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NPAQ recently received a letter of demand from QNMU’s lawyer regarding our advertising and our lawyers have replied making it clear that we will not be intimidated.
Letter from QNMU Lawyers 24 November 2020
QNMU are obviously worried about the fact that unlike the QNMU we are run by nurses for nurses. The secretary is appointed, not elected and doesn't have a say in policy. The drafters of the constitution did that deliberately so that not only would it look like NPAQ was run by nurses but it actually is. The QNMU is run by union officials for union officials.
The NPAQ delivers a better service for just over half the price charged by QNMU. That is because the NPAQ only has its members to look after. There are no other stakeholders who need to be looked after with the NPAQ.
NPAQ is not in business and commerce. For that matter neither is the QNMU. We are both member based organisations existing for the sole purpose of delivering a service for our respective members. If NPAQ loses a member, yes we lose the income from that person, but we don't have to provide the service to them. We don't have shareholders. NPAQ is a non profit organisation. The membership fee is set so that there is very little left over at the end of each year.
The laws regarding fair trading were designed to stop one commercial organisation making false claims that caused another competing organisation to lose market share and profit. Neither NPAQ nor QNMU are in business to make a profit. So even if what QNMU were claiming about the NPAQ was true, and it isn't, it wouldn't matter anyway.
We believe this is just an exercise in QNMU using some of its $40 million in member assets to cause NPAQ members to use their own funds to pay for lawyers to defend a totally baseless claim. It is just sheer spite.
Many NPAQ members were formerly QNMU members. You are being punished for having the temerity to leave to get better service. This is like the local manager of say Coles, after finding out that you have changed to Woolies, going around to your house and throwing bricks through your windows. We know that neither the local manager of Coles or Woolies would ever do that but you know who would.
To date, NPAQ has received no further correspondence regarding QNMU’s demand.