Today the Greens stopped Parliament's usual business to debate the government's refusal to meet the demands of nurses and midwives for a fair pay deal, as a matter of public importance. 

Abigail said:

I contribute to the discussion on the pay and working conditions for nurses and midwives in the New South Wales public health system. I indicate my support and endorsement of the arguments already put forward by my colleagues. I put on record my sincere admiration for Dr Amanda Cohn's relentless and forensic advocacy on behalf of all health workers in this State, and in particular for her strong and staunch advocacy to support the demands and needs of nurses and midwives in our public health system. Nurses and midwives in our State are some of the most dedicated, hardworking, kind, compassionate and expert workers who I have ever had the privilege to know.

Much has been said of the incredible way in which these workers stood up, and continue to stand up, to go to work and provide high levels of care to their patients in the midst of a global pandemic. In the early days of the coronavirus, when we were all operating blindly and fearing the very worst, those workers went to work every day to keep us safe. That is something that is important to remember, and we are supremely grateful for it. However, I resist in the strongest terms its invocation as the reason for nurses deserving better pay, as though it is some sort of hazard pay and as though nurses and midwives are only deserving of a pay rise because they risked their lives for us, and we had better give them a little bonus or tip to say thanks.

The Greens are in favour of a 15 per cent pay increase for nurses and midwives because we know they are not adequately compensated for the work they have been doing for years and continue to do day in and day out. We are in favour of a 15 per cent pay increase for nurses and midwives because we know they are working in one of the most feminised industries in the country. Because of historical and continuing misogyny, our society has failed to value their work in a fair way that reflects their importance and value. A 15 per cent increase might go some small way towards shifting the dial on that injustice. We are in favour of a 15 per cent pay increase for nurses and midwives because we know that they, like so many of us, are being hammered by the rising cost of rent, mortgage payments, grocery bills, petrol bills and power bills.

We are in favour of a 15 per cent pay increase for nurses and midwives because we know that we are losing too many of these diligent, kind and expert workers to other States, or from the sector entirely. The numbers just do not add up anymore, and they can no longer afford to continue doing the job so many of them love. Those are reasons The Greens and many others are in favour of a 15 per cent pay increase for nurses and midwives. But the most important one is that we know they are worth even more than that. Fifteen per cent is the amount that has been agreed to by the rank and file membership of the 73,000-strong NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association. It is a key demand of their log of claims. As a proud and consistent advocate for economic and workplace democracy and the rights of working people to assert their power in a struggle for a better deal, I will back them in all the way.

I was proud to stand with the tens of thousands of unionists who took historic statewide strikes throughout 2022 and have continued their fight to this day. Yesterday, they once again gathered outside New South Wales Parliament, and across the State, in a bright and vibrant show of their steadfast resolve. Their demands are fair and just. The Government needs to take them seriously and agree to their demands. These workers are too important, and our public health system too precious, to quibble over dollars and cents.

It is time for the Government to make good and pay these workers what they are worth. The New South Wales Labor Government has claimed it cannot afford the cost of paying nurses and midwives more without cutting other areas of health funding. They have been claiming that there is excess fat in the public health budget that could be trimmed in order to pay for salary increases, as if they do not know and have not been claiming for years before coming into government that our public hospitals and health system have been so severely underfunded for so long that the whole thing is held together with sticky tape and the goodwill of the health workers who work there. I think that goodwill is in short supply these days.

I reflect on what I consider to be quite offensive comments made by the Premier when he was asked whether the New South Wales Labor Government would budge on its wholly inadequate pay offer. As we have heard, he said that nurses had essentially traded off a wage increase that would bring them in line with other States and Territories, with safe staffing ratios. The Premier said of the nurses and midwives:

They will say, "Well we don't want to make a choice between ratios and salaries" – Well, we do have to make that choice.

With all due respect—which is, admittedly, very little—that is a reprehensible position for the Premier to hold. Nurse to patient ratios, while having clear and obvious benefits to the ability of nurses and midwives to safely and sustainably conduct their work, cannot be seen as primarily a workplace right or condition. They are what is needed in order for public health systems to keep people healthy and safe. They are just as much a condition for the benefit of patients as they are for the workers. The literature on this is clear; an increase in a nurse's workload by one patient increases the likelihood of an inpatient dying within 30 days of admission by 7 per cent, and every 10 per cent increase in bachelor‑degree nurses is associated with a decrease in this likelihood by 7 per cent.

We are in a laughable position where the Government is saying to nurses and midwives, "Because we made these improvements that are of clear and demonstrable benefit to public health, we won't give you a pay rise." Because nurses and midwives identified this issue, having seen firsthand the dangers of inadequate staffing levels and the impact on patient wellbeing, they are being accused of agreeing to trade one thing off against another. It is a ridiculous position for the Government to hold. It is akin to the Government saying that because it installed seatbelts in vehicles drivers do not get a pay rise, or that pilots do not get a pay rise because the airline installed passenger oxygen masks. It is obviously a ridiculous and offensive argument that deserves to be rejected out of hand as self-serving contortions and obstinance.

Opposition members have again tied themselves in knots with ridiculous propositions that they support nurses and midwives. But as my colleague has already said, we have seen the Opposition's track record in this regard. We do not need to take their input seriously, because they have comprehensively discredited themselves. That is why this dispute is so heartbreaking for so many. Labor was supposed to know better. It traded on the goodwill and hopes of so many rank and file members who handed out flyers for them and voted for them on election day, only to come up against a brick wall now that Labor has seized the reins. The Government is on the wrong side of this dispute and the sooner it realises that and returns to the table, the better. This dispute has run on for long enough and the Government needs to meet these workers where they are.

The Government knows that the public supports a much better offer for nurses and midwives than what they have been given. The Government knows how much goodwill the public holds towards nurses and midwives, and how highly they are valued. That is why in many of its media releases and members' speeches, when there is talk of a sum of money, the Government has a funny little quirk of equating it to the number of nurses that it could fund. That's right—nurses are so fundamental to our society that they have in fact become a unit of measurement or currency. It is well past time for nurses and midwives to be paid what they are worth. It is time for the Government to stop using nurses and midwives as props or photo opportunities and to start paying them as the skilled workers that they are. Nurses and midwives deserve so much more than a 15 per cent pay rise. It is the minimum they deserve, and the Government should feel lucky that it is being let off so lightly.

Read the full transcript in Hansard here.

14 November 2024