Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year from everyone at the Union! We hope you had a safe and enjoyable festive season.

2014 is already shaping up to be another big year for the Union.

We will continue to fight the Red Cross Blood Service’s plans to remove scientists from the testing and processing of blood donations, and to turn the nation’s only provider of a safe, reliable blood supply into a factory ‘manufacturing’ blood.

Plus we’ll be working hard to ensure public health remains a pressure point for the state and federal governments, especially with Victorians heading to the polls later this year. One of the big issues from the last state election was public health, and in particular hospital waiting lists, and we expect to see it high on the issues voters are concerned about in 2014. The additional public hospital beds promised by the Liberals have failed to eventuate, as waiting times for hospital treatment increase. And the pressure on mental health services continues. We need to make sure that public health is a primary focus for this year’s Victorian election.

Meanwhile with the Abbott government giving consideration to a proposal for up-front fees to visit the GP, it is clear that the conservatives are gearing up for an attack on the basic underpinnings of Medicare – access for all Australians to affordable health care, irrespective of income, where they live, and their social status.

We’re back and fired up and we look forward to working with you all to keep up the fight to protect our rights at work and our professions in 2014.

— Dr Rosemary Kelly