State Parliament rules dictate that any petition with more than 500 signatures must receive a written response from the relevant minister within five weeks of being tabled.
If the petition reaches 10,000 signatures, according to the rules it will force the matter to be debated in the NSW Parliament.
A petition started in Campbelltown a month ago calling for greater investment in local health services has not quite reached the 10,000 mark, so the NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, will not have to face a debate in the parliament just yet.
But he will have to produce a written response within five weeks because there were almost 2,000 signatures when Campbelltown MP Greg Warren joined Opposition health spokesman Walt Secord yesterday to table the petition.
The petition contains more than 1,700 signatures, easily over the 500 mark that requires a written response from the relevant minister.
Mr Warren says he launched the petition, which calls for greater investment in health services in the Campbelltown region, less than a month ago in response to the state budget which was announced in late June.
Three days prior to the budget, Premier Gladys Berejiklian visited Campbelltown Hospital to promise $632 million for the Stage 2 upgrade of Campbelltown Hospital.
However, says Mr Warren, when the budget papers were released, it was revealed that only $5 million had been allocated for the upgrade and that it was not due to be completed until 2024 at the earliest.
Yesterday, after tabling the petition, Mr Warren said he was overwhelmed with the response and hoped that the Berejiklian Government would start listening to the concerns raised by local residents about health services in the Campbelltown region.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“To get 1,700 signatures in less than a month is an overwhelming response and a clear demonstration that people in Campbelltown feel very strongly about the need for adequate health services in our region,’’ Mr Warren said.[/social_quote]
“We have wonderful doctors, nurses and allied health workers who do an amazing job looking after patients every day, but they’re not getting the support they need from the government.
“I have been calling for better health services in Campbelltown since long before I was elected, and now we’re adding 1,700 extra voices to those calls for more investment in health services in our region.
“I hope that the premier and the health minister listen to the concerns being raised by everyone who signed this petition, and invest properly in extra health services in Campbelltown,” the Campbelltown MP said.
The matter of health for residents in the south west is always covered up due to the massive traffic numbers in the area and pollution streams out to the Area usually on a daily basis