27 October 2021
The highly respected host of FIVEAA’s popular morning radio talk show, Leon Byner these days spends much of his time castigating Marshall and Wade on air for their lack of action on health.
Suffice to say, he’s a strong friend of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
“Oh, God yes,’’ he says. “I’ve got a couple of friends who are nurses. One girl in particular; in the last month she’s left an eight-hour shift to go home and didn’t get into her driveway and was asked to come back and do a double shift.
“That’s just one. But I since have made some inquiries and that is not unusual. The thing I’m really crook on is why would you be making redundancies, that is removing positions, when at the same time the demand on staff is not only high but it is that they must work double shifts and that is happening a lot.’’
Leon believes health will make or break the next state election.
He also believes the Liberals’ proposed $700 million basketball stadium could really hurt the Government at the election.
“They’ve already done their own polling and it’s told them that,’’ he says.
“And you might therefore find that they’re not talking about it much now. It would be consistent with the feedback I’ve been getting and we cover the entire state in mornings, not just Adelaide. The public anger on that, phew.
“I reckon neither side of politics at the moment actually grasps how at the forefront of issues this health thing is,’’ Leon adds. “And you can understand why.
“The first rule of government is to keep us safe … so the high anxiety of protection is already setting a benchmark. It’s not unusual then for the public to react to that and say ‘Hang on, aren’t you keeping me safe?’.
“The callers that are talking to me, they’re not silly, they’re just making obvious points. Health is the big kahuna right now, the election will be fought on it, I have no doubt about that whatsoever.’’
Read the ANMF’s full interview with Leon in January’s INPractice magazine.
Leon Byner can be heard on FIVEaa 1395-AM from 9am to noon, weekdays.