It’s on.
An industrial brawl between the New South Wales Police’s union and federal minister for financial services Stephen Jones has boiled over, escalating into a series of targeted boycotts and bans on cooperation with the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Public Service after the state cops came good on their promise to hit Canberra where it hurts the most — the Budget.
The Police Association of New South Wales (PANSW) on Friday commenced industrial action over a decade-long row about how police officers’ mandatory death and disability insurance cover is treated under superannuation laws, pulling its members off non-safety related AFP work after a June 30 deadline passed.
The state police union’s position is that its members are getting ripped off by Canberra.
“Everyone can see that superannuation for NSW police officers needs to be fixed. Everyone except Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones,” PANSW said in member communications, taking direct aim at the assistant treasurer and minister for financial services.
Secretary of PANSW Pat Gooley extended the personal touch too, as well as giving the federal Labor government a serve.
“The Labor Party promised to fix this for 10 years in opposition. Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones has been fully briefed on the issue and had the legislative fix in his hands for months, but refuses to step up and fix it,” Gooley said.
“As a result, Stephen Jones has left us no choice but to take industrial action if this is not fixed by 30 June. The government will quickly learn how much they rely on NSW police officers, and yet they will not even ensure they can save their own money for retirement and access family support.”
The industrial action is pretty much an all-out ban on all things federal.
“Members of the police association are advised to cease any cooperation with commonwealth agencies or departments unless the matter creates a risk to the life or physical/psychological welfare of a person,” PANSW told members.
The list of work bans is impressive too. It includes:
- No assistance in controlled delivery of substituted illicit drugs or other items — once the drugs are substituted the immediate risk to safety has passed.
- No assistance to commonwealth agencies executing warrants or other processes, including arrest where there is no need for a specialist tactical resource.
- No attendance at Australia Post mail centres and calls for assistance detection of drug packages — seized drugs pose no danger, commonwealth agencies have detection capacity.
- No involvement in commonwealth investigations like tobacco (excise), fraud, etc unless so entrenched in organised crime as to make it necessary.
- No law enforcement (unless life threatening/F&DV, child at risk etc) on Defence land.
- No attendance at Tweed Heads or Newcastle airports to perform functions of AFP, quarantine, customs or border force unless life-threatening.
- No transport of AFP prisoners.
- No attendance at immigration detention centres, eg Villawood (unless life-threatening).
- No immigration checks unless relevant to a bail determination.
- No ministerial or departmental correspondence with federal departments or agencies.
- No appearance in federal or parliamentary inquiries.
Ouch.
Stephen Jones returned in kind.
“The former NSW government decided to minimise its tax by paying a benefit to its police through the superannuation system,” Jones told The Mandarin.
“The superannuation system was not designed for this purpose. This decision is now having a negative impact on the retirement outcomes for members of the NSW Police.”
“The Albanese government is ready to work with the NSW government to determine an appropriate solution.
A spokesman for NSW minister for police Yasmin Cately declined to comment on the matter, letting the ball straight through to the commonwealth wicketkeeper.
The Australian Federal Police, at an official level, is also not buying into the dispute, although its union, the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA), said two weeks ago it was backing it then “potential” action that has now come to fruition.
“For quite a long time, law enforcement members have been overlooked by the same people they look after — federal politicians, senior public officials, and bureaucrats. They seem quite content for AFP members and other law enforcement officers to take a bullet for them, yet aren’t willing to help those same members if and when they struggle financially, physically, mentally and emotionally,” said AFPA president Alex Caruana, before putting the spotlight on his own members.
“The government could make life-saving changes immediately but chooses not to. AFP appointees are the lowest base-paid officers in the country. They receive zero government-sponsored medical or mental health intervention during their retirement, even after giving years of service to the community,” Mr Caruana said.
Senator Jacqui Lambi, The Greens, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions have also backed the PANSW campaign and action.
Lambie has written to both Jones and treasurer Jim Chalmers urging for legislative change to resolve the concessional cap issue.
“NSW Police Officers are being taxed for an insurance product that is essential to keep them safe at work,” senator Lambie is quoted as saying in campaign materials circulated by the PANSW.
“The scheme impacts 17,100 of 17,500 NSW police officers and disproportionately affects female police officers as they cannot contribute to their superannuation and miss out on family assistance designed to maximise participation in the workforce.
“The death and disability insurance policy inflates assessable income and therefore denies the Police Officer’s access to means-tested benefits such as parental leave, childcare rebates and health rebates.”
The PANSW has posted a letter of support from McManus to Jones, NSW treasurer Daniel Mookhey and NSW minister for police Catley decrying the lack of action to resolve the impasse.
“For more than a decade, the Police Association of New South Wales has raised concerns about the impact this has on thousands of its members. The union has sought and received promises from state and federal governments that this would be rectified,” McManus said.
“Every treasurer and assistant treasurer from David Bradbury to Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have committed to, but failed, to rectify the issue.”
Greens senator David Shoebridge has even fronted a video backing in the state cops.
The dispute continues.
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