The Hon. AILEEN MacDONALD (14:47): I take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance, representing the Minister for Health, to the question that I asked about the number of planned outages of health infrastructure sites. The Minister chose to take the question on notice, but the fact is that critical infrastructure projects are being held up across the State by striking electricians, with small business owners warning that they will be bankrupt by Christmas and energy providers accusing the Electrical Trades Union [ETU] of holding New South Wales to ransom. Striking electricians are delaying a laundry list of critical health infrastructure projects across New South Wales. Since 1 August, more than 80 per cent of Ausgrid's customer connection jobs have been cancelled, with unionised electricians refusing to switch off power at construction sites or connect sites to power as part of their industrial action, putting multiple projects on hold.

The $940 million redevelopment of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital requires Ausgrid assets to be relocated to enable the construction of critical care areas, state-of-the-art operating theatres and expanded inpatient wards. Four protected industrial action cancellations have meant that construction has paused. The ETU is holding the State to ransom. It has cancelled more than 1,800 planned outages, which are needed to work safely on the network. That is a loss of about $30,000 for every cancelled outage for contractors and developers. That creates losses for people waiting to move into unfinished developments.

Endeavour has taken significant steps to resolve the dispute. Its team has met more than 60 times over 12 months to try to reach agreement. Even with assistance from the Fair Work Commission to end protected industrial actions, and the engagement of an independent mediator, it has not had any success. The Minns Labor Government is standing idly by while businesses are being crippled by the ETU action. Surely it is time for the Minns Labor Government to stop shielding its union mates, and to step in to resolve the dispute so that New South Wales can start building again.