31/7/2015

Submission to Regulatory Impact Statement

Dear Sir / madam,

Economic impact of the Public Holiday for the Pre Grand Final Eve

My name is Dr Alan Molloy. I am a General Practitioner. I own a large General Practice in Bentleigh East, Victoria (Eastbound Clinic) and also am the CEO of a large Specialist Consulting Centre (Moorabbin Specialist Centre) in Bentleigh East. Both these facilities provide acute and urgent medical care for the people of the local community. Between both centres we have approximately 60 General Practitioners, Specialists and Allied Health workers. Every day 100’s of people are serviced in these facilities. Often the people are very ill and may have life threatening conditions.

On the Public Holiday proposed for the Grand Final eve, we shall close both centres for the day. We are to afford to keep the Centres open and pay Penalty rates to our staff. In addition, despite generating no income on that day we shall still have to pay salaries, payroll tax, superannuation, WorkCover and long service leave accruals. The financial cost is quite enormous and the human toll to our patients will be considerable as they will be unable to obtain medical care on that day.. Almost certainly more people will go to the local public hospital for therapy that we could have managed in the General Practice.

Our workers current get paid for 10 public holidays per annum. In addition they get at least 4 weeks annual leave per annum. Nurses in General Practice have 5 weeks annual leave. Therefore we pay for 52 weeks per year and only have them in the business for 46 weeks (45 for nurses). Then Sick leave, Carer’s leave, Parental leave are also deducted from the remnant. This is punishing for small business and a Grand Final Eve holiday will only make this worse.

I estimate the economic impact FOR ONE DAY ONLY to be approximately:

Income Lost / Salaries and staff costs only / Total
Eastbound Clinic / $7,980 / $2,773 / $10,753
Moorabbin Specialist Centre / $1,079 / $1,474 / $2,553
Total / $13,006

This is very punishing for me financially and also very sad for our patients and the community at large. We are only one business in the local area. The economic cost for the entirety of Victoria must be enormous.

The Easter Sunday Public Holiday is not so much of an issue for us. Due to the penalty rates and other costs we have been unable to afford to open on that holiday for years. Most General Practices in the area and all Specialists are closed over Easter due to the crushing costs of penalty rates for staff.

I am just a small business person trying to run my business for the benefit of the local community. A public holiday on Grand Final Eve will be a severe blow to our finances.

I look forward to your comments and hopefully common sense will prevail and that the proposed public holiday will not be approved.

Yours sincerely

Dr Alan Molloy

Director

Eastbound Clinic and Moorabbin Specialist Centre

Cc Hon Daniel Andrews Office of the Premier 1 Treasury Place Melbourne, Victoria Australia, 3002

Mr Nick Staikos MP Member for Bentleigh 723 Centre Road Bentleigh East Victoria, 3165

Hon. Matthew Guy MLC Leader of the Opposition 1 Treasury Place Melbourne, Victoria Australia, 3002

Eastbound Medical Services ATFEastbound Unit Trust ABN: 13 398 573 943