PSA Member Meeting at Wollongbar Primary Industry Institute
In response to the job cuts and major structural changes at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the PSA will hold a members’ meeting at Wollongbar Primary Industries Institute on Wednesday 6 August 2025.
Join us to discuss the impacts of the proposed reforms. Your voice matters.
Agenda
Wholesale Job Cuts & New Roles to Meet New Demands.
Following the shocking news of job cuts PSA Regional Organiser will be onsite with PSA Industrial Officer Shane Howes online hear from members.
Read PSA’s recent bulletin regarding these job cuts HERE
You are Invited: Coffee and Connection with the PSA
The PSA invites all members working at Noel Park House (155-157 Marius Street, Tamworth) to join us for complimentary coffee, tea, or hot chocolate at The Bureau Café.
Come and connect with PSA President Nicole Jess and PSA Organisers on Wednesday, 6 August. This is a wonderful opportunity to chat with fellow members from across multiple agencies in a relaxed setting.
Details
Date Wednesday 6 August 2025
Time 9:30am-11:30am
Location The Bureau Café, 169 Marius Street, Tamworth NSW 2340
Free coffee/hot chocolate/tea for PSA members – and we would love to meet anyone interested in learning more about joining the PSA.
Bring a colleague! Know someone who isn’t a union member yet? This is the perfect chance to show them the value of being part of our union community.
We are looking forward to seeing you there and having great conversations over coffee.
Reform Everywhere!!! Wholesale Job Cuts & New Roles to Meet New Demands
Members would be aware of reports from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Secretary identifying extensive levels of reform across a number of divisions of the agency for cost cutting to meet budgetary savings and a refocus on core business.
After high level briefings by Senior DPIRD representatives from the respective divisions on Monday 28 July 2025, the PSA was provided with the 10 Change Management Plans on Tuesday 29 July 2025.
They paint a sober picture of programs cut and new, refined priorities.
The 10 Change Management Plans include:
Biosecurity and Food Safety
Agriculture
Climate and Natural Resources
Strategy and Regulatory Policy
Wollongbar AgEnviro Lab
Strategy Media and Ministerial Services
Regional Programs and Partnerships
Rural Assistance Authority
NSW Resources
Research Assurance
The Damage
The result is a proposed reduction of 165 roles across all classifications, but this only tells part of the story. 165 is the net figure with the gross figure of proposed job cuts set at 266, with 111 created. There is no guarantee despite how much the PSA pushes, the new roles would match the skill sets or grades of affected staff. Nor the roles be within the regional centres they reside.
No classifications have been spared, with the Professional Officer cohort most savaged. At the other end of the spectrum, more than 10 per cent of roles proposed for deletion are at the lowest levels of Clerk 1/2 and General Scale Clerk.
Don’t Focus on On-Going Staff
The PSA has already told the DPIRD Secretary the agency should first find savings through reductions in the Senior Executive Service that have swelled well past 150, contingent labour and temporary worker rather than cutting ongoing roles. The deletion of on-going roles especially those located in Regional NSW should be a last resort.
The PSA has also questioned rationales for cutting service delivery functions. The PSA maintains whilst new priorities should be supported, it shouldn’t be at the expense of those currently in operations. Primary producer industries will have their support slashed, thus a phased approach over time would be the more appropriate to achieve these new priorities.
Other operations proposed to close are based upon flimsy arguments that ‘hold little water’. Some areas have been left with inadequate resourcing for years and are now being told they are ineffective.
For Some, Discussions of Mobility for Staff are a Pipedream
Whilst job matching and mobility provisions are highlighted as a means to reduce the detrimental effects of wholesale job cuts, the often-niche roles administered by DPIRD staff make the likelihood of matching or redeployment all but hopeless.
In many cases, specialist/technical roles are being deleted and proposed to be replaced with Clerks. Other classifications have been cut so hard that they have little to no capacity to be redeployed or matched into other roles in DPIRD.
Consultation Over Two Weeks? – Yeah Right
The proposed consultation timeframes of two weeks proposed by DPIRD are wholly inadequate to administer reform of this magnitude. By posing such inadequate measures, the PSA has the impression the agency doesn’t really want to consult with its workforce.
The PSA does not and will not stand for it.
Where to from Here?
Once the announcement is made official on Thursday 31 July 2025, the PSA will be providing our members the opportunity to review Change Management Plans (CMPs) and to formulate responses to the different plans. Be on the lookout for PSA representatives in your workplaces and via Teams. Talk to your colleagues, ask questions at briefings. Provide the PSA with your feedback.
The PSA Initial Response
PSA Assistant General Secretary Troy Wright says “reform of this magnitude should be administered in a phased and staged approach to ensure that there is a workforce fit to continue service without interruptions”.
“The O’Kane Review provided DPIRD and this Government with a means to modernise the provision of research, priorities and resourcing. These change proposals fail to consider the complex and highly technical elements of service provision to agricultural communities. Instead of doing this in steps and over time in a methodic and considered manner, DPIRD has attempted to do this in one foul swoop”.
“In effect, this is not the modernisation of support to regional communities and primary producers, it is the lowest common denominator of support.”
“The job losses will hurt regional communities, and the loss of services and programs will hurt those regional primary producers. And the thousands of years of DPIRD research and programs will be lost to those who need them most. That will ultimately cost NSW regional communities and primary producers more than the current black hole in the budget.”
“Didn’t the State Government just give the agency an extra $140 million? Or was it really just smoke and mirrors?”
The PSA will be holding member meetings over the coming weeks to discuss the announcement from the Transport Secretary, Josh Murray, of a plan to cut 950 positions from TfNSW in order to reach a “savings target” of $600 million dollars.
The number of Senior Executives across Transport continues to dwarf other Departments
The announcement to cut 950 positions from Transport Senior Service Manager (TSSM) and Award staff comes after a 2-year process that has reduced the size of TSSE’s of across Transport by just 200. The PSA notes that while there has been a reduction of approximately 200 from the TSSE ranks, Transport still employs over 1000 Senior Executives, approximately 25% of the entire Government Sector.
It stands to reason that if TfNSW wishes to look for savings, they should continue looking at their Senior Executive numbers, and explain why they need so many for their workforce. They also need to explain why they are comfortable with a 2-year process to cut 200 Senior Executives, but plan to cut 950 workers over the next five months.
The PSA has been active in the media since the announcement, calling on the NSW Government to review where they are seeking to get the “savings” from, and to stop running a protection racket for Senior Executives. You can follow the PSA Facebook page to view the press conference held last Friday by PSA General Secretary Stewart Little.
The announcement refers to “early exit” options for TSSM’s. However, it also states that some branches will begin consultation from as early as August (next week), whilst others will begin later in the year. In order to remove the inequity of some branches undergoing such processes before others, TfNSW should first put a call out to all TSSMs for their interest in an early exit, regardless of which branch they belong to.
Member meetings
While consultation on the plan to cut 950 positions has not yet begun, and specific designs have not been shared with the PSA, we will be holding meetings for members to discuss concerns and ask any questions you may have at this stage.
The meetings will be via Teams for all members to attend, however PSA Organisers will also be on-site at the locations below between 11:00 am – 1:30pm. There will be further meetings in coming weeks.
Workload Planner is a must to ensure you get paid for your hard-earned overtime!
With the new Child Protection Award currently being finalised and taking effect soon, we are urging members to engage in the use of the current Workload Planner (WLP). The culture of dedicated staff continuing to go above and beyond in the work they are allocated, means very little to the wider workforce and importantly – children, young people and families of NSW, if the impacts on your wellbeing are not addressed.
To assist you in setting boundaries and prioritise your workload, to give you tools to say “No” to work you simply do not have the hours to complete – PSA will be running Workload Planner Lunch & Learn sessions both in Community Service Centres (CSCs) and via MS Teams.
The current Workload Planner is easier to use than you might think, and we urge you to put it into action because the fact remains – if it’s not measurable, it’s not manageable. The Workload Planner gives the PSA, and MCS, Directors and EDD, evidence to clearly demonstrate that there are not enough workers to meet the workload.
All Community Services PSA members are invited to attend the upcoming Workload Planner Lunch & Learn to demystify using the Workload Planner to take back control of your workload, not just for you, but for the people who rely on you.
Details
Date Thursday 31 July 2025
Time 12:00pm–2:30pm
Location: Macarthur and Ingleburn CSCs and MS Teams (link below, all Members are welcome to jump on regardless of location or role)
Rural Fire Service – Assistance for Infirm, Disabled and Elderly Residents (AIDER) and Home Fire Visit Program
On Monday 14 July 2025, the PSA and the Rural Fire Service (RFS) met to discuss the recent release of Assistance for Infirm, Disabled and Elderly Residents (AIDER), which can be viewed HERE, and the transition to the Guardian Mitigation Portal.
Further items also discussed within the meeting included:
Mitigation team workload including coordinator and OpO1.
Wording of the documentation resulting in confusion as to which role performs which tasks.
Implementation of programs and training.
Transition from ‘Works Assessment Officers’ to OpO1 Mitigation and it’s impacts.
As a result of this meeting both parties have agreed to a stay of proceedings until further consultation occurs between the PSA and the RFS.
The PSA is seeking feedback from members on the AIDER Program, the Home Fire Safety Visit (HFSV) Program and the Guardian Mitigation Portal, and further to this the PSA has been advised that the Mitigation teams have been performing tasks outside of their role description.
The PSA encourages feedback from members with examples of this occurring in your district and ask that you contact the PSA Members Support at and use Case ID – C10008484: or contact your delegates.
Service NSW – overtime: changes to rounding rule update
Further to our earlier bulletin dated 10 July 2005 which can be viewed HERE.
Upon review of the offer to allow overtime to be claimed after 8 minutes extra has been worked beyond daily hours, the PSA has determined that the issue needs to be assessed by our legal team and we expect to have further information soon and advise members to delay making claims pending that advice.
In the meantime we again ask that you keep a personal record of the extra time worked.
If you have further questions or concerns, please contact member support in the first instance on 1800 772 679 or quoting reference number 10007778.
Professional staff job cuts: state of the university sector briefing
Another week, another round of job cuts coming down the line for university professional staff.
These aren’t just numbers on a change management plan, these are real people whose work, livelihoods, and futures in the sector are being carved away.
While University management spins the story away from their own failings with the tired old lines about “budgets” and “efficiencies” it’s our members across the university sector that are bearing the brunt of money mismanagement as highlighted in the recent Australia Institute report which can be viewed HERE.
State of the Sector Briefing – Hear from CPSU NSW Assistant General Secretary and Vice President
On 5 August, your union, the PSA CPSU NSW, will be holding an online meeting about what’s going on specifically focusing on professional staff impacts, issues and concerns.
Watch out for the registration email coming soon!
In attendance will be Assistant General Secretary Troy Wright, and Vice President Shelley Odewahn both of whom have extensive experience over the years with the university sector. Shelley Odewahn has worked in the higher education sector for over 20 years and is passionate about professional staff.
Know someone who still needs to join the CPSU NSW? Invite them along!
You can support the work of the CPSU NSW and delegates to get better outcomes for everyone just by asking your colleagues to JOIN.
Forward this email to your colleagues so they can be part of a growing union that protects its members and wins.
Why become a PSA delegate?
As a delegate, you’ll be the day-to-day face of the PSA — leading on workplace issues, connecting members with the union office, and helping protect and advance your colleagues’ workplace rights.
Whether you’re just curious or ready to step up, this session is for you!
Possible Backpay: PSA delegates and staff have identified pay errors and discrepancies.
PSA delegates have identified that there are pay errors for Business Managers and School Learning Support Officers and have been working with union staff to resolve these for members.
We have also identified that many School Admin Officers and some School Admin Managers have not been paid allowances for First Aid and Medications while performing the work.
Find out More About Possible Backpay – Organise a PSA Meeting
PSA Organisers are arranging meetings in schools across the state to see how many people may be entitled to backpay.
Watch out for emails from your PSA Organiser and schedule a meeting so you can find out what can be done for you and your colleagues.
Remember:
Only PSA members can be supported by the union.
JOIN the PSA today, organise a meeting and encourage all your colleagues to attend.
Your organisers are:
Metro:
Marisa Bosco
Susan Chee Quee
Alison Crittenden
Monique Anderson
Regional:
Newcastle/Hunter
Paul James, Gino Di Candilo and Ian Braithwaite
North Coast
Rebecca Reilly
Mid North Coast
Michael Smart
South Coast
Bart Mackenzie and Shane Elliot
North West
Steve Mears
Central West
Belinda Pearce
South West
Tom Hooper
Contact your organiser direct, email or call 1800 772 679.
Your PSA Organiser Alex Sala, Industrial Officer Anthony Wright and PSA Delegates will be holding a member meeting on Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 12pm to discuss any issues or concerns, and strengthen our collective voice, ahead of the upcoming Multicultural NSW Joint Consultative Committee Meeting (JCC) with the Director of People and Corporate MNSW Catherine Davies and CEO Joseph La Posta.
Please come along and take advantage of this excellent opportunity for all of us to connect!
Open Discussion:
This is your chance to raise any issues you are facing at work with the union. We value your input and want to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
