Land and Property Information Premier attacks and insults LPI staff – March 2017 (PDF version)
The Premier’s performance on Ray Hadley’s 2GB Wednesday morning broadcast (8 March) highlights both her ignorance of the inner details of the proposed sell-off of Land and Property Information (LPI) as well as a patent disrespect she has towards LPI staff. The Premier is either deliberately misleading the NSW public or she has a staggering ignorance of the deal she is signing off on.
Her claims were arrogant and misguided.
The Premier’s assertions that Titling and Registry (T&R) staff are merely back office admin staff is wrong in that it completely devalues and misrepresents the critical work all T&R staff perform in bringing massive annual profits to the state of NSW. And it is wrong in that it misrepresents the important work T&R staff perform in upholding the foundation of a world class titling system in LPI – the envy the world.
What’s more, her comments have created an atmosphere of acrimony among the staff throughout all Directorates, and disturbingly some staff are reporting they are now experiencing psychological distress as a result of the Premier’s wildly inaccurate and disrespectful comments.
For those of you who missed her comments on 2GB here they are: “The only bit we’re touching is the admin bit. The spatial bit, who are the smart people who do all the mapping in Bathurst, they’re not touched.” What is clearly implied here is that T&R staff are somehow of lesser value than those staff in other areas such as Spatial Services in Bathurst. It also demonstrates this Government does not recognise the important work performed at T&R, which includes mapping, drafting legal documents, ensuring accuracies of property boundaries and other fundamental tasks.
The Premier knows the Torrens Assurance Funds will not continue to be able to adequately cover title insurance – yet she doesn’t seem to have a problem making claims to the contrary. She also knows homeowners will be more likely to have to take out title insurance once titling and registry services is sold to a private operator. Yet that didn’t seem to stop her in making dishonest claims to the contrary on Hadley’s 2GB.
Regarding fees, the Government has already last year ramped up fees well above ordinary CPI increases to fatten up profits for the private buyer. And, as we all know, the private operator will immediately look to create new services for homeowners which aren’t subject to CPI price restrictions.