Premier: Keeping The Virus Under Control

PREMIER Gladys Berejiklian said there were 9,900 people tested in the last 24 hours, which she described as an “amazing result” and helps her feel “confident we can keep the virus under control.”

There was only one new case confirmed in the last 24 hours, a Queenslander who was already in travel quarantine, which the Premier described as ironic, taking a swipe at the Queensland Premier who does not want to open the interstate boarders.

Public Service Wage Freeze

The government has proposed a 12 month wage freeze for all New South Wales public servants, which is yet to be passed by Parliament. 

The Premier described the proposal as a sensible option considering the economic pressures in the state.

“We’ve invested billions of dollars towards the unprecedented drought, billions of dollars towards recovery for the bushfires and now billions of dollars through covid plus we’re facing the fact that we have 100’s of 1000’s of people out of work in New South Wales, with 100s of 1000s of others on JobKeeper,” said the Premier.

“The situation before of us is a challenging one and we have a number of options before us and what we’ve chosen is what we believe to be the fairest option, but if this option isn’t accepted by the Upper House we have to go through those other options,” she said.

Opponents of the wage freeze have argued if the government can invest heavily in areas such as infrastructure, then wages should not be frozen, but the Premier argued infrastructure investment created jobs which was also critical. 

“All about job creation, not only that we keep jobs, but that we create jobs,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

TAFE Course Success

The free TAFE courses offered by the NSW government have been taken up by more than 100,000 people and they encourage more people to use the opportunity to retrain and upskill.

The medical administration curse has been the most highly sought after course, more than half of the courses were taken up by regional students and the majority of people who enrolled had not studied at TAFE before.