David Crisafulli is the Where's Wally of Townsville when it comes to doctors, nurses and medical professionals losing their jobs in his electorate. The same was true when it came to the 50% increase in rates from the Council when he was Deputy-Mayor. When it comes to fluff pieces David is always the first to be harassing journalists across the city, but when it comes to being accountable as a Cabinet Minister... Where's David?
It seems that our local Members of Parliament have outsourced the lives of local healthcare workers to these Boards and want to wash their hands of responsibility. These are the same Members who over and over again promised Townsville residents that the job cuts would be in Brisbane and not Townsville. They also promised over and over again that the job cuts would not be frontline services.
If they think that the 45 local nurses are not frontline they should front up and tell that to these nurses directly, there was about 200 of them at today's rally outside the Hospital, Shane Knuth from Katter's Party was the only politician to front them.
As our Branch Vice-President Cathy O'Toole said in today's article - 200 families will be severely affected by this decision from a financial, family and employment perspective and they will have a devastating few months leading up to Christmas
Townsville Hospital was being expanded under the Labor Government and now the Newman Government is reducing health services in North Queensland while planning new luxurious Brisbane river-view Ministerial offices for David Crisafulli and friends.
Townsville needs more healthcare services and professionals not less. Our population is growing!
We are calling on John Hathaway, David Crisafulli and Sam Cox to stand up and be accountable for the promises they made before the election of no job cuts, particularly in North Queensland.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Queensland Nurses Union, Together and the Townsville Branch of the Labor Party have worked hard to hold the Newman Government to account for this disgraceful situation over the last two days, media coverage is below.
Townsville Bulletin:
MPs deflect blame for health cuts Wednesday
200 NQ health jobs cuts - Tuesday
Cardiac and surgery services to merge - Tuesday
Two hundred health jobs lost in public service cuts - Monday
Public sector cuts hit 550 - Monday
Newman Axe Swings On Regional Hospitals And Jobs
Radio:
Part 1 (all Lawrence Springborg) 8 minutes total: