Latrobe Valley: test case for hospital privatisation

By Sue Bolton MELBOURNE — Since 1988, Labor and Liberal Victorian governments have targeted the Latrobe Valley for hospital "rationalisation". On October 11, state health minister Marie Tehan invited the private sector to build a new hospital to replace two existing public hospitals at Moe and Traralgon. This is the Kennett government's first attempt to privatise a public hospital. In 1991, the administrations of the two hospitals were amalgamated. The private consultants who made this recommendation three years before also argued that a public hospital for both communities was a waste of resources. Kevin Taylor, a spokesperson for the campaign to save the hospitals, told Green Left Weekly that the Moe and Traralgon communities were then set up to fight each other and in the process both hospitals were starved of funds and downgraded. In March 1994, another report recommended that Traralgon hospital be the major referral hospital for the Latrobe Valley region and that the Moe hospital be sold off. But in October 1994, the government convinced the amalgamated Latrobe Valley Hospital board to agree to build a new hospital and close down both existing hospitals. The decision surprised many in the Valley as the Moe hospital is only 20 years old and the Traralgon hospital had just spent $5 million on new operating theatres. But this decision cleared the way for the privatisation of the new hospital. Because the private operator is to be allowed to choose where to situate a new hospital it will try to divide the communities over the site, says Taylor. However, both communities are now united around protecting both hospitals. Taylor said they had good support from the Health Services Union of Australia (HSUA) but it had taken a while to get other unions on board. "We had 10 years of the Labor party during the 1980s, which was quite an affluent period in the Latrobe Valley. Career unionists worked their way up in the unions, including in the left unions", Taylor explained. Even traditionally militant unions like the metalworkers found, when the crunch came with Kennett and the restructuring, that their organisers were career people and not militants. "As a result, the metal trades are one of the worst unions now and the old construction union, which used to be very right-wing, has become one of the most militant and best organised." The Gippsland Trades and Labour Council was no longer an effective force, Taylor said, and it is community groups which are leading the fight against privatisation. If not for their efforts, the private hospital would have been built two years ago. "When the State Electricity Commission (SEC) restructuring happened, the career unionists told the rank and file that Kennett was too tough to fight. Nine thousand jobs went from the power industry and every one of them was 'voluntary'. That's because the unions aid to the workers: 'We can't fight Kennett, you'd better leave'. They were doing deals behind the scenes." "We saw the dangers of letting the unions take control. We saw the dangers of relying on the Labor party." "We had a strong Labor party element in the campaign until after the last federal election when they left. It's only now that elections are due that the Labor Party wants to play a role again." Taylor pointed out also that hospital restructuring is "not just a Kennett thing" and started under the previous Labor government. "We're finding now that some of our best support is coming from Liberal party and National party members, who have been shocked that Kennett is carrying out things they oppose, such as council amalgamations and the closing of country schools." The Kennett government has begun a very extensive advertising campaign but he believes it is going to backfire. "About two years ago we started talking to the politicians, unions, hospital board members, staff, doctors. We addressed all the community groups including Apex, Lions and the Combined Pensioners. At the time no-one believed that hospital privatisation was on the agenda, but since it has come true, we have built up a lot of support. "One of the things we have had to deal with is people believing the government is too big to tackle. We say that if you continually oppose the government's plans, that is a very powerful weapon. If you start to think the government's too big to tackle they know they've got you, they've conned you." Taylor and other community campaigners are confident. They take heart from the successful campaign against privatisation of Port Macquarie hospital which stopped the former NSW Liberal government from privatising other hospitals in the state.