June 2017
* Registered Nurses campaign – Thank you to those who wrote to the NSW Premier six weeks before the three by-elections. Nothing of value until two weeks after the by-elections when the Health Minister sent an unhelpful response on behalf of the Premier.
BUT since then Upper House MLCs unanimously passed new legislation reinstating the legislation for high care residents. Unfortunately the government killed the legislation in the lower house a week later. More detail below.
* Two doctors spoke at the Harold Park Hotel, Sydney giving their own interesting insights into health care issues. Clips below courtesy the original politics in the pub:
* In an environment where:
- disposable income per capita has been falling since 2011
- household debt is the fourth highest in the OECD
- underemployment plus unemployment wavers up near 20%
- education outcomes are deteriorating, 24th out of 37 OECD countries – UNICEF
- health care is deteriorating, 27th out of 35 OECD countries – UNICEF
Budget 2017 does not respond to these challenges, per annum the infrastructure spend is unimpressive and there is little enthusiasm for investing in human capital. more detail.
* The government seems likely to give $1 billion to a coal mining company to help with a new mega mine in QLD. I have been campaigning against it and the most common response I hear is to spend the money on hospitals.
Of course NSW has sold/leased $34 billion of electricity infrastructure/services and is splashing some cash on hospitals but many people will struggle to pay their power bill.
You can help stop this $1 billion extravagance by using a kit to survey local citizens and send the results to your MP. www.stopadani.com/stopadanichallenge. This site also provides many compelling reasons to stop adani while another source notes each new job created will cost $680,000.
Two related news items:
- Proposal a clear and present threat to NSW (and other states)
- Underestimated climate security threat
I would appreciate an email with a summary of your survey results and the number of participants after you have sent your survey to your MP please.
* Registered Nurses, more detail:
Original Registered nurses letter campaign with status updates (still operational but they are not listening at the moment).
The good news – unanimous approval in the Upper House suggests the bill will succeed after a change of government.
The government is obviously divided and I am discussing possible strategies with some of the groups, MPs and MLCs who are also campaigning for restoration, rather than wait for the next election.
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