We need a Minister who can get the trains running

The Greens NSW condemn the Perrottet government’s handling of industrial negotiations with train workers.

MEDIA RELEASE: We need a Minister who can get the trains running

The Greens are calling on Premier Dominic Perrottet to acknowledge his government’s responsibility for this rolling disaster, and to sack Transport Minister David Elliott for throwing Sydney’s transport network into chaos.

The Liberal-National government’s decision to lock out train workers, bringing the entire Sydney train network crashing to a halt, showed this government’s willingness to use the residents of Sydney as collateral damage in their ideological warfare against workers and their unions.

Quotes attributable to Greens NSW MP and spokesperson for Transport Abigail Boyd:

“The people of NSW aren’t falling for Perrottet’s lies, they know the responsibility for yesterday’s fiasco falls squarely on the shoulders of Perrottet and his Cabinet.

“David Elliott was a Perrottet appointee, and responsibility for this massive disruption ultimately rests with him and his choice of incompetent Transport Minister. Perrottet must now act swiftly and decisively to remove Elliott from the portfolio and put someone in the job who can get the trains running.

“Whether it’s defective trams, ferries and trains, increasingly bitter industrial negotiations, or the budget black hole that is the Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE), it’s obvious that what Transport for NSW needs right now is a safe pair of hands.

“The Minister for Transport has this week demonstrated to the Premier and the state he’s clearly not equal to the task, and must go.”

Media contact: Angus Hoy for Abigail Boyd 0416 130 969

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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We need a Minister who can get the trains running

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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