PSA Timeline: 2020 – Present
Year | Information |
2023 | March 2023: Labor wins the NSW state election on 25 March 2023 with a minority government, ending 12 years of Liberal-National coalition government. Chris Minns becomes the 47th Premier of NSW. |
2023 | March 2023: Unions NSW are running their own campaign, Essential Workers Deserve Better, but have also embraced the PSA’s Privatisation Hurts Everyone campaign, in particular, our campaign against the possible privatisation of Sydney Water. The public almost unanimously are outraged by the suggestion that water could be privatised. |
2023 | February 2023: The PSA’s seven-week state election campaign, Privatisation Hurts Everyone, kicked off in early Feb. After years of campaigning against the privatisation of public services and assets, the general public’s perception of how privatisation has had a negative impact on public services and how the sale of public assets has only ever transferred public wealth into private hands is finally being better understood. PSA’s TV ads go live on social media (Facebook and YouTube) and later during Channel Nine 6pm news. https://psa.asn.au/privatisation-hurts-everyone/videos/ The NSW Labor Opposition is campaigning against privatisation, having often been in favour of it when they were last in government. |
2022 | December 2022: PSA commissions two TV ads as part of our state election campaign. |
2022 | Australia has experienced almost 10 million cases of COVID-19 with a total of 13,000 deaths. Lismore Flood Inquiry makes a number of recommendations and is critical of government failures. Government announces it will axe Resilience NSW and considers merging certain functions of the SES and RFS. |
2022 | PSA Day of Action around the state. Thousands of members strike in support of the PSA’s The Public Sector Needs a Pay Rise campaign. |
2022 | In May, the Australian Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, wins the federal election. |
2022 | The Public Sector Needs a Pay Rise campaign launched as the cost of living starts to increase at a much higher rate than experienced for many years. The PSA continues to campaign for the Coalition government’s public sector wage cap to be removed and that the power to set wage increases is handed back to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. |
2022 | PSA announces financial support for members impacted by floods, similar to the support offered during the bushfires in 2020. |
2022 | Lismore floods on 28 Feb peaking at a record 14.4 metres. Lismore flooded again on 30 March. |
2022 | COVID-19 infections jump up dramatically in January 2022 with the pandemic continuing to impact on all aspects of life in Australia. |
2021 | NSW Police announces closure of Police Radio at Penrith putting 70 jobs in jeopardy. After a quick, well-organised PSA campaign, the Police cancelled the move. |
2021 | When Premier Gladys Berejiklian resigns over ICAC investigations, she is replaced by Dominic Perrottet, a zealous advocate for privatising state assets. |
2021 | PSA pressure forces then Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to abandon his plan to limit the public sector pay rise to 1.5 per cent. |
2021 | NSW undergoes a more severe lockdown, which starts in June and is tapered out by December. Large numbers of people work from home, an option not available to many PSA/CPSU NSW members. COVID-19 is largely kept out of prisons, with a breakout in September contained. |
2021 | The PSA/CPSU NSW election, postponed due to COVID-19, is held. Stewart Little is re-elected as General Secretary, with Troy Wright returned as Assistant General Secretary. The membership elects a new President; Nicole Jess from Corrective Services. |
2020 | Union pressure and the aftermath of bushfires keeps Forestry Corporation of NSW in public hands. |
2020 | After a sustained campaign by the PSA and other groups the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo is saved from closure. |
2020 | A number of PSA members in Police Aviation get a huge windfall when thousands of dollars in underpayments are discovered. |
2020 | The CPSU NSW gets coverage in the state’s newest – and largest – prison, the Clarence Correctional Centre. |
2020 | COVID-19 forces a lockdown in NSW. Union members in prisons take steps to keep the pandemic out of gaols, while schools throughout NSW switch to home-learning. Events such as PSA/CPSU NSW Annual Conference, and the election for union officeholders are cancelled. |
2020 | As COVID-19 arrives in Australia, members work on through a pandemic, both in the community and working from home. The Association’s membership climbs back over 38,000. |
2020 | Fires grip large parts of NSW. PSA/CPSU NSW members in the Rural Fire Service, Forestry Corp, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Corrective Services, Housing and Fire & Rescue are put to work fighting the blazes and helping in their aftermath. Sadly, a member from TAFE is among the 34 people killed. |