Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:42): Thank you very much. My question is to the Minister for Health. Given that the minister has previously advised the parliament that the government will be funding the ANMF's Transforming Health liaison officer, can the minister explain to the house whether or not he is aware that one of the key skills sought for this officer is the ability to recruit and retain members of that union?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:42): I am more than happy to take that up and have a look at it. I am not familiar with what the job specs have been that the ANMF have put out, but I certainly don't apologise for making funds available to the ANMF. There is no doubt that Transforming Health is going to involve significant complexity for the ANMF and we are going to be asking the ANMF to communicate with their members some significant changes to the way they do work. We make no apologies for making resources available or funds available to the ANMF to enable them to go about their work and to be able to communicate effectively with their members the changes which we are asking of nurses in the South Australian health system.