Month: December 2022

The NSW Government has welcomed the 4.5 billionth tap-on to the Opal network at Parramatta Train Station today as the revolutionary electronic ticketing system turns ten.
 
Minister for Transport, Veterans and Western Sydney David Elliott said commuters had clocked up billions of Opal card trips since the network launched ten years ago.
 
“We’ve seen 4.5 billion trips taken on the Opal network in the decade since it was introduced – that’s an average of 1 million trips on our public transport system each day,” Mr Elliott said.
 
“The sheer volume of trips taken on the Opal network shows how much Sydneysiders and visitors love using the technology and see it as a part of their everyday lives.”
 
“The Perrottet Government is building on the Opal success with the investment of $568 million over the next five years to deliver a new state-of-the-art Opal system, Opal NextGen.”
 
“This will give commuters even more choice and convenience when booking and paying for public transport, helping them seamlessly travel across NSW like never before.”
 
The first tap-on was made on the Neutral Bay to Circular Quay ferry route on 7 December 2012 and since then the Opal network has expanded to operate on the Metro, rail, bus, ferry and light rail networks across Greater Sydney.
 
Transport for NSW Chief Operations Officer Howard Collins said the introduction of the Opal network a decade ago has revolutionised the way commuters travel across all modes of public transport.
 
“It’s amazing when you remember that only six years ago in August 2016, paper tickets were fully retired and now, many commuters travel on the network without a physical Opal card,” Mr Collins said.
 
“More than 56 million Opal cards have been issued giving commuters easy access to our public transport network, whether they’re local, from interstate or overseas.
 
“We look forward to rolling out Opal NextGen that will see travel from A to B on public transport and other transport services become even more seamless.”
 
To plan your trip on public transport download the Opal Travel app or visit transportnsw.info

Construction of the new Budawang School for Specific Purposes (SSP) is well underway, with the concrete slabs for Block A and C poured and framing for Block C complete as the $30 million redevelopment is taking shape.
 
Member for South Coast, Shelley Hancock and Liberal Candidate for South Coast Luke Sikora today visited the site that will soon be able to deliver purpose-built learning spaces and a hydrotherapy aquatic facility to cater for students with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities from years K-12.
 
Mrs Hancock said when complete, the project will deliver seven new learning spaces, new core facilities, and additional play space provided on an expanded footprint.
  
“The site will provide a unique new school with modern facilities, tailored specifically to the needs of the students and this community,” Mrs Hancock said. “It has also been future proofed to accommodate additional student growth if required in the future.”
 
Liberal Candidate for South Coast Luke Sikora said he was proud the NSW Government is delivering such an important project for South Coast families.
 
“I’m delighted to be here and see this construction work progressing. This is an important project for southern Shoalhaven, delivering a great educational space for local kids,” Mr Sikora said. “The former Shoalhaven Anglican School site has plenty of potential for providing important educational facilities for our growing community. It has been master planned to deliver the new school and has been protected to allow for the expansion of educational facilities in the near future.”
 
“This project is a great example of strong support for the local community by Shelley as our Member of Parliament, and the Perrottet Government’s commitment to delivering new and improved school infrastructure for the South Coast.
 
Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said NSW Government wants to support students across NSW with the best learning environment.
 
“The NSW Government has invested more in public education than any other government in Australia,” Ms Mitchell said. “We are delivering quality education to all students across the state.”
 
The NSW Government is investing $8.6 billion in school infrastructure over the next four years, continuing its program to deliver 160 new and upgraded schools to support communities across NSW. This builds on the more than $9.1 billion invested in projects delivered since 2017, a program of $17.7 billion in public education infrastructure.

An elected Minns Labor Government will build a new public high school for the growing communities of Gledswood Hills and Gregory Hills.
 
The high school would be built within the first term of a Minns Labor Government, with a local site procured to provide the best possible access for local families.
 
Labor will also do a full audit of enrolment growth in South West Sydney to fix the Perrottet Government’s broken schools planning, which has left growing communities without adequate schools.
 
Gregory Hills is now home to more than 9,000 residents, with a further 6,000 residents in Gledswood Hills. Yet, the NSW Liberal Government has refused to build a high school for four years straight.
 
Worse still, the NSW Government failed to procure land that the government’s own Education Department recommended purchasing in 2019 for a future high school in Gledswood Hills.
 
This is despite the Education Department warning of the “need for a new secondary school based on forecast enrolments.”
 
As a result of government inaction, hundreds of parents in Gregory Hills and Gledswood Hills were forced to start a community campaign in 2020 to get local public schools built.
 
For more than two years parents have petitioned the NSW Government, raised their voices in the media and advocated countless times to their current Liberal MP, but still the Perrottet Government has failed to build a high school.
 
This year’s NSW budget showed school building facing huge delays, with the Perrottet Government under-delivering on 113 school infrastructure projects – spending $1.26 billion less than was promised in the 2021-22 budget.
 
Eight out of 10 of the biggest enrolment surges occurred in Western Sydney schools.

Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader, said:
 
“Growing communities need schools, and in South West Sydney the NSW Liberal Government has failed to deliver enough schools to meet the rapid population growth.
 
“Families in Gregory Hills and Gledswood Hills have been forced to campaign for years to get schools built in their community – they’ve been ignored by the current NSW Government for too long.

I aim to fix this government’s poor planning and build the local public high school this community urgently needs.”

 
Prue Car, NSW Shadow Minister for Education, said:
 
“This community had to fight tooth and nail to finally get the delayed Gregory Hills Public School started, whilst the playground at neighbouring Gledswood Hills Public School filled with demountables.
 
“Now, the Perrottet Liberal Government refuses to even secure a site for a high school, despite their own Education Department admitting the high school is needed.

“Families have seen more and more housing lots approved, all the while their pleas for a local high school have been ignored by the NSW Government.”
 
Sally Quinnell, NSW Labor Candidate for Camden, said:
 
“Parents have been crying out for years to get a local public high school for this community and I’m very pleased to be able to announce this high school commitment today.
 
“As a teacher and parent myself, I understand the frustration this community has experienced under the current NSW Liberal Government as they’ve had to fight for local schools.
 
“I want to be a strong voice for my community, which for too long has been lacking a strong advocate who can get results.”

Labor will deliver more job security and funding certainty for our community services sector, by introducing longer term five year funding arrangements for key community service providers.
 
This will benefit the over 7,800 non-government organisations that operate in the sector; the more than 240,000 workers they employ; and the over one million people they support.
 
These essential frontline workers – predominantly women – have been vital in supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our community, including throughout the pandemic, fires, droughts and floods, as well as homelessness, domestic and family violence, and child protection.
 
Under the Liberals and Nationals
 
One in four community service workers are employed on short term contracts, according to a NSW Council of Social Services report.
 
These organisations are often forced to reapply for their funding every 12, six or even three months.
 
The applications are onerous and often differ among the various government departments.  
 
As a result, one in three organisations reported difficulties recruiting and retaining staff.
 
And organisations are often forced to compete, rather than collaborate, which leads to a race to the bottom on wages and conditions in a sector comprised of predominantly women.
 
Labor’s plan
 
Longer term funding will foster greater job security for many thousands of women workers as well as provide organisations the freedom to plan into the future.  
 
It will also allow these organisations to spend more time on service delivery, rather than on administrative tasks.
 
Labor will also establish a taskforce to engage with the sector on the development of a new funding framework and jobs compact.
 
The taskforce will work to standardise and streamline reporting and contract management.
 
It will also establish a whole-of-government prequalification process so that organisations don’t need to repeat onerous accreditation processes.
 
And it will review funding models to stop the race to the bottom on wages, provide secure jobs and ensure adherence to award conditions.                                                                                                                                                            
 
Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader said:

Longer term funding will mean better services for frontline organisations because it’s more time spent helping people and less time bogged down in paperwork to get funding.

 “This is a predominately female workforce, and ensuring certainty will also provide economic security for those employed in this sector.”

Kate Washington, NSW Shadow Minister for Families & Communities said:
 
“Under Labor, service providers will have the freedom to plan for the future, workers in the sector will have more secure jobs and the sector can focus on service delivery and supporting vulnerable people in our community.”
 
Jodie Harrison, NSW Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault said:
 
“These organisations and workers provide essential support to some of the most vulnerable in our community, from those experiencing natural disasters to domestic violence.”
 
Rose Jackson, NSW Shadow Minister for Housing & Homelessness said:
 
“They shouldn’t be forced to jump through hoops every three to 12 months just to do their job.”

Unused wards at Campbelltown Hospital were tendered out to film studios by the NSW Liberals and Nationals, documents obtained by NSW Labor have revealed.

The proposed tender details said, “Campbelltown Hospital has vacant/unused wards that can be used for filming for TV/Ads/Movies and other similar such mediums.”

The revelations come at a time when the state’s hospital system under the Liberals and Nationals grapple with record hospital wait times.

The most recent BHI data revealed that between April and June this year only 42.2 per cent of critical emergency treatment started on time in Campbelltown Hospital.

Over the same period, 10 per cent waited over an hour and 19 minutes, just to be transferred from an ambulance to a bed in the hospital.

Ten per cent spent almost 14 hours in the emergency department.

And over 3,000 patients left the emergency ward without receiving treatment altogether – one in every seven people who turned up for medical help.

NSW Labor is calling on the Premier to provide an explanation about the tender while wards remain unused and patients in need of critical care are going untreated.

Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns said:

“It says so much about this Premier and this Government that they are more interested in creating fictional treatments, than actually treating patients in need.

This is outrageous. This isn’t Grey‘s Anatomy, it’s a real hospital with sick people.

“Because of chronic mismanagement, these wards are being used as movie sets rather than delivering treatment.  

“Dominic Perrottet should be focused on fixing the hospital not filming it.”

Ryan Park, NSW Shadow Minister for Health said:

“The people of Campbelltown and south west Sydney have every right to be frustrated and angry at a Government more interested in stunts than delivering the health services residents need and deserve.

“Shiny new wards without appropriate staffing will do nothing to solve the health crisis caused by 12 years of understaffing and underfunding our hospitals.

“If you were one of the three thousand patients who left the hospital untreated, or if you’re one of their friends or family, you’d be outraged.

“Despite a hospital crisis across NSW, Dominic Perrottet seems to be more interested in being a director than a Premier.”

NSW Labor is reiterating its plans to ban mobile phones in New South Wales schools as a new report shows more and more kids are addicted to screens and devices.
 
Today’s Daily Telegraph reports that a group of Australian psychiatrists and psychologists specialising in video gaming, technology and associated behavioural difficulties have formed the Australian Gaming & Screens Alliance (AGASA).
 
They are calling on the government to take action, particularly after COVID.
 
Labor announced in September, that a Minns Labor Government will restrict the use of mobile phones in NSW public school classrooms to improve students’ learning and social development.
 
South Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia have all announced a ban in schools. Mobile phones are banned in primary schools in NSW but there is no mandatory restrictions on phones in high schools.
 
The Premier and his Education Minister are refusing to budge. That is despite parents writing to the Government urging a ban, and study after study suggesting children are more addicted to screens then ever.
 
Under the proposed policy, all NSW public school students would have their phones turned off during school hours and kept off and out of sight until the end of the school day.
 
There will be exemptions for students with special circumstances, such as needing to monitor a health condition, or when under the direct instruction of a teacher for educational purposes or with teacher permission for a specified purpose such as for language translation and communication.

Chris Minns, NSW Labor leader said:

As any family across New South Wales knows, the biggest conversation around the dinner table at the moment is how to get kids off devices.

“I’ve got 3 boys, I share the concerns of parents about the impact devices and phones are having on the next generation of kids.
 
“NSW Labor will ban mobile phones in NSW schools. It will mean kids can focus more on learning and during recess and lunch they are back to kicking a ball around or talking face to face with their friends.

A Minns Labor Government will end the NSW Government’s failed $13.5 million Recruitment Beyond NSW program and redirect resources towards actually recruiting New South Wales teaching students into schools.
 
The Perrottet Government’s signature Recruitment Beyond NSW scheme that promised 460 overseas teachers has yielded only three new teachers.
 
Meanwhile, figures from the NSW Department of Education reveal 7,174 people received Initial Teacher Education (ITE) qualifications in 2021, but an alarming 1,418 (or 1 in 5) chose not to become teachers. 

This is worsened by the fact that the number of people taking up teaching degrees declined by 29 per cent over the period of 2014 to 2019.
 
After 12 years, the NSW Liberals just don’t get it. They have presided over a chronic teacher shortage, which has meant merged and cancelled classes, and students falling behind in national and international rankings when it comes to literacy, numeracy and science.
 
NSW Labor has a plan for a better NSW education system for a better future for our kids. 

To get more teaching graduates into schools, a Minns Labor Government will:
 
•    Match NSW teaching graduates directly with vacant teaching positions, ensuring new graduates aren’t lost to the school system.
•    Provide permanent teaching job offers earlier to ensure high-achieving teacher education students have guaranteed teaching roles upon graduation.
•    Expand the Hub Schools program to provide more partnerships between schools and teacher education providers.
•    Create a state-wide teacher placements system to match specialist teachers with schools’ subject needs. 
 
And to get more people to take on a teaching degree in the first place, a Minns Labor Government will:
 
•    Create a $20 million Innovative Teacher Training Fund, to support innovative pathways into teaching such as the Clinical Teaching School Hubs model developed by Alphacrucis University College. 
•    Expand evening and weekend Master of Teaching courses for career-changers, by partnering with teacher education providers so career-changers can earn an income whilst retraining as a teacher. 
 
NSW Labor will redirect unallocated funding from the Teacher Supply Strategy and the failed Recruitment Beyond NSW strategy towards these new initiatives.
 
Today’s measures build on Labor’s already announced policies to fix the long term problems in our education system and to make a teaching career in New South Wales more attractive, including:

•    Cutting 5 hours of admin work per week. 
•    Creating 10,000 new permanent positions to end the casualization of the teaching profession.
•    Removing the Perrottet Government’s wages cap to make the profession competitive again.

Labor is commitmed to valuing the teaching profession, putting a stop to increasing attrition from the profession and bringing teachers back into NSW schools. 

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns:
 
“The Perrottet Government spent years and millions of dollars coming up with a scheme that gave us only 3 new teachers, while 1,400 NSW teaching graduates chose alternative careers right under their noses.”  
 
“Why should New South Wales continue spending millions on recruiting teachers from overseas when there are thousands who spend years training to become teachers locally, but never end up in schools?”

This is a common-sense, back-to-basics approach to fixing the teacher shortage in NSW.”

 “My dad was a public school teacher. He worked in the public school system of New South Wales for nearly 40 years.  
 
“Teaching was his life’s work , and I want to ensure we attract and retain the next generation of career teachers, who want to work and teach right here in New South Wales. 
 
NSW Deputy Labor Leader and Shadow Minister for Education Prue Car:
 
“Every qualified teaching graduate should be contacted directly and told that there is a job waiting for them in our schools. I will call them myself if I have to – it’s a travesty these teaching graduates aren’t going into our schools.”
 
“Labor’s plans will make the teaching profession a more attractive career choice, get more teachers into classrooms and ensure they can make teaching their life’s work.”

It’s clear this Government has run out of ideas and its best days are behind them, with an announcement today by the Education Minister on another syllabus change – it’s 20^th  announcement since 2018.

Despite the 20 announcements, a report released by the McKell Institute yesterday confirmed that New South Wales is going backwards when it comes to education outcomes.
 
International PISA results show that between 2006 and 2018, NSW students dropped from 6th to 23rd in reading, dropped from 9th to 31st in maths and dropped from 3rd to 23rd in science.
 
In fact, NSW had the largest decline of any Australian jurisdiction in PISA reading results between 2000 and 2018.
 
This year’s NAPLAN results also showed the literacy levels of teenage boys had fallen to record lows with one in six failing to reach the minimum standard in grammar and punctuation and about 12 per cent struggled to read at a basic level.

Today there’s another syllabus announcement, yet the Perrottet Government has failed to recruit enough teachers to actually teach it.
 
There are currently 2,963 teacher vacancies across NSW and a NSW Parliament survey shows that 60 per cent of NSW teachers are planning to leave their jobs in the next 5 years.
 
After 12 years, the NSW Liberals just don’t get it.
 
They have presided over a chronic teacher shortage, which has meant merged and cancelled classes, and students falling behind in national and international rankings when it comes to literacy, numeracy and science.
 
Another four years will mean more of the same.
 
A list of syllabus announcements by the NSW Government since 2018:

1. 14 May 2018 – Curriculum Review launched
2. 24 August 2018 – Public consultation of curriculum review has started
3. September 2018 – Terms of Reference revealed
4. April 2019 – Consultation review released
5. 22 October 2019 – Interim Curriculum report released. ‘Back to basics’ plan for new NSW schools curriculum
6. 23 October 2019 – Curriculum to include more trades subjects
7. 23 June 2020 – Masters review released
8. 14 February 2021 – Expert teachers to help curriculum reform
9. 23 March 2021 – K-2 English and Maths curriculum revealed
10. 19 June 2021 – $196 million for implementation of curriculum reform
11. 2 August 2021 – English and Maths syllabuses released for public consultation
12. 15 November 2021 – English and Maths Yr1 and 2 curriculum
13. 18 March 2022 – Year 3-10 English and Maths curriculum revealed
14. 21 March 2022 – AUSLAN joins NSW curriculum
15. 16 August 2022 – Music and Dance curriculum consultation
16. 7 October 2022 – Extra 30mins release time for teachers to learn curriculum
17. 17 October 2022 – Aboriginal Languages syllabus revealed
18. 24 October 2022 – STEM syllabus revealed
19. 21 November 2022 – Technology syllabus revealed
20. 5 December 2022 – English syllabus announcement

It’s time for a fresh start for our education system in New South Wales.

NSW Labor has begun to outline a comprehensive plan to fix the long term problems in our education system, reverse the decline in student outcomes and to make a teaching career in New South Wales more attractive by:

• Cutting 5 hours of admin work per week so teachers spend more time in the clasroom;
• Converting 10,000 existing casual teachers to permanent to give them the security of job they are asking for to stay in teaching;
• Creating better teacher pathways to ensure our graduates end up in New South Wales schools;
• Banning the use of mobile phones in schools to reduce distraction and improve education outcomes; and
• Removing the Perrottet Government’s wages cap to make the profession competitive again.

The release of the latest Bureau of Health Information (BHI) today confirms people in New South Wales are still waiting too long for an ambulance and too long in Emergency Departments with 1 in 10 patients spending longer than 22 hours in Emergency before discharge – the longest of any quarter since BHI reporting began.
 
Across the state:

• 60,000 patients or 1 in every 12 walked into an Emergency Department in the last 3 months and left without, or before completing treatment.  
• More than one in three Priority 1A patients, that is people with life threatening conditions like cardiac or respiratory arrest, waited longer than the 10-minute target for an ambulance to arrive.
• Almost half of critical emergency patients did not start their treatment on time.
• Almost 100,000 people were on elective surgery waiting lists at the end of September, including close to 18,000 who had waited longer than clinical guidelines say they should.

These figures show the dire state of our health system. It’s not fair on our hardworking healthcare professionals to have to manage a system that is stretched to its limits.

For the last 12 years, our health system and the people who work in it have been neglected by the Liberals and Dominic Perrottet. New South Wales lost 365 hospital beds, and we have a shortage of nurses who are leaving the profession.

In the last year alone, 35 emergency department nurses left Westmead Hospital, and another 35 left Blacktown Hospital.

But Dominic Perrottet and the Liberals don’t get it. In response to the outpouring of concern about the state of our public hospitals from paramedics, to nurses to senior doctors in the bush and in the city – the Minister for Health declared – that if the conditions were so bad – perhaps the doctors should go and work in the third world.

In response to a question on the health system in crisis, Minister Hazzard said ‘Bullshit, there certainly is not. It’s the best health system in the country by a long shot!”

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said:

“The wait times for ambulances and in our hospitals are now at record levels.”This is not a health system that is coping, after 12 years of under investment by the NSW Liberals. “It’s why NSW Labor will begin the long overdue task of repairing and reforming our health care system across New South Wales.

“We’ll introduce safe staffing levels in NSW hospitals, starting with EDs. It will help with workloads, it will take pressure of nurses and ensure they can treat patients with the care they deserve and need.

“Our nurses, hospital staff, paramedics and doctors need more support.

NSW Shadow Minister for Health Ryan Park said:

“This data does not paint  a picture of a healthy system.”

“We have hospitals across the state and particularly in Western Sydney that are under continued pressure.

“Whether it is Nepean, Westmead or Blacktown, all major hospitals continue to show they are under resourced and struggling to cope with increased demand.