However too many had too much invested in the tribal based "win at all costs" and for that you don't need you & you opponents coming together, you need your opponents over there where you can get a clear shot at them. Whilst its war anyone half inclined to be on your side before hand welds themselves to you no matter how bad you do. Anyone on the fence will lean with you once you've invested enough fear into them along with enough demonisation of the opposing party. Job done.
In effect its a political example of "Yes the patient died a horrible, painful & avoidable death, however the operation was a complete success and they surgeons deserve you complete adulation"
Politics In A Crisis 101.
Never let a good crisis go to waste, weaponise it & ride the shit out of that puppy.
What could have been done? Well WA's economic fortunes changed & they would have happened whether McGowan or Barnett had won power in 2017. If Barnett had won, I think we would have seen the coalition re-elected in 2021 & we'd be looking at a Coalition Era almost akin to the Charles Court era. Wasn't to be.
Straight after the 2017 we (regardless of the party winning power) should have been looking at nurses conditions, their pay, their productivity and going long and going wide to recruit new people into training.
Also, seeing if any of the nurses who left nursing could be encouraged to come back to nursing. In the short term recruit interstate & overseas nurses with attractive but short term contracts to make up the numbers in the short term.
Instead we've seen things decline further, a savage purge at St John Ambulance and even attempts to close down St John's contracts and fully socialise the Ambulance system as a Government owned & run service. Ahhh guess what? With that, Ambulance Ramping Hours Reporting was likely to disappear.
Had the Government, the Opposition & the Nurses gone indoors 6 years ago they might have got somewhere. But the political landscape was dialled in on a pathway of aggressive battle between the 2 major parties.
Where we are was predictable. The opposition gives as much in principle support to Nurses. Attend marches & rallies with nurses. Hold public meetings with nurses. Be sure to say whatever nurses want to hear then cuddle them with rousing words of support & admiration...and hope it gets worse to the point that a wedge germinates between Nurses/Nurses Union and the WA Labor Cabinent.
That again is Political Play 101.
If Labor was in opposition, don't be fooled, they too would be doing the exact same thing.
The only difference is, WA Labor is the political wing of what's left of the Unions.
You can be sure industrial action would have happened before 2020.
With a conservative opposition they cannot rouse the troops. They can only show empathy, say to the Nursing Union officials that they don't support industrial action but they understand that may come to that....blah, blah, blah.
Pre 2017 a cabinet with a number of members who have statesmanship in their bones would have said this needs fixing, lets put aside egos, agendas and get the Govt, the opposition & stakeholders in Health into a room. No one leaves until we have agreed solutions with a timeline with an agreed review with agreed metrics, with agreed goals, specific goals & aims.
Who ever was the Premier that installed that whether it had been Barnett or McGowan, they'd probably go onto greater things and if they fixed enough things maybe history would be so kind to gift them their own hallowed place in WA Political History & maybe a statue in King's Park or under the Barrack's Arch.
Not a snowflakes chance in hell.
We have the adversarial approach in full flight in Politics.
We have wars amongst players within the same parties...Labor, Liberal, Nationals, no exceptions.
Ambition has replaced public service & winning is the aim. Winning for you politcal career & your high paid board seat career post politics...the fiduciary duty is only owed to the self first, the party second (when it advances the self) and the electorate?
Well many have been in politics enought to tell the electorate to go to hell in such a way they either look forward to the trip or they thank their MP for the opportunity to go somewhere warmer.
The Hospital Crisis, the ever worsening Hospital Crisis was avoidable or at least it was possible years ago to ensure it never got half as bad as it is now, possible a quarter of how bad it is not.
But, politics and winning was the only rules of engagement. Statesmanship & putting the people first was quietly escorted outside, taken behind the shed, shot 3 times and pushed into a shallow grave. It is as its always been, Politics...GAME ON.
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