After last week’s media headline concerning government plans for Resilience NSW (RNSW), the Public Service Association (PSA) has been actively engaging with members and your PSA RNSW delegates, to ensure we provide support at this difficult time. We have also attended the two all staff meetings addressed by Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

We are aware that the NSW Parliament, Legislative Council Select Committee on the response to Major Flooding across NSW in 2022 Report No. 1 was released on Tuesday and that another Independent Report has been sitting with the NSW government for two weeks and has not yet been released. We note that Resilience NSW is being given the opportunity to provide feedback, comment on omissions and/or correct the record in relation to the various stakeholder submissions that informed the Parliamentary Report.

We understand that political machinations are at play and that at this stage, no clear official announcement has been made by the NSW Government about their plans for Resilience NSW. Whilst questions will be asked and responded to in relation to the response of agencies to the unparalleled humanitarian disaster that was the NSW floods, the PSA as your union is committed to advocating for recognition of the valuable and essential work that our members skillfully continue to carry out to serve the public and engage with communities in need.

We remind and reassure our members at this challenging time that every year the PSA fights for public sector workers (our members) to receive that recognition. Part of that is our campaign for the pay rise that you deserve – a pay rise aligned with the rising cost of living.  Year on year, the PSA also lobbies the NSW government to properly fund public sector agencies and we continue to hold those agencies to account, to allocate funds to staffing, resourcing, and supporting the essential work that you do.

Despite the precarious political climate, the PSA will continue to fight to maintain your jobs. You can be assured that any proposed organisational change process will require consultation with the PSA, and we will ensure that RNSW follows the Public Service Commission organisational change guidelines.

We will keep our members updated as things unfold but if you have any immediate concerns, please contact your PSA delegates – Adam Tran, Pete Christie or Cally Sheehan or call the PSA Member Support Centre on 1300 772 679.