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As a nurse, I’m all for improving our pubic health system. I’m glad Kevin Rudd is talking about how we can fix our hospitals.
But I really wonder how changing the public health funding arrangement is going to tackle the biggest problem on the ground as I see it: the shortage of nurses.
Acute care facilities across NSW are suffering chronic staff shortages.
As a psychiatrist at the coalface in a NSW public hospital, Kevin Rudd’s health plan seems to me to be a lot about showing his government taking charge. But beneath the soaring rhetoric its substance fills me with foreboding.
Imagine if in NSW we had a public service that was properly resourced, where good staff were appreciated, and positions weren’t left unfilled for months at a time.
As 2010 gets underway, I’m hoping we will finally see change in the way the State Government approaches public services.
Stop the Cell Off Rally: Time to invest in better services, not privatise them
I used to think that having a Labor government meant our jobs were safe. I’ve been working as a power network maintainer for 12 years and I’ve seen first hand the deterioration of NSW public services under Labor.
Not only have workplace conditions and safety suffered but the threat of privatisation still looms over our heads. Being in the public sector used to mean having your job for life. It used to mean you knew where you stood. But where do we stand now?
Keep power in public hands
Newcastle and the Central Coast are shaping up as key battlegrounds in the upcoming state election, with local workers and their families all too familiar with the need for better, not fewer public services.
Local public sector workers and the communities that rely them here have successfully fought off attempts to sell-off prisons, electricity and even a local hospital.
It’s here in Newcastle and the Central Coast that we know we have a strong community and one ready to pull together in a campaign for better services for a better state.
Newcastle
Rate pegging is a practice unique to NSW and imposed on our 152 councils as a way of keeping rates low. While it may sound like a good thing for rate-payers, in reality it is an out-dated model that strangles Local Government and restricts councils’ ability to deliver quality local services. It’s time rate pegging was abolished.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s Ultimate Transport Survey results are now in.
We are currently are preparing a paper outlining the detailed findings which be released on the Better State web site in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, the Daily Telegraph has reported the major findings of the survey, highlighting the need for investment in better public transport services.
Crowded Sydney trains
Click here for an account of life at a suburban railway station by a public transport worker, also published in the Daily Telegraph.
Over 3,500 people responded to Ultimate Transport survey, and 2,000 people provided extra comments – an outstanding result. Overwhelmingly, these people want to see access to better public transport services. In fact, many commuters in the outer suburbs would be happy with any sort of public transport services at all.
The message from commuters has been loud and clear – they want to see rail extensions to the south west and north west and a bigger network of busways.
