Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Tuesday night in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate, almost in concert, two speeches that lacked any basis in logic were delivered. First Mr Lindsay, the member for Herbert, and then Senator Ian Macdonald—one cannot imagine that it was coincidental—drew the attention of their relevant chamber to the recent enterprise bargaining agreement between the Queensland Nurses Union and the Queensland state government to bring nurses into wage parity with nurses in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. This agreement, certified last Friday, recognises, amongst other elements, the value of the work of nurses. It recognises that it is essential to the task of attracting and retaining nurses that nurses be paid according to their contribution and it assists nurses to balance their work and family lives, thus improving recruitment and retention potential.

That is why I was astonished that Mr Lindsay and Senator Ian Macdonald would attempt to construct an argument against bringing our Queensland nurses into line with those in New South Wales and the ACT. The nub of their argument is that wage increases in the public sector will affect the private hospital sector because they will have to match wages paid in the public sector. I agree; it is correct to say that the private sector will have to bring their nurses into parity, and why not? Are Mr Lindsay and Senator Macdonald saying that private hospital nurses should not be paid the same as their state employed colleagues? To be fair, probably not.

If it is not their contention that private hospital employees should be paid less than their state employed counterparts, are they suggesting that neither state nor private hospital employees should achieve wage parity with their colleagues in New South Wales and the ACT? Implicitly, in both speeches that is exactly what they are saying—not openly, not honestly, not calling it for what it is, but that is exactly what they contend; that no nurse should get a pay rise. It is the only conclusion anyone listening to either contribution could make: according to Mr Lindsay and Senator Macdonald, if the private hospital system cannot afford increases in nurse salaries then no nurse should have a pay rise.

Senator Ian Macdonald and Mr Lindsay are highly critical of the state Labor government for negotiating wage increases of 23 per cent, which turn into 25.3 per cent compounded, over four years. Senator Macdonald described them as ‘huge’. Mr Lindsay said in part that the government was ‘recklessly creating an imbalance in nurses’ pay levels’. ‘Huge’ and ‘reckless’ might be the description of the enterprise bargaining agreement by Mr Lindsay and Senator Macdonald, but it is not the view of nurses, whether state or privately employed. It is not the view of nurses, all of whom, I remind the gentlemen, have a vote. It is the view of nurses and the Queensland government that this enterprise bargaining agreement will raise level 1 nurse pay—the level of the majority of nurses in Queensland—from the lowest in Australia to amongst the highest. But, rather than congratulate the parties to this agreement, Liberal MPs and senators denounce it as reckless.

Where would policy as described by Senator Ian Macdonald and Mr Lindsay have left us? It would have left us with public and private hospital sectors struggling to attract and retain nurses as they move to states and territories and the GP sector where conditions and pay better reflect their efforts. It would have left us with a diminished public value afforded to nurses’ work, resulting in low morale and limited ability to attract school leavers and mature age prospective nurses into nursing. It would have left us with less attractive career path options and less support for nurses who balance family responsibilities and their work. That is where these Liberals would have left us in Queensland.

Contrast these Liberals with the success that the Queensland Labor government has had. Queensland Health has already increased its nursing workforce from 21,911 in June 2005 to 23,206 as of May 2006—1,295 nurses recruited in less than 12 months due in no small part to the four per cent wage increase in December 2005. That is what you get when you value workers and their contribution, and recognise that contribution with financial reward. I am sure that Mr Lindsay and Senator Macdonald will say that they do value nurses and their work. In fact, Mr Lindsay said:

I do not think there are many people who do not believe that our nurses are anything but caring, hardworking and dedicated health professionals ...

‘Caring, hardworking and dedicated’, but Mr Lindsay and Senator Ian Macdonald think they should do it for love. That is the sort of predictable line we get from this government when it comes to all sorts of predominantly women’s work—nurses, teachers and child-care and aged care workers. We get the patronising rhetoric about how dedicated and caring they are, but not the language that says they are dedicated, caring, professional, highly educated and worth paying appropriately.

That is not the response that nurses, whether they be in the public or private hospital system, in community care or in residential aged care, will get from a Beazley Labor government. Labor has identified that in 2003 the average age of an employed nurse was 43.1 years and that, in 2005, 2,716 Australians were turned away from undergraduate nursing places despite having achieved the required marks from high school. The Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee has said that between 10,182 and 12,270 new graduate nurses are required just to meet demand in 2006—and, currently, around 5,000 nurses graduate each year. This Howard government has presided over 10 years of limiting access to university places for nurses and now is suggesting that they are too expensive to be employed. I wonder just who is going to care for the sick and the aged.

The last word on this matter should go to the Minister for Ageing, who joined the chorus attacking state industrial relations commissions for—and I quote him from the Courier-Mail‘continuing to approve large pay rises for nurses’. His feeble attempts at estimates to disassociate himself from the report in the Courier-Mail did not include a media release to publicly support nurses achieving wage parity and it did not include a letter to the editor clarifying his position—nothing. There was nothing from a minister who we in this place all know craves publicity. This would have been a great opportunity for Minister Santoro to show his support for nurses and the work they do, but instead he let his dog whistle stand.

I need to say that dog whistling from Senator Santoro and disingenuous praise for the work of nurses by Mr Lindsay and Senator Macdonald will be seen by nurses for what it is: a pitiful attempt to curry favour with the private hospital sector and aged care providers. What nurses and, can I say, the private hospital sector and the aged care providers want are sensible answers—answers that recognise that nurses traditionally have been undervalued, that redress is necessary to attract and retain nurses and that our health and aged care systems must be funded to ensure quality care is delivered to all in our community.