Source : Perth Now news
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association has thrown down the gauntlet to the state’s One Nation leader Mike Newman ahead of the March election, after he promised to put a freeze on new hires to the public service.
Mr Newman, who previously served as NSW’s senior trade and investment commissioner in Japan, said earlier this year that a One Nation government in NSW would seek to save $9.2bn over four years by freezing public service numbers and indexing wages.
To date, Mr Newman has refused to submit One Nation’s policies to the NSW Parliamentary Budget Office for independent scrutiny.
Speaking to the NewsWire, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) general secretary Michael Whaites made an offer to Mr Newman, claiming policies like those he proposed did not “add up”.
“We have lived this harsh reality before, and it results in understaffed wards and exhausted nurses looking for the exit. None of this is good for patient care,” Mr Whaites said.
“Mike Newman should come and spend a week on the wards to understand what it’s like when there are unfilled vacancies, or when there’s violence and aggression towards staff – it’s not pretty.
“I can assure him it’s very different to an investment bank trading pit. We need greater investment in our public services, not less.”
It comes as Unions NSW, the state’s peak body for unions, launches a series of election ads targeting One Nation.
The ads call on workers – some of whom are employed in industry-heavy areas being targeted by One Nation, such as Mr Newman’s electorate of Cessnock – to consider what a One Nation government would mean for workers’ pay and conditions.
Unions NSW secretary Thomas Costa said the proposed $9.2bn in savings from the public sector would mean “deep and savage cuts”.
“It means unstaffed hospital wards, classrooms without teachers and prisons without guards,” he said.
“Our advertising campaign encourages working people to properly think about the consequences of cuts to jobs, to wages and essential services.
“Things could get a lot worse. One Nation is the risk we can’t afford.“
Mr Newman first floated “private sector style KPIs” and a public sector freeze shortly after One Nation’s NSW launch in August.
In a subsequent interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Newman said measures would spare health, education, police and emergency services.
Instead, it would take a “rational look at all departments” beyond them, though Mr Newman did not specify which departments.
Labor and the Coalition face a fierce fight when voters cast their ballot in March, with some polling putting Mr Newman as the possible next premier.
Labor Premier Chris Minns has had a sometimes fraught relationship with the state’s unions, including a months-long, high-profile pay dispute with the power Rail, Tram, and Bus Union.
In recent weeks, Mr Newman has come under fire over his departure from the NSW trade role, which was within the state’s public service.
Mr Newman told Seven News last week that he quit the position because “knowing what I know and what I believe is a very unprofessionally-run public service, I couldn’t sleep at night”.
He denied ever being issued a notice for bullying.
