Inquiry hears of residents’ anger that disaster agencies treated flood response as a ‘nine-to-five job’
New South Wales disaster management agencies have defended their rescue and recovery response to the record-breaking floods that claimed 13 lives earlier this year.
An upper house committee inquiry also heard that fewer than 10% of flood victims across the state have received crucial disaster relief funds.
Continue reading...State government accuses New South Wales Teachers Federation of breaching orders from Industrial Relations Commission
The New South Wales Teachers Federation is facing potential court-ordered penalties because of widespread strikes in May over pay and conditions in public schools.
In a lawsuit, the state’s Department of Education accused the union of breaching orders made by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) in November last year ordering it to refrain from further industrial action.
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Continue reading...Transport minister says he is ‘disgusted’ with treasurer over messages that allegedly asked reporter to question PM about Katherine Deves
The New South Wales transport minister, David Elliott, has accused his Liberal colleague Matt Kean of “treachery” during the federal election, after the treasurer was accused of telling a journalist to grill Scott Morrison over the controversial preselection of the anti-trans activist Katherine Deves.
Elliott on Monday told Sydney radio station 2GB he was “disgusted” with Kean over a report in the Australian that suggested the treasurer had asked a journalist to push both Morrison and the NSW roads minister Natalie Ward on comments made by Deves in the lead-up to the May poll.
Continue reading...While Moodys have forecast a stable outlook, spending measures spark warning over triple A rating
Treasury officials have warned the New South Wales government its triple A credit rating could be at risk as it prepares to hand down its final budget before the state election next year.
The Guardian understands that in the lead-up to the next budget on 21 June, Treasury told the government that a series of big spending announcements coupled with pressure on the state’s finances could lead to a downgrade in its prized triple A credit rating.
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Continue reading...Swings at federal election hint at shifts that could be replicated in state polls due in November and March
With the federal poll decided, upcoming elections in Australia’s two biggest states will be the next electoral test for our country’s political parties. The dramatic swing to independents raises interesting questions about what might happen in Victoria in November and New South Wales in March.
It’s important to note that federal election results are not predictive of what happens in state elections, or vice versa. Indeed, there is a history of state and federal elections held in quick succession producing quite different results. The 1992 Victorian state election swept Jeff Kennett to power, less than six months before the state voted strongly for the Keating Labor government in 1993.
Continue reading...State to work with federal government on $1bn upgrade that could slash travel time between Sydney and Gosford to 25 minutes
The New South Wales government has backed a $1bn rail upgrade between Sydney and the Central Coast that could pave the way for faster train services.
The state will work with the federal government on the upgrade, with $500m to be set aside in the 21 June state budget, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, says.
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Continue reading...Tech giant and comedian Jordan Shanks may face contempt of court charges over videos published during trial
Google has been ordered to pay former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro more than $700,000 over a series of “racist” and “abusive” videos published on YouTube channel Friendlyjordies.
On Monday, federal court justice Stephen Rares ruled that Barilaro had been left “traumatised” by a campaign of “relentless cyberbullying” by comedian Jordan Shanks, who uses the nom de plume Friendlyjordies
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Union-commissioned study finds cap will see wages fall by thousands of dollars a year
Public sector workers will lose thousands of dollars a year due to rising cost of living pressures unless the New South Wales government scraps its controversial cap on wages, according to a new report released ahead of plans for further industrial action.
As a coalition of unions prepares to ramp up its campaign against the Coalition, the report, commissioned by Unions NSW, found nurses, teachers, police and paramedics all face being thousands of dollars worse off due to the 2.5% cap on wage increases introduced in 2011.
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Continue reading...Anti-corruption watchdog plans to publish its own report on pork-barrelling, ‘including whether and how it relates to corrupt conduct’
The head of the New South Wales anti-corruption watchdog has cited the Berejiklian government’s notorious $252m Stronger Communities fund as a clear example of pork-barrelling, saying almost its sole motive was political, calling it “clearly on the other side of the line”.
Peter Hall QC, the chief commissioner of the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac), told a forum, examining the legality of pork-barrelling in politics, that the fund was “on the other side of the line” of what was “permissible”.
Continue reading...Deputy PM says power prices a ‘real issue’ in cost-of-living crisis; new consent laws in effect in NSW; NSW plastic bag ban now in effect; ten women to be sworn into new cabinet, including Clare O’Neil as home affairs minister; Victoria records 17 Covid deaths, NSW records nine. Follow all the day’s developments
Richard Marles on power prices
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has imposed a price cap in Sydney, Brisbane and Victoria for the first time ever in response to record levels and a cold snap driving up gas use.
We have got a cost of living crisis in this country. That’s what has been left to us by the former government. And we have got a real issue with power prices. Again, that’s the legacy of having had a decade under the Liberals where they haven’t had a consistent energy policy. Where there has been no investment in getting renewable energy going and that’s now the challenge that we face.
It is not something we can solve overnight but ... there are some things that we can do sooner rather than later in terms of ... making childcare more affordable ... arguing for a wage increase for those on the minimum wage. There are issues here which are going to take longer but which we need to start addressing now ... around having a settled policy in relation to energy policy and getting our grid up to a modern standard where it can take on renewables which are cheaper.
I think all of us can see the impact plastic pollution is having on our environment. By stopping the supply of problematic plastic in the first place, we’re helping prevent it from entering our environment as litter, or going into landfill.
No one told these small businesses that plastic bags are banned … now they’re sitting on thousands of dollars’ worth of bags they can’t use.
Continue reading...Locals who were trying to help rescue residents and feed evacuees clashed with NSW agencies, community witnesses say
Lismore residents have told of fights breaking out between members of the public trying to help and officials attempting to implement a failed “top-down” approach during the height of the flood emergency.
Several community witnesses at a parliamentary inquiry into catastrophic flooding in the town told MPs on Tuesday they were completely disillusioned with Resilience NSW, the new agency established in 2020 to lead disaster and emergency efforts from prevention to recovery.
Continue reading...Law expert Prof Anne Twomey calls for grants to be made on merit and based on clear criteria
A report commissioned by the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption has called for pork-barrelling to be prohibited and instead grants should be made strictly on merit after assessments against clear criteria.
The report, by the University of Sydney constitutional law expert Prof Anne Twomey, says a major overhaul of the way government makes grants is needed to ensure they are awarded on merit and are no longer used for pork-barrelling in marginal seats.
Continue reading...Coroner identifies unacceptable treatment in lead-up to death from multi-organ failure due to sepsis, calls for new interstate rules
Broken Hill teenager Alex Braes’s parents remember him as a ray of sunshine, a funny and smart young man ready to live a full life.
But the 18-year-old mechanic died with “tragic suddenness”, suffering multi-organ failure due to sepsis, one month after treatment for an infected ingrown toenail.
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Continue reading...NSW Liberals reportedly working on plan to have Berejiklian run for a federal seat in 2025
New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, says his predecessor would make a great federal member of parliament, amid reports about Gladys Berejiklian’s potential return to politics.
Referring to a News Corp report that the NSW Liberals were working on a plan to have Berejiklian run for a federal seat – possibly North Sydney – at the 2025 election, Perrottet said her abilities would translate well at the federal level.
Continue reading...Catholic Weekly called on to apologise over editorial comparing new rights to the Holocaust
The maverick Catholic figure Father Bob Maguire has criticised New South Wales’ premier and the state’s parliament for passing voluntary assisted dying laws, after a scathing editorial on the legislation was published in the Catholic Weekly.
On Friday Jewish groups put pressure on the newspaper, funded by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, to apologise and amend the piece, which compared the new laws with the Holocaust and criticised Dominic Perrottet’s leadership.
Continue reading...Law Society argues many fines issued to vulnerable residents are invalid, unfair and could trap disadvantaged people in debt
The Law Society of New South Wales has called on the premier, Dominic Perrottet, to “urgently” review thousands of Covid fines issued to the state’s most vulnerable, warning many were invalid, unfair, and have caused the disadvantaged to amass “debt they are unable to pay”.
Earlier this year, the Guardian revealed that small towns with high Indigenous populations and western Sydney suburbs home to the city’s most socioeconomically disadvantaged residents bore the brunt of Covid fines during the ramp-up in enforcement in the Delta outbreak.
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Continue reading...‘Make No Doubt’ videos aim to provide young people with tools to give and ask for consent, launched one week before NSW law change
Party pashes, drunken encounters and booty-call texts – these are some of the scenarios featured in a campaign being rolled out on social media before new affirmative sexual consent laws coming into effect in New South Wales next week.
It is hoped the short, simple videos – depicting scenes that young people could find themselves in – will equip the target group of 16- to 24-year-olds with the tools to give and ask for consent, and respect when someone says “no”.
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Continue reading...Dominic Perrottet insists government will respond shortly to the ‘complicated issues’ raised by 2018 inquiry into ice addiction
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has conceded there are “competing views” in his cabinet over a landmark inquiry that recommended the complete decriminalisation of drug possession.
Perrottet said his government would respond “very shortly” to the findings of the special commission into ice addiction – commissioned in 2018 – after the Guardian revealed there was still no response to the report.
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Continue reading...Former minister Gareth Ward, who has professed his innocence, has already been suspended from parliament
The New South Wales government has been told it cannot strip suspended MP Gareth Ward of his pay, staff or other entitlements without enacting new legislation, a step it should not take because it “may be vulnerable to legal challenge”.
Ward, the MP for Kiama, was suspended from the state’s parliament in March after he was charged over allegations of sexual abuse against a man and a 17-year-old boy. The suspension came after legal advice found the government could not expel Ward from the parliament.
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Continue reading...Auditor general says state agencies forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators
The New South Wales government underspent on personal protective equipment and mental health services and forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators as part of the state’s $7.5bn pandemic expenditure, a review has found.
The auditor general released a detailed report on Friday after examining the state’s spending from the first case detected in January 2020 to the middle of 2021.
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