HSU verdict on health policies

The Health Services Union has scored the health policies of both sides of politics and declared Labor has the best strategy for improving healthcare in WA.

The Health Services Union which represents healthworkers across the state is not affiliated to any political party and is not telling voters who they should vote for.

The union has been running a Put Health First campaign during the election to make sure health is the number one issue in the campaign.

HSU WA branch secretary Dan Hill said an analysis of the promises and records of the Coalition and Labor revealed clear differences between the parties.

"Labor has addressed the major health issues in the campaign and has detailed costings in support of their policies. They are following a coherent plan based on the expert advice of the Reid report.

"The Coalition has been good in some areas but there is no overall strategy and they have been vague in their spending commitments. They watered down their metropolitan strategy in the space of three months and that was not a good sign.

"The Coalition also offers industrial relations policies which would leave staff working in healthcare worse off.

"There is no provision in the coalition's policies for the extra $50 million they have promised nurses.

"There is also no provision for funding for the construction of the new southern suburbs hospital at Murdoch.

"People may wonder why our position differs from the out of touch leadership of the Nurses Union. The difference is that we waited until we had seen the policies of the parties to make up our mind.

"The union strongly believes healthcare is the number one issue for West Australians and the challenge for the political parties has been showing how they will ensure we continue to have a world-class system," Mr Hill said.

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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU)
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Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 17:19:27 EST