Michael Tull, Assistant Secretary of the CPSU (Community and Public Sector Union) and Deb Smith discuss the effects of privatisation, consultancies and labour hire on the workers in the Public Service and the adverse flow on effects to Australian citizens - cuts to services, lower standards of service and policy development which prioritises profit over community benefit.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on 17/2/2022 and first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 18/2/2022. 

Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. 

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Join a union - 1300 486 466 or join online.  

Disclaimer: We seek a range of perspectives but that means that views expressed in these podcasts are not necessarily endorsed by the Blue Mountains Unions Council Inc.

Rail workers have been taking limited industrial action to win better safety and services but "Today’s rail chaos is the result of the NSW Government’s decision to shut the train network to make a point, and not the action of the state’s rail workers, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union says."

"Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW Secretary, Alex Claassens, said workers turned up to work this morning prepared to take part in low level protected industrial action which would not have impacted commuters, only to be told by management that trains would not be running today.

“'This is a dummy spit from the NSW Government,' Mr Claassens said. “Workers were prepared to take protected industrial action, but only transport management would have noticed the impact, not commuters. The impact to services today is not because of workers’ actions, but because the NSW Government is spitting the dummy and trying to make a point.

“We’re ready to drive the trains whenever the NSW Government will let us.

“All members were at work, ready to work. They were ready and waiting to crew the trains only to be told the trains aren’t running today. There is no impediment, only stubbornness on behalf of the NSW Government.

"Mr Claassens said rail workers have been bitterly disappointed by the NSW’s Government’s approach to current enterprise agreement negotiations, particularly over the past days which have seen the NSW Government take a heavy-handed, expensive, legal approach to workers’ legal right to take industrial action.

“We’re tryng to negotiate an enterprise agreement that enshrines safety on our train network. For the NSW Government to suggest otherwise is unbelievable. It’s time the NSW Government stopped trying to bully workers into submission and starting resolving the laundry list of safety and employment issues workers have raised.”

"Among the key sticking points in current enterprise agreement negotiations are:

Privatisation – workers want a commitment that no train services or lines will be lost in the event of privatisation;

Safety claims – workers want a guarantee that any changes to our services will leave them as safe or safer;

Hygiene – workers want a commitment to maintaining the existing level of hygiene using good, full time jobs."

https://rtbuexpress.com.au/rail-workers-ready-to-drive-the-trains-nsw-government-dummy-spits-shuts-train-network/

Deb Smith spoke to Alex Claassens on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1 last week about the industrial action - overtime bans and the like, not strike action - being taken RTBU members. Listen to his interview here on our Rights, Rorts and Rants podcasting site.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on 17/2/2022 and first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 18/2/2022. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC. Join a union - 1300 486 466 or join online.  Disclaimer: We seek a range of perspectives but that means that views expressed in these podcasts are not necessarily endorsed by the Blue Mountains Unions Council Inc.

This episode features  an edited version of the recent Airwatch zoom meeting,  presented by Blue Mountains Unions Council and the Blue Mountains Environment Sustainability Network, to discuss the ongoing campaign of the Lithgow and Blue Mountains AirWatch.  The meeting focuses on the quality of the air we breathe, and  presents new evidence showing that when the air becomes polluted by bushfire smoke containing fine toxic particles, it becomes a killer.  As Peter Lammiman,  organiser and host of the meeting says "It’s not the bushfires that kill people it’s the smoke afterwards, with over 400 people dying from smoke inhalation on the eastern seaboard during and after the “black summer” of 2019-20".  The first speaker is Julie Favell,  from the Lithgow Environment Group,  followed by Maggie Davidson,  adjunct lecturer in Environmental Health and Occupational Hygiene from the School of Sciences at Western Sydney University, and the final speaker, Natasha Flores,  is the industrial officer at Unions New South Wales. 

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 22/10/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

Never short on praise for the LNP, The Quiet Australian  talks up Perrottet's  conservative roots  and talks down the various scandals,such as I-Care,  that  have peppered his career. 

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 22/10/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

In this episode our legal expert Mike Holland discusses the new generations fund,  set up by Dominic Perrottet purportedly  to find new infrastructure projects and pay down the NSW state debt.  However as Mike explains,  the fund has done neither,  and is instead is being used to invest in high risk ventures on the stock market.  As Perrottet  gambles with taxpayers money,  Holland explains the history, legislative intent, financial structuring, and possible conflicts of interest (not to mention the complete disassociation between the current use of the fund and what it was intended for)  that has surrounded this complicated and some would say shady endeavour.

Mike also has some good news for us:  the attempt to muzzle charities was overturned by the ACT Court of Appeals,  and attempts to  hide from public scrutiny  the secret donor to Christian Porter's  blind trust have also failed.

 This program was presented by Fran Dyson on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 22/10/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

In this episode Nick Franklin discusses the importance of Palmer's UAP  in the upcoming Federal Election, pointing  to its membership  (of allegedly over 70,000)  as a possible key factor in  directing preferences to the LNP.  With its platform of 'freedom", the UAP may hope to win the allegiance of disaffected voters coming out of harsh lockdowns and now facing vaccine mandates, however as Franklin points out, there is no "there" there when it comes to actual policy.

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 22/10/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

In this episode Nick Franklin and Fran Dyson talk to independent candidate for the upcoming Blue Mountains City Council elections, Daniel Miles, about why he left the Liberal party, 'his views on development, employment, job security, air monitors and what he sees are the biggest challenges facing both residents of the Blue Mountains and their environment.

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 12/11/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

In this episode Nick Franklin and Fran Dyson talk to Labour candidate for the upcoming Blue Mountains City Council elections, Ward 2, Romola Hollywood about her views on development, employment, job security, air monitors and what she sees are the biggest challenges facing both residents of the Blue Mountains and their environment.

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 12/11/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

In this episode Nick Franklin talks to  independent candidate for the upcoming Blue Mountains City Council  elections, Chris Van der Kley,  about why he left the Liberal party, 'his views on development,  employment, job security, air monitors and what he sees are the biggest challenges facing  both residents of the Blue Mountains and their environment.

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 12/11/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.

In this episode our legal expert Mike Holland talks to presenter Fran Dyson about the Transport Assets Holding Entity (TAHE), which was established by the then  Treasurer Dominic Perrottet,  as a way of hiding the costs  incurred by New South Wales  public transport system and thereby boosting the budget bottom line,  and relatedly - how the "New Generation  Fund" -  purportedly established to pay down NSW debt,  is being invested in high-risk funds on the stock market.  Mike also goes into detail about Perrottet's  involvement  in the I-Care  scandal,  and the legal challenges to Scott Morrison's  National Cabinet  and its claims to cabinet confidentiality as a way of hiding government decision-making processes and obscuring accountability. And in a victory for the rule of law, Mike discusses the recent ruling by the ACT court of appeal in the trial of "witness K" which has upheld the principle of public scrutiny by refusing to allow the hearings to be held behind closed doors.

This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 8/10/2021. Rights, Rorts and Rants is broadcast from 4pm to 6pm on 89.1FM or can be live streamed from rbm.org.au. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment about our show, which may be added to one of our podcasts..Apply to be a guest on our show. Join BMUC.