Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, we do not have an HSU in Queensland. I met with the AMA, a very powerful union. Christian Rowan is the head of the AMA in Queensland, and he had an interesting approach to this. Because the minister started speaking about unions in his response to the MPI, I assumed it was the topic that we should address.

Obviously preventive health is very important—we all know that. In fact I encourage every member here tomorrow to come up to the Richard Baker Room to have a diabetes health check so that we can all do our little bit to give a personal example to our electorates about how we can be healthy. All day tomorrow, I will be up there with Ken Wyatt—and maybe after the book launch tonight, you might need to go, I say to the parliamentary secretary. So it is important that we focus on preventive health, and having a healthy workforce that is well treated is an important part of that. Getting rid of thousands of doctors, many of them specialists in Queensland, who are going to withdraw their labour because of this incredible industrial relations approach of those opposite, is an interesting approach.

The minister did talk about unions and the role they play and so it was interesting to hear these doctors in Queensland last week say that they have been told by Lawrence Springborg that they should be able to work any shift that they are directed to work by their boss—without consultation and irrespective of parental duties. In fact they would get rid of a no-disadvantage clause in their work contracts. They would also possibly have arbitrary dismissal with no recourse back to the doctor and no binding arbitration process for dispute resolution.

This is a recipe for disaster being delivered in Queensland at the moment. It is going to mean that there will be longer waiting lists and more people turning up to emergency departments especially when the minister brings in his tax on GP visits that they flagged in the Griffith by-election and which they are hiding in Western Australia as we go to an election over there. (Time expired)

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