointed … To to be told and go through that experience inparliament and then to be told that there will be an independent investigation into you, and then a full Senate inquiry. At no point did I ever know ... the arms-length independent review was actually overseen by Mr Morrison as the finance minister. That doesn’t sound very independent to me.

If this had happened in a corporate world, you know, that person would have been stood down for their job. There would be an enormous set of consequences. But unfortunately, this is allowed to take place in parliament, it feels. I think it’s almost incredible. And actually quite disturbing.

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Radioactive rock at Randwick Girls High ‘no cause for alarm’, NSW inquiry told

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Education minister Sarah Mitchell tells budget estimates that ‘no harm was posed’ by the 17 August find at Sydney school

A radioactive rock that was found at a Sydney high school did not pose a danger to students or staff, the New South Wales education minister, Sarah Mitchell, has told a budget estimates hearing.

Mitchell was questioned on Tuesday about the radioactive substance that was found at Randwick Girls High in Sydney’s east on 17 August.

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