Chris Minns stance on strikes at odds with previous union rallies

The Labor leader has rallied union bus drivers against the government despite his new anti strike stance, and allows his frontbench to publicly support a nurse campaign that he refuses to adopt.

LABOR Leader Chris Minns is walking both sides of the street on key union demands, allowing his MPs to support the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association’s demands for strict nurse-to-patient ratios while refusing to adopt the measure as official policy.

It can also be revealed that while Mr Minns has called on the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) to abandon its rolling train strikes crippling Sydney, the Labor Leader has previously whipped union bus drivers into a frenzy in support of a previous industrial campaign.

In footage from 2019, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Minns addressed union drivers protesting bus privatisation.

“Only someone who’s deeply irrational, with some kind of morbid ideological agenda, would pick on people who are doing nothing but getting Sydneysiders to work and back home every day of the week,” he told the drivers.

He repeatedly labelled then-Transport Minister Andrew Constance a “d**ckhead”.

Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle. Picture: Instagram

Shadow Attorney-General Michael Daley. Picture: Facebook

The union rally is at odds with Mr Minns’ public stance on recent rail strikes, which he says will do nothing to get the rail union a better deal on pay and conditions.

And while Mr Minns has refused to back the nurses union’s demand for staff-to-patient ratios, members of his frontbench have repeatedly posed with unionists and holding signs calling for the policy to be implemented.

The nurses union is set to strike again on Thursday.

A slew of Labor figures have done the union’s bidding with signs like “1 in 3 in ED” and “Ratios — it’s a matter of life or death” while also spruiking the NSWNMA’s staffing demands on Instagram and Facebook.

The public display of affection for NSWNMA is at odds with comments made by Mr Minns to 2GB last week, where he said: “In my time as NSW Leader, I’ve clashed with the CFMEU, I’ve clashed with the Nurses Association over nurse-to-patient ratios,” he said.

Swansea MP Yasmin Catley. Picture: Facebook

Coogee MP Marjorie O’Neill. Picture: Instagram

Mr Minns is also yet to announce his formal healthcare policy but that didn’t stop his Deputy Leader Prue Car from posing at the union’s protest in February with the sign “Nepean 4 safe staff ratios”.

The following month, Swansea MP Yasmin Catley posed at another union protest and wrote: “Nurses are also calling in the Liberal Government to deliver nurse to patient ratios that would improve health outcomes for patients.”

At the same protest, Shadow Attorney-General Michael Daley posed with a sign “Ratios, it’s a matter of life or death”.

In February Mr Daley had posted from another protest, writing: “Ratios save lives.”

In May, Coogee MP Marjorie O’Neill posted a picture of union members to Instagram with the caption: “Ratios save lives.”

In July Ms O’Neill posted a video with Mr Minns from a visit to Prince of Wales hospital, writing: “We need a Government that will commit to delivering nurse ratios and safe staffing levels.”

Labor Leader Chris Minns hasn’t announced his policy on ratios yet. Picture: Damian Shaw

In August, she posted another video with the hashtag #ratiossavelives.

The same month Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle wrote on Instagram: “Hearing harrowing stories from our Nurses about their workloads need for safe nurse to patient ratios.”

Labor MPs Kate Washington and Janelle Saffin have also spoken in parliament in support of the issue.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said Mr Minns was playing a “two faced game”.

“Chris Minns is playing a two-faced game here, it’s time he stands up to the nurses union. Patients may suffer beacuse of their two-faced approach. He’s encouraging them to strike,” he said.

“Minns belatedly saying ‘Gee whiz please don’t strike and we don’t support ratios’ but on the other hand he’s allowing all his shadow ministers and back benchers to go out and say they are supporting it -- it’s industrial lawlessness and it’s verging on insanity.

“They will be held personally reponsible if any patients suffer as a result of their games.”

A spokesman for Mr Minns said NSW Labor will outline its health policy “well ahead” of the next state election.

“After 11 years in power, Brad Hazzard announced the NSW Government will employ 7674 new health workers this year – and we still have no update on how many extra have been employed,” he said.

In relation to his support of bus drivers protesting privatisation, Mr Minns said: “I’ve been clear that if I have the privilege of forming government next March I will make decisions on a case-by-case basis in the best interest of the state.”

He accused the government of being “obsessed” with privatisation, but called on ministers to “sit down” with the RTBU to avoid further train strikes.