SPRINGBORG BACKDOWN PROVES HE SHOULD GO

Media Release

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk says the latest humiliating backdown by the Health Minister on hospital specialist contracts could have happened almost six months ago and shows he is not up to the job.
“The Springborg-created crisis has dragged on for no reason other than the desire of the Newman LNP Government to impose WorkChoices-style employment contracts on doctors,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Mr Springborg’s backdown last night clearly demonstrates that he is incompetent and not fit to be Health Minister."
“No other Health Minister has played politics with our hospital system with such disastrous results. His motivation has always been to implement the LNP’s industrial relation strategies which are all about introducing WorkChoices by stealth."
“By removing reference to ‘ensuring the profitability of the health service’ from the contracts Mr Springborg has shown it should never have been there in the first place. It shows the LNP put profits from our hospitals before patients."
“Forcing doctors to consider how profitable their surgical procedures are is akin to asking ambulance officers to worry about fuel prices before they head out on a Triple-Zero call."
“After declaring the contracts ‘not negotiable’ in January the Minister has created a jumble of dodgy caveats in an Addendum that he has now decided to include in the body of the contract itself. Once again this change could have been made months ago."
“There was never a need for such a short deadline for doctors to sign. Hospital specialists have a Medical Officers’ Certified Agreement (MOCA) in place until July 2015."
“A competent Minister would have negotiated new contracts between doctors and their local Hospital and Health Services within the normal renewal process for this collective agreement."
“The Minister’s incompetence brings to mind the cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn holding a box labelled ‘contracts’ that has blown up in his soot covered face spinning his beak around his dazed head,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said questions needing answers included:
why did Minister Springborg create the contract crisis in the first place and; why had Minister Springborg brought the state’s health system to the brink of meltdown rather than just negotiate fair and reasonable contracts?

“This has been an appalling process from start to finish, and it’s not resolved yet,” Ms Palaszczuk said.