Nurses’ union leader Elizabeth Dabars urges Premier Jay Weatherill’s government to listen to the people
AN influential union leader is challenging Premier Jay Weatherill to overcome a government resistance to listening to community ideas and opinions ahead of his fifth anniversary in the state’s top job.
AN influential union leader is challenging Premier Jay Weatherill to overcome a government resistance to listening to the community ahead of his fifth anniversary in the state’s top job.
Rating Mr Weatherill’s performance and agenda, nurses’ union chief Elizabeth Dabars branded as one of his key challenges “the capacity of others in the government to step up and engage with the community, rather than talk to us”.
“There is still a sense that the government is resistant to listening to others’ ideas and opinions,” she said.
Her comments call into question Mr Weatherill’s self-declared central mission of his government — to abandon predecessor Mike Rann’s “announce and defend” style in favour of a “debate and decide” model.
In another challenge for Mr Weatherill from Labor’s traditional support base, Unions SA secretary Joe Szakacs questioned whether he could convince the public that a high-level nuclear dump was a worthwhile future investment and not a dud deal for jobs, economics and traditional owners.
The union leaders joined other prominent South Australians in assessing Mr Weatherill’s achievements, challenges and to-do list ahead of tomorrow’s fifth anniversary of him becoming Premier.
Associate Professor Dabars branded the government’s Transforming Health reforms a classic case, in which the community was being told about directions that would be good for them but people felt like they were not being listened to when raising objections or concerns.
“Transforming Health has become a failing brand for health reform — largely seen and understood as a form of health care cuts,” she said.
Transforming Health involves closing the Repatriation General Hospital late next year and downgrading emergency departments at Queen Elizabeth, Modbury and Noarlunga hospitals.
The new RAH, Flinders Medical Centre and Lyell McEwin will become Adelaide’s major hospitals with “super” emergency departments.
Asked to expand upon her criticism of State Government engagement with the community, Associate Professor Dabars spelled out a similar agenda to that Mr Weatherill declared before he became Premier in 2011.
“We need to move to a model of accountable engagement- where the community has to be involved more actively in decision making and take responsibility for the outcomes,” said Associate Professor Dabars, also an SA Unions vice president.
“We also need greater clarity around the end points; the positive vision for the future as well as the management plan for the present.”
Business SA chief executive officer Nigel McBride declared Mr Weatherill had been unable to forge a compelling and credible economic narrative in the face of brand-damaging failures, such as the Olympic Dam expansion’s shelving in 2012 to last month’s statewide blackout.
“It must be about the economy, jobs, investment and export growth. All of those issues must form a huge to-do list that hasn’t been achieved yet to the extent that we need,” Mr McBride said.