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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00:00So 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.
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