PSA General Secretary Anne Gardiner, Glen Barlow from Corrective Services, Jane Howrylak from Trustee and Guardian and Schools delegate and CPSU/SPSF Branch President Mary Court at PSA House before meeting with Fred Nile on 9 August. The delegation sought support for the fight against the GSE Regulation that extinguishes the right of NSW public sector workers to redundancy or severance payments where privatisations occur.
Politicians at all levels of government are recklessly privatising our public services, leading to diminished service quality, lack of accountability and transparency, and removing ownership from public hands.
Now the Turnbull Government has directed the Productivity Commission to conduct an inquiry into how to further privatise our public services.
The PSA believes communities should have a say over how their services are run, by whom and what services they need.
For that reason, the PSA is working with Public Services International and the ACTU and leading the charge in the People’s Inquiry into Privatisation and its impact in NSW.
The inquiry will travel the country from 5 September until 27 October 2016.
For NSW, the dates are Newcastle on Monday 5 September, Wollongong on Tuesday 6 September, and Sydney on Thursday 8 September.
Monday 5 September in Newcastle, 4 pm – 7 pm
Travel Lodge Hotel, Newcastle
Steve Turner, Assistant General Secretary, and members impacted by privatisation will be speaking.
Tuesday 6 September in Wollongong, 4 pm – 7 pm
Novotel Wollongong, North Beach
Thursday 8 September in Sydney, 4 pm – 7 pm
Mercure Hotel, Sydney
Steve Turner will focus on the ILO complaint and the GSE Regulation with members also speaking about Prison privatisation, Land and Property Information privatisation and the outsourcing of Out of Home Care.
For further information click HERE.
Terms of reference are available HERE.
Prison Privatisation in Australia: The State of the Nation – Read HERE.
The PSA has set up a petition calling on the NSW Government to:
You can sign and share the petition HERE.
The PSA is taking part in the People’s Inquiry into Privatisation which will be taking place in Newcastle on 5 September, Wollongong 6 September and Sydney on 8 September.
A lunchtime rally is being organised in Newcastle for 5 September. Details will be available once finalised.
For full details of the Inquiry, click HERE.
The bad sport Baird Government is outsourcing Sport and Recreation camps with the Newcastle Herald spotlighting the fate of the facilities in the Hunter.
Read the full Newcastle Herald article HERE.
Dear delegates,
Staff in the PSA Organising Directorate have been telephoning a cross section of our members to speak about the Government Sector Employment Amendment (Transfers to Non-Government Sector) Regulation 2016.
This Regulation was introduced by the Baird Government to deny redundancy and severance payments to employees who are affected by privatisation and offered so-called “comparable employment” in the private sector.
The clear objective of the Regulation is to make privatisation cheaper for the Government.
The list of those being called was generated by the PSA’s Strategy and Policy Directorate.
It comprises of approximately 6,800 members randomly selected from a representative cross section of worksites from our database.
So far we have made 3,500 telephone calls and held over 1000 one-on-one conversations with members.
We will continue calling until we have attempted contact with everyone on the list.
The purpose of our telephone calls are to:
For some time now the PSA has been working to secure a meeting with the Reverend Fred Nile.
The purpose of the meeting is to ask Reverend Nile to support a disallowance motion to stop the Regulation.
This important disallowance motion is being put to the Parliament by the Labor Party’s Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Adam Searle.
During our calls, nearly 60 members have told Organisers that they would meet with Reverend Nile to seek his support on the issue.
As a result, the PSA wrote to Reverend Nile indicating we had members who wanted to meet with him about the Regulation.
We are pleased to report that, because of our members’ response, the Reverend Fred Nile agreed to a meeting with PSA General Secretary Anne Gardiner, CPSU NSW Branch President Mary Court, Glen Barlow from Corrective Services and Jane Howrylak from Trustee and Guardian.
This meeting occurred on Tuesday 9 August.
The PSA is hopeful of a positive outcome.
If you have any questions regarding this email or the telephone calls, please email
Further information will be provided.
In Unity,
Maria Cirillo
Director of Organising
Public Service Association of NSW
160 Clarence Street Sydney
New South Wales 2000
1800 772 679
The PSA’s march to Mike Baird’s office in Manly today was a huge success.
Read the Daily Telegraph article HERE.
The pitfalls and black holes of privatisation. Gittins nails it. Again. Read the Herald article HERE.
Just a day after massive job cuts were announced in TAFE comes yet another reminder of just how smart and skilled the Baird Government’s vocational training agenda really is.
Here’s a surprise: TAFE has refused to make public the cost of the report by the Boston Consulting Group which called for a disastrous overhaul of the world class vocational training provider.
Land and Property stop work – 30 June 2016 (PDF version)
PSA media release
The proposed sale of the Titling and Registry wing of the Land and Property Information Service (LPI) must be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) says the Public Service Association (PSA).
The union’s demand follows revelations electronic conveyancing will soon be mandatory for all future property transactions through PEXA (Property Exchange Australia Ltd) where the NSW Government and the four major banks are among the key stakeholders.
LPI is a Government business enterprise within the Department of Finance Services and Innovation.
The Titling and Registry component – which generates up to $70 million annually for NSW – is to be fully privatised.
Workers at LPI will again stop work on Thursday 30 June and rally at the front of the LPI Building at Queen’s Square, Sydney at 12pm to further their protest against the sale of the critical service and its sensitive property data.
The workers’ action will take place on the busiest day of the year for LPI as it is the last opportunity to lodge mortgage registrations or discharges under the 2015/16 year fee schedule.
“When the ICAC’s funding was cut in the budget, the PSA warned that the Commission would have reduced capacity to scrutinise Government and its mass privatisation of public services,” said Acting PSA General Secretary, Steve Turner.
“The channelling of electronic conveyancing into a company in which the Baird Government has an interest is a glowing example of our concerns and comes just weeks after the budget cuts.”
“As far as the sale of the Titling and Registry wing of LPI is concerned, the PSA has again not seen a business case or cost benefit analysis that explains why such a well run and profitable Government service should be privatised.”
“In fact, the details of the scoping study have not been released on the basis it is a confidential cabinet document.”
“This Government continually seems to have something to hide.”
Steve Turner said apart from the impact on jobs and job security there is also the critical issue of personal data security once the Titling and Registry Services unit is no longer operated by the Government.
“How can the Government control the use of sensitive Land Ownership Records once that data is in the control of a private operator?
“Land Titles records underpin the security of the financial system of the state of NSW.”
“Surely the security of that information should be paramount and remain in the hands of the Government not the private sector,” said Steve Turner.
Rally
Thursday 30 June at 12pm
Front of the LPI Building at Queen’s Square, Sydney
