The Weatherill Labor Government’s budget cuts have now extended to cutting nursing jobs.
“This is yet another broken promise by Mr Weatherill, who has always said he would not cut ‘front line’ positions such as nurses, doctors, teachers and police,” said Shadow Health Minister Rob Lucas.
“Information originally provided by a source within SA Health and confirmed by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation was that at least 300 of the proposed 959 health jobs to be cut were to be nurses.
“Minister Snelling today told the Estimates Committee that target job cuts for Health have been reduced from 959 to 600 since the Budget.
“Mr Snelling said the new target number for its cuts for nurses had “not yet been determined”.
“However, it would appear that based on the previous decision that about 200 nursing jobs will be cut by Mr Snelling.
“Mr Snelling needs to come clean and clarify the exact number of nursing jobs to go and explain why he is targeting such a high percentage of the total job cuts to come from nursing jobs.
“Once again Premier Weatherill has shown that he can’t be trusted to deliver what he promises.
“South Australian families will be very angry at the warped priorities of Mr Weatherill and Mr Snelling, especially when they hear about $40 million blowouts on IT projects and the Government continuing to employ about 90 bureaucrats earning between $150,000 and $440,000 within the health portfolio.”