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Police may recommend Sydney NYE fireworks be cancelled if planned train strikes go ahead
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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12/20/2024
The New South Wales police commissioner says she may recommend the government cancel Sydney’s New Years Eve fireworks if rail strikes continue.
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00:00
So many people go, whether it's into Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour or anywhere around that
00:06
foreshore area to watch these fireworks, that they're all basically hanging around for one
00:10
or two events.
00:11
Either the 9.30 fireworks if they've got smaller families when they want to leave, or the midnight
00:15
fireworks which are the main game.
00:16
And that if you don't have a full service of trains running, the kind of blockage and
00:21
the way in which you'd have a bottleneck at train sessions would be totally unsafe.
00:26
And as a result, she's considering recommending that these fireworks don't go ahead.
00:30
It's an extraordinary interjection to this bitter dispute over paying conditions between
00:35
the government and rail workers.
00:36
But here is the Police Commissioner, Karen Webb.
00:39
Each year, we police New Year's Eve on the basis that 250,000 people can come into the
00:44
city and then safely leave the city.
00:48
Leaving the city is based on access to transport, including trains.
00:53
And if trains aren't available and people can't leave the city, I have very large concerns
01:00
of the risk that will create to the public, because families won't be able to get home
01:05
and they'll be trapped in the city.
01:07
No way out.
01:08
So I have ruled out that I will recommend to government that we cancel the fireworks.
01:14
Essentially two solutions between the government and unions here.
01:17
The first one is through a collective bargaining agreement, right, but we've had months of
01:21
negotiations here where they've been at an impasse, really.
01:24
The union asking for a 32% increase in wages over four years.
01:27
The government there offers have been between 9% to 11%.
01:30
There's also some other stipulations around annual leave and other entitlements, but that's
01:34
the real sticking point.
01:35
Chris Mins says they're nowhere near a deal.
01:37
The Premier of New South Wales essentially saying that if he writes this cheque to this
01:41
union, then what are the other kind of cheques he's going to have to write to other unions?
01:45
And he's basically said they're almost holding the government to ransom using New Year's
01:48
Eve as a major public event.
01:50
He was pretty strong this morning.
01:51
Here's what he had to say.
01:52
The government has not given in to the union's demand for the largest pay rise in the history
01:58
of New South Wales, a 32% pay rise.
02:01
The facts remain we can't afford that.
02:03
We don't have the money for that.
02:04
So we're going to take as many action and as much action as we can to protect commuters,
02:08
particularly over the Christmas and New Year period, but I can't promise that we will win
02:13
those court cases.
02:15
And I want to make it absolutely clear that even if we don't win in the Fair Work Commission
02:19
or through the court process, I cannot be dragged back to the negotiating table and
02:24
pay an exorbitant amount of money with a blank cheque.
02:29
So strong words there from the Premier, Chris Mins.
02:31
Interestingly, the rail, tram and bus union who are leading these negotiations said they
02:35
thought they were close to getting a deal done here when the government initially pushed
02:38
this injunction against their strike action.
02:41
The other path to solving all of this is through the Fair Work Commission, who have a hearing
02:46
on Monday the 23rd of December at 10am.
02:48
It is going to be closely watched by a lot of people, businesses concerned about this
02:52
event of the fireworks going ahead, which is worth more than $100 million, as well as
02:57
everyone who wants to go, of course.
02:58
But you've also got this matter of whether or not the Fair Work Commission says this
03:02
action will be illegal.
03:03
The basis on which they have to make the assessment is on two elements, community safety as well
03:07
as economic harm.
03:09
The government clearly now making a very concerted case to talk about the economic harm component
03:14
with the idea of the fireworks not going ahead would be just extraordinary.
03:18
For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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