Shooters Party Votes Against Working People Again
Shooters Party Votes Against Working People Again
The NSW Shooters and Fishers Party has shown again that it will trample all over the well being of working people in NSW by voting with the Government to slash death and disability benefits to those who undertake one of the most dangerous and stressful occupations, police. (This follows their support earlier this year of the 2.5% wage cap on NSW public servants.)
The result is a low cost, unfair scheme which will leave injured workers (in this case police) paying the real cost for their service to NSW.
Anyone who believes NSW residents have a right to expect safe and just working conditions should be appalled by this legislation which has been brought to you by the Liberal Party with the assistance of the Shooters and Fishers Party.
James Ryan
Changes to police compensation scheme pass NSW upper house
The NSW police union could take further industrial action after the state government’s changes to the police compensation scheme passed parliament’s upper house.
A vote was taken shortly before 11pm yesterday, resulting in the bill passing 15 votes to 12, with the Shooters Party and Christian Democrats in favour and Labor and the Greens against.
The bill will go before the lower house today, where the coalition has a massive majority.
Police Association of NSW president Scott Weber said the fight was far from over even though parliament is about to finish for the year.
“The government can rest assured we will continue to do all we can to challenge this legislation and make it clear this government no longer has the support of its police officers,” he said in a statement after the vote.
Union members would still vote on whether to progress to stage four of industrial action, where officers only attend urgent jobs, Mr Weber said.
An urgent meeting of the Police Association executive is also set to be held soon to determine the next stage of the union’s campaign.
Police Minister Mike Gallacher, a former police officer, said the legislation would change a scheme that was unsustainable.
But Labor leader John Robertson said it was an “absolute disgrace” the government had rammed through the legislation in the final week of parliament to rip out entitlements for injured officers.
The state wants to replace the current scheme with a commercial insurance arrangement and restrict payouts to police injured on the job, saying the 2005 scheme has blown out from $2.5 million to $15 million a week.
Thousands of officers rallied in Sydney on Tuesday, threatening to escalate industrial action unless the bill was removed from parliament.
AAP
