NSW: NSW nurses launch election ad campaign

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2007
NSW: NSW nurses launch election ad campaign

SYDNEY, Feb 15 AAP - NSW nurses have launched a $1.2 million advertising campaign urging
people to vote Labor in next month's state election.

The NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) advertisements claim the NSW government has played
a major role in alleviating the state's nurse shortage by protecting nurses from the federal
government's industrial relations laws.

"The people of NSW have a choice as to whether they wish to help keep those protections
in place, and we're asking them to consider that when they go to the ballot box (on March
24)," NSWNA general secretary Brett Holmes said.

More than 100 branches of the association have passed a resolution in the past few
weeks supporting the NSW industrial relations system for public hospitals, Mr Holmes said.

"What we know about the Liberal philosophy on industrial relations is pretty clear," he said.

"Their federal industrial laws are not balanced, they don't provide a fair independent
arbitration to sort out problems, they rely on the power of the employer."

If successful, the campaign will also put the Labor Party under pressure to maintain
its commitment to workplace protection for nurses, the NSWNA said.

"If the people of NSW vote to help protect nurses, then whoever's the beneficiary of
that vote has to take that into consideration," Mr Holmes said.

The advertising campaign will run on major television and radio networks, and in newspapers
in marginal state electorates, from February 16 to March 3.

AAP dmc/klw/it/cdh

KEYWORD: POLLNSW NURSES

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