Doctors to release list of names to counteract criticisms made by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg

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Doctors to release list of names to counteract criticisms made by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg  #qldpol #smoqld #keepourdoctors

A WAR cabinet of doctors and unionists will meet in Brisbane tonight to plot its next move as the stand-off between the medicos and Newman Government hits a new low.

The taskforce, 80 per cent of which is made up of local medicos, is planning to release a list of doctors’ names after the meeting to counteract criticisms by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg that the fight is being led by “interstate union thugs”.

The head of doctors’ union Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation, Dr Tony Sara, said the list would name 15 local doctors behind the ­battle to expose flaws in their contracts.

Dr Sara will fly to Brisbane from Sydney today to attend the meeting, which will bring together doctors, the union’s lawyer and strategists involved in the anti-contracts campaign.

The meeting will be held after the hearing of an application by Queensland Health in the Federal Court today, launched to stop doctors and unions “spreading misinformation” about the contracts.

Last week The Courier-Mail obtained emails where Dr Sara warned the local doctors against “rolling over and playing dead”.

But the federation yesterday warned it would not be ­silenced and had the money to ramp up its campaign, with a series of new ads planned.

Dr Sara said the federation had introduced a levy on its almost 2000-strong Queensland members to fund the campaign.

The levy ranges from between $200-$1000 a member, depending on their medical position.

The levy has effectively dodged Queensland’s new “union transparency” laws cracking down on union-funded political campaigns by using its federal body to hold the funds rather than its state branch.

Under the Newman Government laws, unions are banned from spending more than $10,000 on political campaigns without first balloting members and gaining majority support for the move.

But state-based unions have side-stepped the rules by using their federal counterparts or rolling money into company holdings.

The Courier-Mail reported last month that the Together union, which also represents Queensland doctors, rolled a $7.5 million “fighting fund” into a company to circumvent the new laws.

Among the items of business at tonight’s taskforce meeting will be discussion on when to lodge a pile of pro-forma letters of resignation from Queensland doctors.

The taskforce, has emailed members stating resignation letters have been “flowing thick and fast”.

Source: Courier Mail