Today’s union claims about the health budget demonstrates that they are running an ideological Labor Party campaign and aren't interested in the facts of what is actually contained in the widely-applauded State Budget.
We have repeatedly said that no more reductions to frontline staff are required. That won’t change regardless of how many times HACSU claims otherwise.
It is apparent that the unions were disappointed to learn about our $100 million investment in frontline health when they had already spent tens of thousands of dollars of members money on advertising protesting the state budget.
It is extraordinary that HACSU has not only failed to welcome our investment in frontline health, but are claiming it won’t improve patient outcomes. It is ridiculous for Mr Jacobson to try to deny the benefit of a $100 million injection into frontline health.
Responsible commentators have welcomed this investment. Sadly HACSU and Unions Tasmania are more interested in justifying their huge anti-Liberal advertising spend than getting good health outcomes for Tasmanians.
This political behaviour is further demonstrated by the recent grumbling by the union about the additional paramedic service for the Southern Midlands.
The unions have also wildly exaggerated the savings still required to be made, and their claim that savings strategies are not detailed in the budget is clearly incorrect. It is normal accounting practice that the budget papers take as a starting point the foreshadowed funding amounts from the previous year.
Notwithstanding this, page 5 of Budget Paper 1 clearly details the need for agencies to continue to implement savings strategies announced last year.
In contrast, in the 2012-13 budget Labor did not do the same with the savage 2011-12 budget cuts. In fact they actually announced additional savings that year, something we are not doing.