The Sauce: Did senior ETU members treat themselves to a secret Xmas harbour cruise?

NSW parliament has been rocked by a case (or ten) of mysterious missing cherries and one very irate Nationals MP.

The communal fridge in the NSW Nationals parliamentary party room rarely contains anything too exciting beyond a sad staffer’s lunch or someone’s attempt at a sponge.

And so when party staff opened it last week to find 10 big boxes of premium cherries, they ripped in.

The Sauce was told several boxes were opened while others were taken home. However, their joy was short-lived with staffers soon informed that the cherries belonged to Nationals MP Steph Cooke and had been specially selected from her hometown of Young and brought up to Sydney to be handed out as Christmas gifts for friends and supporters.

Nationals Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke. Picture: Facebook

Such was the scandal that Nationals Dugald Saunders’ chief of staff – who when approached requested not to be named (sure, Rory) – offered to jump in the car and drive around Cooke’s seat of Cootamundra for more cherries, promising to return to Sydney by that afternoon.

However, The Sauce understands these had been “special” cherries. In the end, Saunders’ COS – who took responsibility for the staff actions – ended up driving to staff homes around Sydney, reclaiming what was left to put back in the fridge.

Surely that deserves a box?

Info blackout on ETU party

With Ausgrid cancelling end-of-year Christmas parties as a “screw you” to the industrial action taken by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), it was no surprise when we heard rumours union members had held their own knees-up.

The rumours on Friday were that the union “executive” – we guess this includes ETU secretary Allen Hicks – and delegates treated themselves to a three-hour Christmas harbour cruise.

Just how many delegates were invited is unknown, but no-one was answering the phones at ETU headquarters when we called.

ETU NSW/ACT Secretary Allen Hicks. Picture: Richard Dobson

The usually outspoken Hicks was also uncharacteristically shy in commenting, passing on a message to us about “not buying into it” when we posed questions about the alleged cruise.

While the union this week reached an in-principle agreement with Ausgrid in the Fair Work Commission, a pay dispute with Sydney Trains and the government saw union members walking off the job on Thursday.

The move has resulted in services on some lines being reduced by 40 per cent.

As for the broader action by union members, figures obtained by Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward show there have been 143 cancellations across Transport for NSW and Sydney Metro infrastructure projects across the State.

The government said it was “not possible to fully assess the total cost” of the cancellation.

TAKE TWO

She was a Nationals MP for just over a year, before Labor seized her seat.

But former Monaro MP Nichole Overall – who had succeeded ex-Nationals leader John Barilaro in the seat – is heading back to state parliament after winning selection to fill a casual NSW Upper House vacancy created with the departure of Sam Farraway.