How sick is a government that sacks nurses and hires commercial spin doctors?
The Queensland Government says it couldn’t afford to continue paying nurses to look after ill Queenslanders.
But it has plenty of money to hire specialists to look after its electoral health.
Is there a worse example of misplaced priorities?
“The reality is that over 1000 nurses and midwives have been cut from the health system (and) community health and aged care services have been abolished,” according to Queensland Nurses Union this month.
Meanwhile, Phillips Group spin doctors have been hired to “embed” with the Treasury department for six months to help ensure its messages are “more effective” and presented in “more user friendly and powerful ways, both to the government and also to the community generally”, according to the government.
The cost to us taxpayers could be as high as $6 million if, as the Queensland Times has reported, Phillips Group is understood to operate on a $20,000 monthly retainer and consultants can charge up to $280 an hour.
It gets worse. The Government has also asked public relations firms to bid for work on a three-month public relations campaign amid concerns the Government is losing support for its attempted crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The Comic-Mail* says the campaign, which industry sources estimate will cost $500,000, is a bid to boost "support of the laws and confidence in the Government to effectively manage the (bikie) threat".
It will bring the cost to taxpayers of promoting the crackdown to more than a million dollars, after almost $800,000 was spent on advertising it last year, says The Comic-Mail.
Catastrophic Campbell has a history of recruiting an army spin doctors to enhance his image.
In October 2010, when he was Brisbane Lord Mayor, it was revealed that he had tripled the number of spin doctors on the council’s books.
In August 2008 there had been a staff of only 32. Despite promises that he would not increase the number or budget, the number rose to 107.
It’s important to remember that ministerial media advisors are a legitimate and essential part of government. No minister can afford the time to pick up the phone dozens of times every day to deal with media enquiries which range from in depth, detailed lists of questions to the bizarre and obscure.
It is the job of a ministerial media advisor to tell the media – and the public – what the government is doing and why.
The Newman Government, like Queensland governments before it, already has sufficient media advisors employed to impart this information.
So it seems likely that the spin doctors being employed now are there purely to increase the electability of the Liberal National Party government.
It’s a case of spending money to safeguard ministerial jobs while saving money by slashing public servants’ jobs.
The Newman Government argues that positions have been made redundant rather than it has sacked nurses.
But perhaps its real agenda was made clear in July 2013 when more than 3500 nurses and midwives in Brisbane received a letter from Queensland Health warning of about 145 dismissals. They were sent a second letter about a week later saying this had been a mistake and that 140 redundancies were being offered.
Altogether, Queensland Nurses' Union reckons Queensland Health has axed nearly 2000 full time equivalent clinical, non-clinical and nursing jobs plus a few executives.
The Government announced in September 2012 that it would cut 2754 jobs from Queensland Health.
It pledged that frontline services would not be cut.
What could be more of a frontline service than a nurse tending the sick on a night shift?
Let’s not forget a couple of examples of the profligacy of the Newman Government while it’s been shedding 14,000 jobs because a commission of audit headed by a Liberal heavyweight alleged the state was in financial trouble.
It couldn’t afford to retain 1000 nurses but Minister Ros Bates appointed a friend who earned $50,000 for three months work reviewing the finances and structures of the department plus a $1,500 a day consultancy.
And Liberal mover and shaker Michael Caltabiano was handed $720,000 for seven months in office - $130,000 of it while he was stood aside.
The supreme irony will be a commercial spin doctor being paid to tell us what a wonderful (understaffed) health service we have.
END
*The Comic-Mail - After being widely ridiculed for denigrating and refusing to name world-class fast bowler Stuart Broad in stories last year, it’s difficult to take Queensland’s only state-wide newspaper seriously.
The Queensland Government says it couldn’t afford to continue paying nurses to look after ill Queenslanders.
But it has plenty of money to hire specialists to look after its electoral health.
Is there a worse example of misplaced priorities?
“The reality is that over 1000 nurses and midwives have been cut from the health system (and) community health and aged care services have been abolished,” according to Queensland Nurses Union this month.
Meanwhile, Phillips Group spin doctors have been hired to “embed” with the Treasury department for six months to help ensure its messages are “more effective” and presented in “more user friendly and powerful ways, both to the government and also to the community generally”, according to the government.
The cost to us taxpayers could be as high as $6 million if, as the Queensland Times has reported, Phillips Group is understood to operate on a $20,000 monthly retainer and consultants can charge up to $280 an hour.
It gets worse. The Government has also asked public relations firms to bid for work on a three-month public relations campaign amid concerns the Government is losing support for its attempted crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The Comic-Mail* says the campaign, which industry sources estimate will cost $500,000, is a bid to boost "support of the laws and confidence in the Government to effectively manage the (bikie) threat".
It will bring the cost to taxpayers of promoting the crackdown to more than a million dollars, after almost $800,000 was spent on advertising it last year, says The Comic-Mail.
Catastrophic Campbell has a history of recruiting an army spin doctors to enhance his image.
In October 2010, when he was Brisbane Lord Mayor, it was revealed that he had tripled the number of spin doctors on the council’s books.
In August 2008 there had been a staff of only 32. Despite promises that he would not increase the number or budget, the number rose to 107.
It’s important to remember that ministerial media advisors are a legitimate and essential part of government. No minister can afford the time to pick up the phone dozens of times every day to deal with media enquiries which range from in depth, detailed lists of questions to the bizarre and obscure.
It is the job of a ministerial media advisor to tell the media – and the public – what the government is doing and why.
The Newman Government, like Queensland governments before it, already has sufficient media advisors employed to impart this information.
So it seems likely that the spin doctors being employed now are there purely to increase the electability of the Liberal National Party government.
It’s a case of spending money to safeguard ministerial jobs while saving money by slashing public servants’ jobs.
The Newman Government argues that positions have been made redundant rather than it has sacked nurses.
But perhaps its real agenda was made clear in July 2013 when more than 3500 nurses and midwives in Brisbane received a letter from Queensland Health warning of about 145 dismissals. They were sent a second letter about a week later saying this had been a mistake and that 140 redundancies were being offered.
Altogether, Queensland Nurses' Union reckons Queensland Health has axed nearly 2000 full time equivalent clinical, non-clinical and nursing jobs plus a few executives.
The Government announced in September 2012 that it would cut 2754 jobs from Queensland Health.
It pledged that frontline services would not be cut.
What could be more of a frontline service than a nurse tending the sick on a night shift?
Let’s not forget a couple of examples of the profligacy of the Newman Government while it’s been shedding 14,000 jobs because a commission of audit headed by a Liberal heavyweight alleged the state was in financial trouble.
It couldn’t afford to retain 1000 nurses but Minister Ros Bates appointed a friend who earned $50,000 for three months work reviewing the finances and structures of the department plus a $1,500 a day consultancy.
And Liberal mover and shaker Michael Caltabiano was handed $720,000 for seven months in office - $130,000 of it while he was stood aside.
The supreme irony will be a commercial spin doctor being paid to tell us what a wonderful (understaffed) health service we have.
END
*The Comic-Mail - After being widely ridiculed for denigrating and refusing to name world-class fast bowler Stuart Broad in stories last year, it’s difficult to take Queensland’s only state-wide newspaper seriously.
RSS Feed
