Labor still championing workers says Mehan

I write to respond to assertions made by Mr Horsfall of North Gosford that the Minns Labor Government has betrayed Labor tradition (CCN 469).

As Bob Carr, this states longest serving premier, once observed: “Every Labor government in history has been accused of selling out the Party’s traditions and policies.”

Mr Horsfall suggests NSW Labor’s negotiation with nurses and transport workers is “behaviour that one would normally associate with the LNP” (Liberal National Party coalition).

He fails to acknowledge we have reached agreement with the majority of the state’s workforce, without dispute, and all received wage increases well above those they were receiving during 12 years of LNP government when wages were capped at 2 per cent per year.

My Labor colleagues and I want to see nurses paid more and to see a just settlement to negotiations across the whole public sector.

We ended the former government’s wages cap which denied state workers any right to negotiate a wage rise.

The new bargaining system is barely 12 months old, and I feel some parties involved in negotiations have yet to adjust to the new environment.

This is particularly so in the case of our public sector managers.

I’ll finish with an example of reform that only a Labor government would ever deliver; the ending of “no-grounds eviction” for renters.

NSW now has the fairest and strongest tenant protection laws in the country.

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Email, Dec 22
David Mehan, Member for The Entrance