SFF kills NSW Government plan to cut real pay of nurses & teachers

SFF Murray MP Helen Dalton says her party will block the NSW Government’s push to freeze the pay of nurses, teachers, police and all frontline workers; following a video conference with NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet on Thursday morning.

"The Treasurer failed to convince us," Mrs Dalton said

“It's clear this pay freeze is about robbing regional workers to pay for Sydney vanity projects,” 

“Mr Perrottet told us he needs to save money to invest in jobs growth,”

“So, why not scrap the re-build of ANZ Stadium in Sydney, rather than cutting the real pay of nurses in Griffith?”

“The best way to stimulate the regional economy is to put money in the pockets of our frontline workers.

“If we let the NSW Government keep the money, they’ll squander it on useless rubbish in Sydney”.

The NSW Government plans to change a regulation to freeze the pay of public sector workers for 12 months when their awards and agreements expired.

The Australian has reported this plan is now "dead in the water", due to SFF resistance. Labor and other minor parties are also likely to oppose the wage wage freeze.

“Our party will vote in support of nurses, teachers, police and all frontline workers,”

“Earlier this month, the NSW Government signed off on massive pay increases for top bureaucrats,”

“The Commissioner of Police got a wage hike of $87,000 a year, pushing his salary up to $650,000”

“It’s just disgusting that they now want to cut the real pay of nurses who earn a total salary $60,000”.

“I’ve spoken to nurses in Griffith, Leeton and Deniliquin who are devastated by this proposal.”

“These frontline workers have got us through the worst pandemic in a generation,” Mrs Dalton said

Kristy Wilson, Secretary of the Griffith Branch of the Nurses Union, said, “we are very disappointed at the lack of respect being shown to frontline workers, we are supporting our communities through this pandemic and now ask the community to support us.”

“Nurses have been redeployed to new areas and rapidly reskilled to provide quality care to our patients, and this is how the government repays us.”

“We have seen this week the appalling way that the state’s teachers are being treated.  Frontline workers cannot accept this, we must all stand together and tell the Berejiklian Government this is not ok”.