Services will suffer under LNP government

THE LNP has pushed through laws in parliament stripping employment security for ambulance officers and firefighters as well as providing the way to privatise these services.

Trevor Watts and John McVeigh both voted and supported this attack on some of the most hardworking and professional people I know. Imagine having to settle on a price with a private fire brigade while your house is on fire or to be refused transport or treatment because your health cover does not cover an expensive private ambulance service.

I have been told by nurses that patient care will suffer as they and doctors will be required to do administration work now on their shifts because of Newman’s cuts. Newman intends to build a war chest surplus by stripping services to the disabled and elderly, the sick and the dying and all the while holding working families in contempt.

Why won’t Watts or McVeigh give us a breakdown of the so-called debt and exactly where these service cuts are? What they don’t want you to know is that a lot of borrowing was for infrastructure to keep pace with the thousands of people moving here from interstate and the massive clean-up bills from some of the worst natural disasters even seen in this country.

Come on Mr Watts, tell us how stripping away wages and conditions of our firefighters is going help this state, tell us what you intend to say to those who take their skills to the mines or oil fields because there they can earn better money as truck driver or labourer after your government has stripped their wages and conditions.

Perhaps John McVeigh would spend a few days with an ambulance officer as they comfort the dying in a car wreck, hold the hand of child that has been critically injured or tell someone that a loved one has passed away. While he spends a bit of time with a paramedic he can explain why he voted for laws that would see these dedicated people seeking a second job to make ends meet because they have also had their benefits reduced to point they can no longer afford the cost of living increases.

CHRIS McGAW,

Toowoomba