Nurses driven to tears by $700 million in Liberal cuts, not a scare campaign

Tasmania’s nurses have been driven to tears because Eric Abetz is cutting $700 million from health, not because Labor is pointing that out.

It is highly offensive for Minister Archer, who is supposed to represent those nurses, to suggest otherwise while maintaining that the cuts don’t exist.

Every major health stakeholder in Tasmania has warned the Liberals that the heath system simply can’t afford the $700 million worth of cuts Eric Abetz announced for it.

Noticeably, Eric Abetz couldn’t promise his cuts won’t make nurses’ jobs harder – that’s because they will.

Despite Eric Abetz telling Tasmanians he was “confident” he could cut $700 million from health’s back office, neither he nor Minister for Health Bridget Archer will define what the back office is.

Health workers know the truth – there is no “back office” in health. Every job is critical to the safe delivery of health care.

After 13 years of Liberal waste Premier Rockliff has put Eric Abetz in charge of cutting jobs and services to pay for it and Tasmanians will suffer the consequences.