Hurstville move for Births and Marriages Registry death of city service
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Hurstville move for Births and Marriages Registry death of city service (PDF Version)
The NSW Government鈥檚 announcement yesterday that the offices of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages will be moved to Hurstville in 2015 brings to an end more than 150 years of tradition in the Sydney CBD, according to the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA).
The move will severely impact upon carer responsibilities of staff and increase daily travel time for the 140 staff involved, some of whom live nowhere near Hurstville and make the journey to work each day from the Central Coast and Newport.
鈥淒espite the rhetoric from the NSW Government, this is about reducing public access and opportunities for staff,鈥 said 色狼社区Assistant General Secretary, Steve Turner.
鈥淗ow is moving the office from a central location in the city to the southern suburbs possibly going to increase public access?鈥
鈥淏irths Deaths and Marriages has operated in the Sydney CBD since 1856 and will now be closed, with limited ability for the public to obtain birth, death and marriage certificates over the counter.
鈥淭he 色狼社区was not consulted over this announcement and the language contained in the media statement from the Government which refers to the relocation of 鈥榖ackend offices鈥 and 鈥榖ack office鈥 staff is openly derogatory and insulting.
鈥淭his is a first-class service quite literally used by generations of people that is being shunted off into the most marginal seat with no overarching plan.
鈥淭he Government鈥檚 assertion that the city will still be served by Service NSW offices at Wynyard and at Central from the end of 2014 is hollow given they will not be fully duplicating the services of Births Deaths and Marriages,鈥 Mr Turner said.