Both major parties have failed our public health workers

Today in Parliament, Abigail contributed to a debate on the psychiatry workforce, condemning the former Coalition government for underfunding and devaluing healthcare workers and criticising the current Labor government for mishandling psychiatrist negotiations, exacerbating workforce shortages in NSW.

Abigail said:

I speak in support of my colleague Dr Amanda Cohn's comments and reiterate that both sides are wrong. The Coalition systematically devalued and under-resourced the public health system in this State. The Coalition did not respect doctors and psychiatrists. It did not respect any of the clinicians working in the system. Opposition members making sanctimonious statements and having a go at the Labor Government is a bit hard to stomach, but Labor is wrong as well. It is okay to admit that and say, "This is hard. We inherited this. We said that we would get rid of the wages cap but, when it came to it, we had so much ground to make up. It is hard and expensive, and it is going to take us a bit of time." It is okay to say that they have got it wrong. It is very clear what has happened, with the Government failing to speak with the psychiatrists in a timely manner, in a fair way and in a way that is not high-handed.

There is a tone of arrogance from this Government. I do not refer to the particular Minister; I refer to the Government as a whole. I am not interested in picking on one Minister in this Government. There is a systemic problem in this Government's approach to dealing with public sector workers. There is an unwillingness to engage with the concerns. If one were to take a smart fiscal approach, one would acknowledge that it is much cheaper to pay those workers a fair wage. But it is also about the conditions those people are working in. They are under‑resourced and people are leaving. Part of getting more workers into the system is attracting them with a fair wage, which will help the conditions of the existing workers in the system. That is vital.

Looking at the longer term costs of not reaching an agreement and allowing psychiatrists to resign, the Government should have known that the right thing to do was to come to the table much quicker and resolve the dispute. The Government did not do that. It was a mistake. The Government has a chance to rectify that. Let us not pretend that the Coalition was any better, because it was not. The Coalition has the opportunity to do better as well. Admitting that the wages cap was a disaster for the State would be helpful. Let us work together in a way that respects workers and restores our public health system to the standard that it was once at.

Read the full debate in Hansard here.

12 February 2025

A UNIVERSAL WELLBEING PAYMENT FOR NSW

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Both major parties have failed our public health workers

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