Updated

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has defended a letter from his Director-General threatening to sue the Nurses Union for breach of copyright if it failed to destroy anti-privatisation brochures which use an image of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

Source: 7.30 Queensland | Duration: 7min 21sec

Topics: federal---state-issues, health, brisbane-4000

Transcript

JOHN TAYLOR: Well it's been a tumultuous week since the Prime Minister launched his plan to stop the boats by resettling asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea. The Queensland Government is among the latest to criticise the deal arguing it raises health and security concerns because of the close border with the Torres Strait. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg joins us now and we'll talk to him about that in a moment; but first to another confrontation brewing with the Queensland Nurses' Union.

(JOHN TAYLOR SPEAKS WITH HEALTH MINISTER LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG)

JOHN TAYLOR: So hello, Mr Springborg.

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG, HEALTH MINISTER: Good evening.

JOHN TAYLOR: Now when I log on to the Queensland Health site I can see an image of the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital. Why then is the Government threatening to sue the Nurses' Union for using the same image in an anti privatisation brochure.

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: Well as I understand it this particular copyright is the intellectual property of Exemplar Health. The hospital is yet to be built and they actually have copyright over that particular material. Now of course as everyone knows copyright carries with it certain caveats and that is it cannot be used without authorisation and as I understand it the Director-General has simply written to the Nurses' Union asking them to actually withdraw that material and issue an apology to Exemplar Health and I think that's fair enough. But a couple of years ago when I actually used material which is substantially the same as the unions Your Rights at Work campaign, the union movement in Queensland actually wrote to me and threatened to sue me and I don't see any particular concerns being raised at the union about inconsistency.

JOHN TAYLOR: But in this instance the State Government doesn't own the copyright, it's actually the Director-General is saying he's going to write to the people who do hold the copyright and get them to take legal action against the Queensland Nurses' Union demanding that by 5pm they're all withdrawn and destroyed and an apology given. I mean this is bully boy stuff, isn't it?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: No, it actually isn't because the State has actually contracted Exemplar Health on the same process which was followed by the previous Government to actually design and construct that particular hospital and there has to be protection of that particular right. The State also, obviously, because of its contract arrangements, does have some rights as well and all we're seeking to do is to remind them that they cannot republish the stuff without the express consent of Exemplar Health and that's fair enough.

JOHN TAYLOR: Is copyright the biggest issue confronting Queensland health?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: Well it is.. with regards to this I think it's important to remind people, and I just juxtapose that against what happened a number of years ago when I recreated something which was significantly the same as the Your Rights at Work campaign and the Queensland union movement threatened to sue me. All the Director-General here is asking for this material to be withdrawn to recognise the copyright and also just to issue an apology. Whether they do that will be a matter for them obviously.

JOHN TAYLOR: But there is a debate occurring in the community not only amongst unionist about whether full hospital privatisation is better and/or appropriate. So why then does it really matter that a picture of a hospital, a public hospital, is being used in a brochure?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: Well I think it comes back to any copyright and people that actually do have particular intellectual property do have copyright. Now can I just make this point, the Newman Government is not planning to actually sell any hospitals. All public hospitals in Queensland will remain the property of the people of Queensland and all services will be free. The only hospital that's ever been privatised in Queensland was the Greenslopes Hospital which was sold by the Keating Government in the middle of the 1990s and the union movement said absolutely nothing. We're proposing to sell no hospitals and we're proposing to introduce no fees for free public health services in Queensland. So it is not privatisation. All we're talking about is to look at other people who might be able to contract to run free public health services in Queensland.

JOHN TAYLOR: In the nature then of that debate, what's wrong with not only talking about that issue but also seeing a picture of the hospital that's concerned?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: If they all we're saying and all the Director-General's saying is if you want to use that you should respect the copyright and that's all we're saying.

JOHN TAYLOR: Alright, so if we move on then to another issue and that is in regards to Papua New Guinea and the border. Now that you've said this week that the PNG Queensland border is unsecure and you've called on the Federal Government to rethink asylum seeker plans. You're the Health Minister, is that really your role?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: It certainly is when Queensland is under a very, very serious disease risk and disease threat because of the very porous PNG Australian border. This particular border is as porous as a spaghetti colander. It is as porous as a spaghetti colander. We have so many people pouring across that border, there's a free arrangement between PNG and Australia and that is that people can go back and forth as a whim. They're able to do that.

JOHN TAYLOR: So it's allowed to be porous it's deliberately porous.

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: And that's right but the problem we actually have as Queensland Health and not only this Government but the previous Government is that we are losing about $10 million a year in treating PNG patients for quite serious illnesses such as tuberculosis.

JOHN TAYLOR: Drug resistant tuberculosis.

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: Drug resistant tuberculosis and indeed only two months ago a person was brought into one of our facilities, indeed a Syrian national who had found his way from the Middle East to Indonesia, to PNG, entered into the northern waters of Australia and island hopped his way down until he was found and the only reason we found out was because he was brought to our facility with suspected tuberculosis. Now what Kevin Rudd's plan does is basically deliver masses of asylum seekers to PNG and basically puts them on our door step, hop skip and a jump. Now the previous Government wrote

JOHN TAYLOR: But if it was so easy then for asylum seekers to use it as a stepping stone, why aren't they doing it now rather than dying in boats off WA?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: Well I think that a lot of people haven't really woken up to it and the mere fact that only the last six to eight weeks we've had Syrian national who's come down through there, been apprehended, presented to our facility and the information I have in recent months up to six other people without papers, who weren't PNG citizens, again presenting at our facilities. These are only the ones that we actually know about. The reality is it's as simple as getting into PNG, a canoe ride to Saibai Island which is only a few kilometres and then two plane tickets and a taxi fare and you're in the western suburbs of Sydney. But the reality here is that we have serious concerns because we've now got real disease risks, the same things Peter Beattie raised a number of years ago, they've never been addressed. The previous Government actually wrote to Doha and the Federal Government some two years ago asking them to do something about securing the border. That didn't happen.

JOHN TAYLOR: So what is that you want? Do you want more money to treat those Papua New Guinean people that need health care coming into Australia for desperate help, or is it that you want asylum seeker changed policy?

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: Well we need two things. One is that we need the appropriate amount of reimbursement for the 1,100 odd people that we treat from PNG each year, 200 of those hospitalised with quite some of them with quite serious disease.

JOHN TAYLOR: Yes we're running out of time.

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: The other one is recognition that we have a serious problem with regards to the porous nature of that border and anyone can just step across it and it needs to be addressed particularly in light of the most recent changes to asylum seeker policy.

JOHN TAYLOR: Alright well Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, thanks very much for speaking with us tonight.

LAWRENCE SPRINGBORG: You're more than welcome