Category: DJF

Source: Workplace Gender Equality Agency

ANNE STANLEY: Hi, everyone. Thank you for being here this morning. My name is Anne Stanley. I’m the Federal Member for Werriwa. This is a fantastic start to more roads that will make sure that this part of the world is not in gridlock all the time. It will get trucks moving around our part of the world. And it is fantastic that the New South Wales Labor Government and the Federal Labor Government are finally doing what we’ve been waiting over 20 years to happen. So I’m just going to hand over now to Minister King to talk to you. 

CATHERINE KING: Great, thanks very much. And first, can I just say to Anne and to David, our new Member for Hughes, it’s so fantastic to be here. I think this is the first event that I’ve done with David here in this space, but it’s great to be here with both of you. But also, of course, Ryan Park as Acting Premier and my friend and colleague, Jenny Aitchison who worked so closely together on projects such as this. 

Well, we know that driving westbound along the M5 has become quite difficult for people. As the Moorebank Intermodal Precinct has come online, the weave that happens as trucks are trying to get on to the M5 to then get on to the Hume to get our goods to and from market. They’re also obviously competing with the many people and many commuters who live in this area who are finding that they are often queued back for almost a kilometre as we do that weave to try and get through this intersection. And really, the announcement today, this $380 million announcement, 50-50 funding, State and Federal Government working in partnership together, is about untangling that weave, untangling that intersection to make sure that commuters can get to and from work faster, that our trucks can get to market, and to move around this precinct more efficiently, because we know that economic activity is incredibly important here in this part of Sydney, and we also want to make sure people are able to move about efficiently and safely. Any time that a family is spending in a car or a worker is spending in a car, it’s time that they are not spending at home with their families. So this upgrade, it’s a complex piece of work. The fact that we’re here today getting the contracts signed for the delivery of this project, it’s been a long time coming, but I’m really delighted. And it’s taken, really, a federal and state Labor government who really don’t just talk about projects, we actually deliver them. We do the hard work, we do the planning, we do the design work, and we actually deliver projects, and I’m delighted to be here as part of that.

I’ll hand over to Jenny, and then I think the Acting Premier is going to say a few words, take some questions, and then they’re going to sign a contract. Thanks everybody.

JENNY AITCHISON: Thanks everyone. It’s great to be here today with Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure federally, and federal colleagues Anne and David, and of course, my state colleagues, Acting Premier Ryan Park and the Member for Liverpool, Charishma Kaliyanda.

It is a great day, a great announcement, $380 million to ensure that the success that we are seeing with freight and ensuring that our goods get to market is delivered. So we’ve just been over at the Moorebank Intermodal, and this will be a critical piece of infrastructure that will realise the potential of that development. Getting those vehicle movements to stop weaving between the lanes, the interchange to be grade-separated will be a major game-change. There will be upgrades to rail and also to pedestrian infrastructure. This will make this a much better piece of transport for all road users and stop that interweaving that we’re seeing of up to 2900 vehicles a day doing that. We’re looking at 2500 trucks using this, so it is really important for safety, for congestion busting, that we get this right.

The Minns Labor Government is building better communities right across Western Sydney and indeed all of New South Wales, and this is a significant step forward. I’m really pleased that we’ll be signing the contract today with Seymour Whyte. It’s a design and construct contract, so they will be doing that design work. But people will start to see work happening soon as the geotechnical investigations happen, and then we will hope to have shovels in the ground very shortly after that. So, it is a major piece of investment in our communities of Western Sydney that have been crying out for so long for assistance with reducing those traffic snares. As Minister King said, every minute in the car is a minute away from friends, from family, from that wonderful time we have of recreation and rest. And most importantly, it’s the safety aspects of this to ensure that once the cars and the trucks are using this infrastructure, they are able to do so safely without creating issues.

I’m going to pass over now to Acting Premier Ryan Park, and he can give you a few comments as well

ACTING PREMIER RYAN PARK: Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Minister King, for being here. It’s delightful that you’re in this portfolio again. I know it’s one that you’re very passionate about. It’s great for New South Wales to continue their partnership and relationship with the Albanese Labor Government in Canberra and to Catherine King, who’s a very experienced Minister when it comes to the delivery of infrastructure. Thank you to Minister Aitchison and the team from Transport for New South Wales, local members at both the state and federal level. Anne Stanley was saying to me earlier that this is something that has been around since 2008, so no doubt the people of South Western Sydney can’t wait for this to happen.

A $380 million investment in an important part of the road network essentially improves efficiency, improves safety, improves travel times for people moving in and around this area, but also in particular for freight. That’s a very important part of what happens in this South Western Sydney component. This is a major freight hub, not just for New South Wales but the entire country. And what we know is we need to continue to invest in the road infrastructure to make sure that we are delivering roads that are safe, performing efficiently and effectively for local community members, as well as those moving in and around there from other areas.

I do want to speak a little bit overnight about a report that I’ve received from Dr Chant in relation to influenza, COVID, and RSV. Influenza continues to rise. We are continuing to see significant cases of influenza being presented to our local emergency departments. I can’t stress this enough right now: as we are heading to the peak or just on peak of influenza, we need people to get vaccinated. We need children to get vaccinated. We are still seeing not enough people, both over the age of 65 and young children, getting that vaccination. We need to take pressure off our emergency departments as we head through the winter months. And what we can all want to do over the winter here in New South Wales and, of course, in Sydney, is enjoy our surroundings, enjoy being with family. You can’t do that if you have the flu. So I’m saying to people today, once again, we are reaching or on the verge of reaching the peak in terms of influenza, but that is an important message to get through about making sure you go and get vaccinated. That includes young children and particularly includes older people.

We’ve also got to emphasise with this much influenza around, RSV and of course COVID, which has started to stabilise – we’ve probably reached the peak of COVID – please don’t go to aged care facilities if you’re unwell. Please stay at home. Please don’t go to hospitals. What we want to do is make sure that our system can perform for those who need our hospital system. What we don’t want to do is people stuck in our hospital system with serious case of influenza, RSV or COVID. We can all do our thing and what we can do is go and get vaccinated.

CATHERINE KING: I’ll leave questions to you. Any questions?

JOURNALIST: You mentioned that shovels will be in the ground shortly. Do you have any more indication of when that would be?

RYAN PARK: Well, I understand we’ve got to sign the contract today, and then we’ve got to make sure that, as all state governments do, we spend the Commonwealth’s money as quickly and as fast as we can.

[Laughter]

CATHERINE KING: On time and on budget. 

RYAN PARK: That’s always the way. Never get in the road of a state government minister and some federal government money, but it’ll happen very, very soon. Shovels in the ground, and we’ll be proceeding with this project I imagine in the next few weeks.

JOURNALIST: How long will the construction take?

JENNY AITCHISON: Yep. So, the project will, the actual construction will start in early 2026. By the time the design elements are done, it will take probably two years to do that. Obviously, we will be working to expedite that as much as possible with the contractors and, you know, the way that we have been working in New South Wales on ensuring that our infrastructure spend is spent in a much more measured and considered way will help us to keep to those time frames. But obviously, you know, weather and other factors can come in.

JOURNALIST: And how long do you expect it to take once the construction starts in early 2026?

JENNY AITCHISON: Yeah, so we’re expecting that it will take a couple of years to get construction finalised. Obviously, that depends on a range of factors of weather and things like that. But, you know, we know that we have been working very hard to get our construction timelines back under control to ensure that things are being built on time and ready for the public. We know that during this time there is often disruptions for local communities. We thank them for their patience during that time.

JOURNALIST: And those disruptions that will happen, they’re obviously necessary, so to speak, but what impact do you expect to have for traffic?

JENNY AITCHISON: Look, what will happen is that there will be the usual construction impact, so that may be lane closures at particular times to keep workers safe. Everything these days- we know that there have been some really big challenges for construction work on roads. We’re really urging cars to travel to those roadside- roadworks speed limits. One of the things I’ve been very disappointed to see in some of our projects is people speeding through work zones. That is not acceptable. We have really worked to minimise those across all of our projects, those speed limits, but we want to make sure that drivers are driving to conditions.

JOURNALIST: So we will see some traffic impact on those lanes around where you need to widen the road?

JENNY AITCHISON: Yes, certainly there will be some, and we will use all the elements at our disposal, things like working at night where there’s less traffic, ensuring that we’ve got proper signalling and all that sort of thing in place so that we can minimise that disruption, but it is always a challenge. There’s, as we like to say, no gain without pain, but we are doing everything we can to minimise it and we’re really grateful to those members of the public who assist us in that by driving to the conditions.

JOURNALIST: And do you have any sort of forecast on how this will help improve traffic, like any time reductions or anything like that?

JENNY AITCHISON: Look, I don’t have specific time reductions here, but I think the main point is really the safety benefits. And we know at the moment there is queuing, so there will obviously be those timings. I can’t give you exact numbers right off the top of my head, but the main thing is not having that situation where a vehicle turning left then going right has only got a couple of hundred metres to do it, or conversely coming right and going left. They won’t be working together on the same piece of roadway. The grade separation will enable that to be a much safer transition.

JOURNALIST: Acting Premier, does it really pass the pub test that taxpayers are paying for gym memberships and picnic days for rail workers while there are still so many public sector workers waiting for pay rises?

RYAN PARK: Well, look, government reaches agreements through the bargaining process with unions and their trade union movement and representatives. The nature of those arrangements will become very, very clear as a part of the fair work process. We’re not trying to hide anything here. The reality is what we wanted to do was get an agreement, and we had to strike a balance between making sure that we provided fair work and conditions and pay for working men and women on our transport system, but at the same time making sure that we can get a transport system operating at its very highest capacity, and operating as efficiently and effectively for passengers and commuters every single day.

JOURNALIST: Some pretty funny perks. Was it a matter of offer them the funny perks, just so that they can stop striking?

RYAN PARK: Well, look, no one wants rail workers striking. We want working men and women who work in our transport system to be paid well with good conditions. We’re not going to apologise for that. As a part of the bargaining process, that’s how and which you agree to conditions or disagree with conditions. For us, the process is about making sure that we got the balance right between ensuring that we had a well-run, well-operated and efficient and maintained transport system, at the same time making sure that working men and women had their conditions and pay recognised. We think we’ve got the balance right.

As the Health Minister, I’ll continue to work with those workers in the healthcare sector over the weeks and months ahead to make sure that we can strike a deal in relation to their paying conditions as well.

JOURNALIST: As you know, all public sector groups were asked to find to help pay for their pay rises. Do you know if the rail union did have a productivity offsets down and what they might be?

JENNY AITCHISON: Look, certainly there were savings provisions and productivity provisions within that bargaining process. The enterprise agreement, as is required and as has long been government policy, will be published by the Fair Work Commission, so everyone will be able to see what those are. But as an example, you know, moving to one rail, ensuring we have efficiencies there is really important. Even the consultation periods, you know, we had the former government that had rolling stock on the tracks, sitting idle for literally years because they couldn’t negotiate and consult with the union. We have a fair, open and transparent agreement. We’ve got three years of that. It will provide certainty to the travelling public, It will provide certainty to the travelling public, certainty to the rail workers and certainty to everyone who is- you know, taxpayers who want to see value for money.

We can always cherry-pick parts of the agreements for things that we might not think are important but the reality is here, we’ve got a very good deal for the taxpayers of New South Wales that has got the unions back to work. It’s been very substantially and overwhelmingly agreed to by the unions, 92 per cent agreement, a very high participation in the ballot. 

So, I think this is, what we’ve got, is a good agreement that strikes the balance. It’s going to Fair Work now to get that final tick off and check everything’s right. But we have done this in a very open and transparent manner and that’s what’s important here. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, can I ask you about those offsets? And the consolidation I suppose with one rail. There’s been some suggestion from the opposition that the agreement results in 100 job losses. Toby Warnes was asked the other day whether that would be the case [indistinct]. Are we expecting 100 job losses over the next few years, for Transport for New South Wales to pay the union?

JENNY AITCHISON: Look, we are working very closely with the union to ensure efficiency and productivity. No-one likes job losses, we know that. But the reality is, where there’s efficiency gains that can be made they will happen because we want to have a better service for commuters. We want to have a reliable, stable service that is resilient and is well maintained. The One Rail initiative is really important for the regions, because what it does is really go back to the idea that we have one rail network in NSW that services everyone. 

We’ve been working on that right across transport over the last two years, to deliver one transport for all of New South Wales The idea that there’s a binary system of transport in New South Wales, whether it’s in rail or road, is done. We have one transport for New South Wales We have one road network. We have one rail network. There will be efficiencies in that. And we hope to grow the task for transport. We hope to grow services for commuters. 

So, what we’re saying is we should be investing in growth of the services, and we need to ensure that we have the maximum productivity. And that’s what this agreement’s giving us. 

JOURNALIST: How much does the agreement cost? What’s the cost of it? Obviously, it’s been struck – we’ve seen it, we’ve gone through the clauses. How much is it? 

JENNY AITCHISON: Look, the overall quantum is still being finalised. Obviously as you can agree, until that goes through the final stages of the Fair Work Commission process, it would be premature to put a final figure on it. We need to make sure that we have one figure out there that everyone is aware of, but we are working on that and we will come back with that when it’s the appropriate time. 

JOURNALIST: Ryan, I understand that you are just a seat warmer this week, but the Premier did make a bet with the Queensland Premier that he would record a tourism ad for Queensland if we lost the Origin. Is that something you’ll be doing this week?

RYAN PARK: Well, well, well. Yes, he gave me one job, hey? I’ve let him down within 48 hours. So, no doubt, I won’t be doing this job again for a little while. No, disappointing last night. Boys put up an incredible fight, but an inspirational performance by Cameron Munster, given what he’s been dealing with over the course of the last few days. They were just too good for us, no doubt. We’ll have to do the add and we’ll do it a lot quicker than what Queensland haven’t paid New South Wales for their COVID bill – it’s about 115 million bucks but, yeah, maybe we can call it quits.

JOURNALIST: You haven’t put your hand up to record it while he’s away?

RYAN PARK: No doubt I’ll have to do it. I’ll take that huge load on. It was tough watching New South Wales last night. It was tough being the Acting Premier, but if he wants me to do it, I’m a team player, I’ll do it.

JOURNALIST: You’re at the bargaining table for nurses, have they put gym memberships on the table, are you open to that one?

RYAN PARK: Look, I want to get the nurses resolved as quickly as possible. Everyone knows that that’s what I’m trying to do, we’re not there yet, we’re not at the stage. They haven’t put those types of incentives to me, but if they do, like every other arrangement, we’ll have a look at what things come forward as a part of that. That’s not something we’re looking at the moment. Our focus is to try and make sure that we can get a deal. We’ve got the independent umpire in place to make a determination if we can’t do it before then.

JOURNALIST: I know this isn’t quite in your wheelhouse, but there’s been some issues around with the new bail consolidation, basically a massive backlog of matters before the courts, especially with the Downing Centre being out of action, and people languishing in cells for longer. Has anyone raised with you this week, because you’re the Acting Premier, that there have been these teething issues?

RYAN PARK: I’ve had raised just very, very briefly, actually by the Governor of New South Wales the other day, given her legal background in relation to the Downing Court and some challenges there. I understand that repairs and some refurbishments as a result of the damage is currently underway. I understand that judicial officers and court staff are looking to make sure those cases are moved around to other areas. It’s an important part of our democracy, the delivery of justice, and justice needs to be delivered as quickly as possible. That’s what we always try and do. It is a challenge in relation to the Downing Centre, given the extensive nature of the appearances and the hearings that are held there and the number of lists that are done there but we’re working through that.

JOURNALIST: Is it a concern that there are these people that are being kept longer than they should themselves before they get a bail hearing?

RYAN PARK: Well it’s always concerning when there’s ever delay in any part of the justice system. That’s always a concern for members of the community no matter who they are and what side of the issue they’re on, that’s always a concern. But we will obviously work through that. The Attorney-General with New South Wales Police and Corrections are no doubt working through those issues in relation to court challenges. The Downing Centre situation has made it difficult, but I understand judicial officers and court staff are working through that process to try and get as many people through those other facilities as we can.

JOURNALIST: Also not really in your wheelhouse, but we know for many people rents have gone up by around $20 per week, for some people that means cutting back on essentials. What do you say to those people who are struggling right now?

RYAN PARK: Well, we know very clearly that’s it’s tough out there. It’s really tough. For many, many people, cost of living is certainly the biggest challenge they talk to me about as a local member in their own community. Things are tough. The decision not to drop interest rates is tough on people with mortgages that can correspondingly make it challenging for people in rental properties.

What we’ve tried to do over the last few years is introduce a number of reforms in the rental space to try and make it as easy and as cost effective for people to rent as possible. We know close to 40 per cent of people now rent. That’s very, very different even in the times period since I’ve been in public office. That’s really changed. So we are going to, as a government and future governments at all levels, we’ll continue to have to look at ways to make renting affordable, to make it as efficient and effective as possible. Because it now deals with a very large group of people.

JOURNALIST: And I guess just on the missing surfer, he was found after about [indistinct]. 

RYAN PARK: Yeah. See, that is that is absolutely amazing. As a local member of parliament on a coastal sea, unfortunately, we see this frequently. And very rarely do we get the outcome that we’ve been made aware of today. Absolute remarkable case. Phenomenal that our emergency personnel were able to rescue him. Phenomenal that he is still alive. That is obviously not the outcome that is often we see, that often we see in these types of incidents when they take place, and that is a fantastic result for him, his family, but I’m sure the people of the North Coast are just thrilled when they’ve heard that news.

CATHERINE KING: Thank you.

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