CPSU New South Wales

17/11/2025

11/11/2025

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐏𝐒𝐔 𝐍𝐒𝐖 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 but have been unable to make a new Enterprise Agreement.

Along with the ASU and TSU, the CPSU NSW participated in the Enterprise Bargaining Collaborative Approaches training at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on 5 and 6 November 2025.

The training was conducted by Deputy President Judith Wright.

The two days at the FWC were very useful in identifying concerns and providing context around each party’s bargaining issues.

For example, the CPSU NSW was able to inform the FWC that our members had effectively had a pay freeze for almost five years.

Being forced onto the SCHADS Award* would see these former NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (ADHC) staff disadvantaged again, during the current cost-of-living crisis, with their wages and conditions even further eroded.

The CPSU NSW bargaining reps felt that, thanks to the assistance of the FWC, more has come out of these two days than the previous three years of bargaining with the employer directly.

“We all found it to be a productive exercise,” said PSA Industrial Officer Anthony Wright.

A detailed members' bulletin will be sent out shortly.

PHOTO (L-R): John Fenton, Tom Duncan, Anthony Wright, Rebecca Lynch, and Shane Elliott

*The SCHADS Award — short for the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 — is an Australian modern award that sets the minimum pay rates, conditions, and entitlements for workers in the community services, social work, home care, and disability sectors.

06/11/2025

𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐘𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐅𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄

Yesterday, we held a 𝘾𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙐𝙨 event at the University of Sydney Camden Campus at the coffee shop inside the Liz Kernohan Conference Centre.

We heard about some of the issues currently faced by Professional Staff — flexible working arrangements, leave entitlements, access to Working From Home and even, we’re sad to say, bullying.

PHOTO: CPSU NSW Industrial Officer Mike Galvez with CPSU NSW Professional Staff Union delegates Tama Woodbury Grant Wheeler and Norton Roughley (photo by Jose Vasquez).

31/10/2025

𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐅𝐅 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐏𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀
The crisis across the university sector and professional staff job cuts has an even bigger impact on regional campuses which are often one of the largest employers in their communities. Higher Education Representative Council delegates raised the impacts on regional professional staff directly with relevant MPs earlier this week including Alison Byrnes MP (UOW: University of Wollongong,), Sharon Claydon MP (The University of Newcastle,) and Michael McCormack MP (Charles Sturt University). The CPSU NSW sought support from these MPs to speak up for professional staff in regional locations.

Thank you to Anne Stanley MP for hosting us at Parliament House.

29/10/2025

CPSU New South Wales Branch Assistant Secretary Troy Wright, and CPSU NSW Vice-President Shelley Odewahn led a delegation from the union’s Higher Education Representative Council to meet with Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare in Canberra today.

Delegates spoke passionately to raise awareness of the impact the crisis in the university sector is having on Professional Staff members, the widespread use of consultants in the sector, and the constant and cyclical nature of organisational change.

27/10/2025

CPSU NSW delegates and officials participated at the “UTS Stop the Cuts” community fair day (22 Oct 25) to protest against UTS professional staff cuts.

We joined students, staff, clubs, societies and faculties to show our opposition to these cuts.

More than 250 professional staff at UTS are set to lose their jobs.

Mismanagement is a significant factor in the job-cuts scenario at UTS: governance concerns, budget blow-outs, under‐payments, and staff morale have all recently been reported in the media.

The CPSU NSW - The Professional Staff Union - will continue to fight for job security and ultimately the best possible deal for our members.

www.cpsunsw.org.au

14/10/2025

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇𝐘 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐒, 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒
PSA CPSU NSW MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE 2025

We all know that healthy minds build stronger communities. Mental health is not just a personal issue, it’s a collective one. Every supportive workplace, every act of kindness, and every conversation that reduces stigma makes our workplaces fairer and our services stronger.

Nicole Jess, PSA President and Stewart Little, PSA General Secretary will welcome delegates and guests to the PSA CPSU NSW Mental Health Conference at 9:00am

We are honoured to have several excellent speakers today including:

• 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝗼𝗻, NSW Minister for Mental Health
• 𝗔𝗿𝗶𝗳 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝘂, Training Specialist in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mental health and Wellbeing
• 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝘁𝘁, Founder and Director, The Change Room
• 𝗟𝗶𝗮𝗺 𝗢'𝗗𝘄𝘆𝗲𝗿, Team Coordinator, Work Health & Safety specialist, SafeWork NSW
• 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆𝗰𝗼𝗮𝘁, Manager, Industry Partners, Aware Super
• 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗠𝗰𝗟𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗻, Physical Activity for Better Mental Health, PSA CPSU NSW
• 𝗟𝗶𝗮𝗺 𝗢'𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻, Assistant Secretary, ACTU
• 𝗖𝗵𝗹𝗼𝗲 𝗠𝗰𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗹, Ultra-marathon swimmer

Today is about listening, learning and acting, together. Because when our minds are healthy, our workplaces are safer, our communities are stronger, and our future is brighter.

13/10/2025

𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟯𝗸 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄, 𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗺

As Western Sydney University (WSU) prepares to shed hundreds of staff, leaked documents have revealed it is paying consultants as much as $2,850 each a day.

Internal documents, seen by the ABC, show at least seven senior
consultants from a range of firms are being paid between $1,325 and $2,850 a day.

A single invoice for just over five weeks of work for one consultant totalled $85,000 at a rate of almost $3,000 a day, with the worker billing the university an extra $355 for "tolls and parking".

WSU is the latest university to experience protracted conflict between management and staff as the university prepares for 400 voluntary redundancies — more than 10 per cent of the total workforce of 3,500.

Universities rely on income from international student fees and are worried that the government's proposed caps on new international student numbers will limit growth in that revenue stream.

But now the Albanese government has abandoned plans for legislative caps on international students and in fact has a soft cap of 295,000 international students for 2026, up from 270,000 in 2024.

01/10/2025

19/09/2025

CPSU NSW members from Forestry Corporation were in PSA House today to discuss the future of their industry and the role plantation and native forestry has in NSW.

18/09/2025

𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐊𝐄-𝐔𝐏
Vice chancellor of University of Canberra, Bill Shorten, has urged Australia to create a system of specialist universities to nurture the innovation necessary to build a more resilient and complex economy.

“Reimagining our modern universities is not simply an architectural reform; it is a national security and foreign policy imperative,” he told the Australian Institute of International Affairs on Thursday evening.

UNSW (University of NSW) is developing a new campus in Canberra, similar to Shorten’s idea, offering a suite of degrees in highly technical and in-demand areas: cybersecurity, space, systems engineering, defence and national security.

Shorten also called for an overhaul of how credentials are offered, with faster learning pathways that speed up knowledge and skill acquisition to meet industry needs.

Personalised learning to upskill the existing workforce would “capitalise on new technologies, approaches and knowledge”, he said.

“We must break the tyranny of the three-year degree as the primary unit of educational currency,” Shorten said. “The future of learning is not monolithic; it is modular.”

That model would rely on a system of small and stackable credentials and modules to build subject credits, sub-degree qualifications that would lead to full degrees.

“This is not about devaluing a full university education, it is about creating multiple, flexible pathways to achieve it,” he said.

A system of highly specialised universities would nurture innovation that is essential to make Australia a more resilient and complex economy, he says.

18/09/2025

𝐓𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 University of Sydney. Her role is focused on developing information literacy, so she works with a range of staff to build this into curricula and is responsible for teaching classes too. Her role includes support that a lot of people don’t expect from libraries – delivering events to help students build social connections, food security initiatives, creative workshops, exhibitions - even helping students to borrow a laptop when their own breaks down. It’s a lot of problem-solving and helping people to navigate a big institution.

"University can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve moved from elsewhere or you’re the first person in your family to go to university," said Tama.

"The library is a central, safe space on campus that’s open late and free to access so students, staff and community members come to the library for help. That help doesn’t have to be about academic learning – we try to help wherever we can. We’re also great at finding information, so we help people to find, and connect with, the services they need," she said.

Without Professional Staff, universities can’t function. They are the hidden backbone of higher education, ensuring students succeed, research thrives, and Australia remains competitive in a global knowledge economy.

Library staff in particular build informed citizens, enable world-class research, and ensure equal access to knowledge. It's not an exaggeration to say that a nation that neglects its library workers risks weakening its democracy, economy, and culture.

Our members in libraries are true Champions of the State!