Transport for NSW warns of heightened risk of ‘failures' on rail network
On May 30, after months of negotiations in the Fair Work Commission, the state government reached an agreement with the rail unions. A proposed enterprise agreement would win 13,000 employees a 12 per cent wage increase over three years, plus back pay. The Electrical Trades Union has sought to block the vote because of concern over the agreement's categorisation of maintenance and engineering employees.
A Transport for NSW spokesman said there was 'no outstanding safety-critical preventative work'. He said the maintenance backlog had decreased by 92 per cent to 53 outstanding work orders as of June 9.
'It is no secret that industrial action and severe weather have had detrimental impacts on reliability in recent years,' he said.
'A lot of work has already gone into improving Sydney Trains' reliability. The Rail Repair Plan, completed in June 2024, resulted in passengers spending 35 per cent less time in train delays caused by infrastructure failures.'
RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes called on Transport for NSW to take responsibility for the 'decades of neglect of our transport system', saying Labor and Coalition governments over the preceding decade had not 'prioritised commuters or the network'.
'The fact is, none of the recent issues have been caused by protected industrial action,' said Warnes.
'Transport for NSW's tangential blame of protected industrial action for the Strathfield incident was directly and immediately debunked by the premier. These continued claims are simply untrue.'
Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said: 'While the government has found its scapegoat, the reality is commuters need performance over promises for our rail network.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
This gobsmacking four-day working week proposal sets us back 25 years
The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities. The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities. The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities. The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Tougher laws on vaping, illegal tobacco may struggle to hold back the tide
Only eight days ago, the Minns government announced to great fanfare that illegal tobacco sellers would face prison terms of up to seven years and forced shop closures under new laws to be introduced. The changes, which Health Minister Ryan Park described as the toughest in the country, included new maximum penalties of $1.5 million and seven years' imprisonment for the sale of illegal tobacco and vapes. They would introduce similar penalties for possession of commercial quantities of the substances. The new laws were first flagged by Premier Chris Minns the week before. Today comes the news that the suburb of Dulwich Hill has four tobacconists that each sell illegal vapes. In neighbouring Marrickville, a new store is using Labubu toys to promote illegal vapes just metres from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's electoral office in another sign of how brazen Sydney's black market tobacco has become. From July 1 last year, all nicotine vapes have been classified as therapeutic goods, meaning they can be legally purchased only at pharmacies. Despite the promise of these tough new laws, the Herald visited the four tobacconists in Dulwich Hill – three on Marrickville Road and a fourth on New Canterbury Road – and asked for an Alibarbar vape from each. Some produced laminated menus showing the various flavours of Chinese-made vapes. Most offered a discount for paying cash, and the price averaged about $35 for a gold 'ingot' vape boasting 9000 puffs. In Marrickville, there are at least 10 tobacconists. The Herald visited the newest store, Labubu Stop & Shop, which has opened across the street from Albanese's electorate office.
The Age
2 days ago
- The Age
Tougher laws on vaping, illegal tobacco may struggle to hold back the tide
Only eight days ago, the Minns government announced to great fanfare that illegal tobacco sellers would face prison terms of up to seven years and forced shop closures under new laws to be introduced. The changes, which Health Minister Ryan Park described as the toughest in the country, included new maximum penalties of $1.5 million and seven years' imprisonment for the sale of illegal tobacco and vapes. They would introduce similar penalties for possession of commercial quantities of the substances. The new laws were first flagged by Premier Chris Minns the week before. Today comes the news that the suburb of Dulwich Hill has four tobacconists that each sell illegal vapes. In neighbouring Marrickville, a new store is using Labubu toys to promote illegal vapes just metres from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's electoral office in another sign of how brazen Sydney's black market tobacco has become. From July 1 last year, all nicotine vapes have been classified as therapeutic goods, meaning they can be legally purchased only at pharmacies. Despite the promise of these tough new laws, the Herald visited the four tobacconists in Dulwich Hill – three on Marrickville Road and a fourth on New Canterbury Road – and asked for an Alibarbar vape from each. Some produced laminated menus showing the various flavours of Chinese-made vapes. Most offered a discount for paying cash, and the price averaged about $35 for a gold 'ingot' vape boasting 9000 puffs. In Marrickville, there are at least 10 tobacconists. The Herald visited the newest store, Labubu Stop & Shop, which has opened across the street from Albanese's electorate office.
