[Greens-Media] Greens and Hospital staff unite to protest against land sell off

[John Kaye]

Greens and Hospital staff unite to protest against land sell off

Media release: 20 November 2014

Greens MP and Health spokesperson John Kaye received a petition today of over 12,700 signatures against the government's proposed transfer of Royal North Shore Hospital land.

Doctors, nurses, patients and community members joined John at parliament house to protest the underhand tactics this government has used to push through their sell off plans. The sale will undermine future redevelopment of hospital facilities and weaken the long term quality of services, according to Dr Kaye.

Dr Kaye said: "The Baird government has plunged Royal North Shore into another round of chaos.

"Without anything like proper consultation with RNSH staff and the wider community, the NSW government decided to sell off critical public hospital land, making the next round of redevelopments almost impossible.

"The message coming from the clinical staff is loud and clear, yet Health Minister Jillian Skinner is pushing ahead with the transfer of the land.

"It is hard to understand how a health minister could not understand the significance of more 12,000 signatures on a petition calling for the land to be saved. That the extraordinary number of signatures was collected in just two months makes the message even more powerful.

"This is a campaign that has massive public support.

"The Baird government has been conducting the Expressions of interest process behind closed doors without any reference to the staff who make the hospital work.

"We want to open this up and allow the people who will be affected by this short-sighted move to see what happened behind closed doors.

"The Greens will today move a motion in the NSW Upper House to force the government to reveal its plans for the southern campus.
"Tabling more than 12,000 petitions in the Lower House is a measure of our support for the Medical Staff Council's struggle against the NSW government's 2011 proposal to sell off a part of the RNSH site.

"It seems every government sees RNSH land as a cash cow. The previous Labor government took the same short-sighted and greedy approach to managing this critical public asset.

"We will do everything we can to stop this going ahead and to secure the future of the public land," Dr Kaye said.

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455

John Kaye
Greens NSW MP

P: (02) 9230 2668 | F: facebook.com/john.kaye.mlc<http://www.facebook.com/john.kaye.mlc> | T: @johnkgreens<twitter.com/johnkgreens> | W: www.johnkaye.org.au<http://www.johnkaye.org.au/>
Mail: Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

John Kaye's office is proudly 100% unionised and union-active.

This office pays respect to the Gadigal and the other Aboriginal peoples of NSW and acknowledges their ownership of this land.

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