Dominic Perrottet: We will use every means possible to bring Labor’s chaos to an end

The people holding NSW to ransom are responsible for Labor’s election campaign. And there’s an election coming. What a coincidence, writes Premier Dominic Perrottet.

Enough is enough. Everyone knows the strikes inflicted on mums and dads, school kids, workers and businesses last week were political.

The rail union removed any doubt with their absurd decision to cripple the trains, even though at every step we put forward reasonable proposals to resolve their issues.

A 3 per cent pay increase for rail workers – bigger than all those Labor states – plus a bonus payment.

We agreed to modify brand new trains (declared safe by the national regulator) because the union refuses to operate them otherwise.

If the ludicrous ban continued, taxpayers would cop double the price tag, without getting the trains on the tracks. So we compromised.

Our approach has been sensible, pragmatic and fair.

The union went on strike anyway, and threatened even more.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, pictured at Epping Train Station. Picture: David Swift

For health workers, our budget invested in an army of staff, including 2000 more paramedics – the biggest ambulance workforce in our history. All received a $3000 bonus payment, on top of their 3 per cent increase.

The union went on strike anyway.

NSW teachers will receive the ­nation’s highest guaranteed teacher-pay increase, and NSW teachers at the top scale earn more than their counterparts in all the Labor states where strikes are strangely absent.

Spend five minutes talking to parents and they’ll tell you, after years of disruption, they just want some stability for their kids.

The union shut the schools anyway. People are furious. They know these strikes aren’t about pay and conditions. They’re premeditated and political.

Earlier this year, in this very paper, the secretary of Unions NSW said so.

He boasted 2022 would be the “year of the strike”.

Mr Perrottet says the strikes and industrial action are premeditated and political. Picture: David Swift

To understand why, look no further than the NSW Labor website, where all the key union bosses are listed as members of Labor’s “Administrative Committee” – the election campaign committee.

That’s right. The people holding NSW to ransom are responsible for Labor’s election campaign.

And there’s an election coming. What a coincidence.

This explains why Labor’s parliamentary leaders have been so submissive on strikes: union bosses are calling the shots.

It’s why, in the midst of union-­inflicted disruption, the opposition leader announced his support, not for students or families, but for the union bosses’ top demand: scrapping the state’s wages policy.

Under Labor there would be no limit on how high unionised public servant pay could jump in any year.

Talk about conflict of interest.

Labor luminaries have written about how this very policy ruined NSW last time Labor was in power.

Victoria’s former Labor Premier Steve Bracks wrote how, back then, NSW Labor’s treasurer told the Victorians that their approach to public sector wages was “just give the unions what they want”.

“That sounded like a recipe for disaster,” Bracks wrote.

Former NSW Labor minister Frank Sartor wrote: “Because of union control of the Labor government, a very significant economic rent was being paid to NSW public sector workers. This annual extra cost severely restricted the government’s capacity to fund vital infrastructure projects, such as new rail links.”

Bill Kelty, the ACTU leader who helped resolve the 1980s wages crisis recently warned unions against chasing pay increases that match inflation. The RBA governor says wage increases should have a three in front of them.

Yet the unions want an eye watering 7-8 per cent, costing untold billions, paid for by the 90 per cent of taxpayers in the private sector also battling rising interest rates, mortgage repayments, petrol prices and grocery bills.

No wonder union membership has tanked to around one in 10 in the private sector. Workers want reasonable representation, not embarrassing, unconscionable, wrecking-ball politics.

If someone with an ounce of principle or economic nous was running NSW Labor, their uncapped wages policy would be dead in the water.

But union bosses have the power, and in their party’s weakness they sniff opportunity.

The opposition leader’s policy is a blank cheque for his union bosses and a crippling bill for NSW families.

It’s a pledge to grind NSW to a halt – again; a recipe for a flatlining ­economy and job losses, making it fundamentally anti-worker.

Our government’s policy locks in fair public sector wage growth (which has outpaced the private sector for a decade) while ensuring we can build infrastructure and invest in services.

It’s pro-worker, because it supports economic growth and job creation. It’s no accident that NSW’s unemployment rate recently dropped to its lowest in recorded history, and there are more cranes above Sydney than almost any other city on the planet.

That can only happen when you manage money well.

With our government, NSW can keep building a brighter future.

Under Labor, unions win, but NSW goes backwards.

So while union bosses threaten to strike, and even break the law, we will use every means possible – within the law – to bring Labor’s chaos to an end.

Enough. Is. Enough.