Police may recommend Sydney NYE fireworks be cancelled if planned train strikes go ahead

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The New South Wales police commissioner says she may recommend the government cancel Sydney’s New Years Eve fireworks if rail strikes continue.

Transcript

00:00So many people go, whether it's into Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour or anywhere around that

00:06foreshore area to watch these fireworks, that they're all basically hanging around for one

00:10or two events.

00:11Either the 9.30 fireworks if they've got smaller families when they want to leave, or the midnight

00:15fireworks which are the main game.

00:16And that if you don't have a full service of trains running, the kind of blockage and

00:21the way in which you'd have a bottleneck at train sessions would be totally unsafe.

00:26And as a result, she's considering recommending that these fireworks don't go ahead.

00:30It's an extraordinary interjection to this bitter dispute over paying conditions between

00:35the government and rail workers.

00:36But here is the Police Commissioner, Karen Webb.

00:39Each year, we police New Year's Eve on the basis that 250,000 people can come into the

00:44city and then safely leave the city.

00:48Leaving the city is based on access to transport, including trains.

00:53And if trains aren't available and people can't leave the city, I have very large concerns

01:00of the risk that will create to the public, because families won't be able to get home

01:05and they'll be trapped in the city.

01:07No way out.

01:08So I have ruled out that I will recommend to government that we cancel the fireworks.

01:14Essentially two solutions between the government and unions here.

01:17The first one is through a collective bargaining agreement, right, but we've had months of

01:21negotiations here where they've been at an impasse, really.

01:24The union asking for a 32% increase in wages over four years.

01:27The government there offers have been between 9% to 11%.

01:30There's also some other stipulations around annual leave and other entitlements, but that's

01:34the real sticking point.

01:35Chris Mins says they're nowhere near a deal.

01:37The Premier of New South Wales essentially saying that if he writes this cheque to this

01:41union, then what are the other kind of cheques he's going to have to write to other unions?

01:45And he's basically said they're almost holding the government to ransom using New Year's

01:48Eve as a major public event.

01:50He was pretty strong this morning.

01:51Here's what he had to say.

01:52The government has not given in to the union's demand for the largest pay rise in the history

01:58of New South Wales, a 32% pay rise.

02:01The facts remain we can't afford that.

02:03We don't have the money for that.

02:04So we're going to take as many action and as much action as we can to protect commuters,

02:08particularly over the Christmas and New Year period, but I can't promise that we will win

02:13those court cases.

02:15And I want to make it absolutely clear that even if we don't win in the Fair Work Commission

02:19or through the court process, I cannot be dragged back to the negotiating table and

02:24pay an exorbitant amount of money with a blank cheque.

02:29So strong words there from the Premier, Chris Mins.

02:31Interestingly, the rail, tram and bus union who are leading these negotiations said they

02:35thought they were close to getting a deal done here when the government initially pushed

02:38this injunction against their strike action.

02:41The other path to solving all of this is through the Fair Work Commission, who have a hearing

02:46on Monday the 23rd of December at 10am.

02:48It is going to be closely watched by a lot of people, businesses concerned about this

02:52event of the fireworks going ahead, which is worth more than $100 million, as well as

02:57everyone who wants to go, of course.

02:58But you've also got this matter of whether or not the Fair Work Commission says this

03:02action will be illegal.

03:03The basis on which they have to make the assessment is on two elements, community safety as well

03:07as economic harm.

03:09The government clearly now making a very concerted case to talk about the economic harm component

03:14with the idea of the fireworks not going ahead would be just extraordinary.

03:18For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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