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March 13th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Proposed changes allowing NSW workers to choose non-union organisations to represent them aren’t designed to kill off unions, the state government says.
The legislation, flagged in February by Premier Barry O’Farrell, was expected to be introduced into parliament on Tuesday, a spokesman said.
Under existing laws, only a trade union registered with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission can represent employees in an industrial dispute or in enterprise bargaining negotiations.
The state government wants to change this so registered non-union groups can represent workers.
Paramedics say they want the Emergency Medical Service Protection Association (EMSPA), which is unable to register with the NSW IRC, to represent them instead of the embattled Health Services Union, which is the subject of police investigations in NSW and Victoria.
The association’s NSW president Andrew Keshwan, a paramedic in southwest Sydney with 20 years’ experience, said many of the state’s 3000 paramedics, who belonged to his organisation, were disenchanted with the HSU and wanted the law changed.
“We’ve got over half the paramedics in NSW,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“HSU is the only registered union and we feel we’re let down by the HSU.”
Julia Batty, a physiotherapist at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital who is also the vice-president of her workplace HSU sub-branch, said changes to state industrial laws could spell the end of the HSU in NSW.
“Within our HSU there’s a large body of allied health professionals who have been threatening to leave,” she told AAP.
“If they can leave to join another union, I’m happy they’re getting support.
“It’s a bit sad the HSU may die this way.”
But Health Minister Jillian Skinner denied the proposal was about killing off the HSU, or other unions.
“We’re not about shutting down any of the unions or the associations,” she told reporters.
“It’s about giving people a choice and if the HSU is so appropriate, then people will choose them.”
The Australian Medical Association’s NSW president Dr Michael Steiner and EMSPA have presented Finance Minister Greg Pearce with petitions containing 11,000 signatures in favour of the changes.
Dr Victoria Ward, a pediatric register who sits on the AMA’s doctors-in-training committee, said the HSU did not have the proper skills to represent young doctors or understand the needs of doctors who worked long hours.
The federal Fair Work Australia framework allows EMSPA to represent paramedics in Victoria.
Steve Turner, Assistant General Secretary for the Public Service Association (PSA) described the legislation as “terrible” and said it would allow any “tin pot” body to represent workers.
He said he was confident the union’s membership would remain loyal to the PSA.
“We have a long history of coverage in NSW public sector, we are not worried about it because we know that our members like us and support us,” he told AAP.
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