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February 29th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Victoria’s nurses union is undertaking an orchestrated campaign to flout a Federal Court ruling to stop industrial action and return to work, the state’s health minister says.
Nurses are continuing bans at hospitals in defiance of the court order, a course supported by their union.
Health Minister David Davis said the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) and a small number of unionists were defying the ruling as part of an orchestrated statewide campaign, which as a result is placing patients at risk.
“It appears increasingly that a campaign has been orchestrated, first below the radar and after that more openly around the state to continue the industrial campaign,” Mr Davis told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’ve been informed from a number of health services of the activities of ANF union officials … clearly orchestrating the campaign in direct breach of the orders of the Federal Court.”
The ANF was banned on Tuesday by Justice Richard Tracey from directing, inducing or assisting nurses to stop work and ordered to use social networking sites to tell members of the court’s ruling that they cease industrial action.
ANF Victorian secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said on Wednesday the union supported the continuing illegal action the nurses say they are undertaking in the interests of patient welfare.
Mr Davis said 59 elective surgeries were cancelled on Wednesday including two patients who needed urgent operations as hundreds of nurses were off the job due to industrial action.
He said he had received concerning advice from one health service that a union official had indicated it would need to negotiate with the ANF to determine which surgeries go ahead.
Mr Davis said the government and health services would seek legal advice before deciding their next steps.
“It may well be that other court steps are taken very shortly,” he said.
“That will be a matter for advice. The evidence that’s coming forward is being slowly assembled.”
Mr Davis said the breach of a Federal Court injunction is a matter for the court.
He said the ANF was intent on harming patients and singled out Ms Fitzpatrick.
“It is guerilla-type action designed to hurt patients, designed to harm people, designed to make vulnerable people suffer and it is quite wrong,” Mr Davis told parliament.
“It’s clear that Lisa Fitzpatrick is determined to hurt patients, to put patients at risk and she needs to obey the law as does the ANF union.”
Ms Fitzpatrick said while the union had insisted there be no escalation of the current work stoppages, the action was expected to continue at all 15 hospitals that had experienced stoppages so far.
“We are trying to contain this dispute, we are trying to stop it from being a statewide strike,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“We of course insisted that those additional hospitals who were going to participate today withheld participation, but we cannot let our members down and we will not leave our members alone during this time.”
Nurses defying the Federal Court order risk individual fines of up to $6600 and the union risks a fine of up to $33,000.
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