The NSW premier is adamant his Labor government can't afford to meet the pay demands of the state's 50,000 nurses and midwives, as a union dispute rolls on.
Chris Minns waded into the escalating industrial relations war on Thursday, sitting down with union leadership who are pushing for an immediate 15-per-cent pay increase.
In the largest rally against the Labor government since coming to power in March 2023, at least 5000 nurses and midwives took to the streets on Tuesday over their rebuked demand.
Posters at the rally called the premier a liar, accused him of making hollow promises and compared him to a catheter for "taking the piss".
Before he sat down with the striking parties' leadership late on Thursday, Mr Minns blamed the former coalition government for the current predicament and suggested it had suppressed nurses' wages while in government.
“(The government’s pay offer is) a 40 per cent increase on what the previous government was offering ... we've never attacked the nurses (or) the leadership of the union, for their right to bargain,” he said.
“But we have just tried to come to the table with an honest rendering of where the government is in terms of its fiscal position, I'm hopeful we can get an outcome, but we're not there yet.”
Mr Minns' claims are unlikely to have impressed the nurses and midwives, who have repeatedly stated their support carried him to the premiership at the 2023 election.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association says its one-off pay increase would address a gender pay gap in hospitals and could be covered from improving patient data entry to collect more federal funding.
The government is offering just 10.5 per cent over three years.
Thursday's meeting with union leadership was set to cover "everything" to do with wages and conditions including the log of claim prior to the election and after the election, the premier said.
The sit down had been organised for a long time, he said.
Opposition health spokeswoman Kellie Sloane expressed scepticism about the meeting being long organised.
"This is an eleventh hour move from a premier who has been absent from the negotiating table and is presiding over industrial chaos in this state," she told AAP.
"Chris Minns didn’t front up to nurses yesterday, because he doesn’t want to admit publicly that he gave them false hope and has failed to deliver."
Mr Minns on Wednesday rejected accusations that he had betrayed nurses as some rally posters alleged.
Improved nurse-to-patient, a new independent industrial register and the removal of the coalition's cap on wage rises - all calls from the nurses union - had been implemented by his government, he said.
Rectifying the pay gap could happen over a number of years, he said.
