Australian Nursing and Midwifery Delegates' Conference

Ms COOK (Fisher) (15:18): The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) was formed in 1924 and known as the Australian Nursing Federation until 2013 when the inclusion in the title of 'midwifery' was made in order to better reflect its membership base. The ANMF is one of the fastest-growing unions in Australia run by nurses and midwives to advance the industrial, political and professional status of members.

Underpinning the union's work is a belief that high-quality, affordable and excessive health care is the right of every Australian. Members do this work in every healthcare setting—hospital, nursing home, GP clinic, community health practice in rural and remote Australia and also in large hospitals and big cities. Last week, on 22 and 23 October, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Adelaide, the ANMF South Australian branch hosted 130 delegates from all states representing nurses, midwives and nurse assistants in nursing at its 12^th Biennial National Delegates Conference.

This is one of the ANMF'S peak decision-making forums where 50 resolutions were debated, with issues in four areas: industrial, professional, political and social justice. The theme for this conference was 'We will not be silenced: the power of nurses and midwives'.

Along with the Hon. Gail Gago, it was my privilege to host the welcome reception here in Parliament House on behalf of minister Jack Snelling. Of course, Gail is a former ANMF branch secretary, who was succeeded by Lee Thomas, the current federal secretary. We have a very proud tradition in the SA branch of nurturing community leaders.

Highlights of the conference included the welcome to country by Uncle Frank Wanganeen, and the opening of the conference that was done by the Hon. Jack Snelling, the health minister. He talked about issues such as the power for change, Transforming Health, cuts to funding by the federal government, the quality of our healthcare system, clinical advisory groups, increased quality of care without cost-cutting, and the damage enforced on our health budget by the federal government.

Lee Thomas talked about the fact that the ANMF is actually the largest union in Australia, with nearly 250,000 members. The current local and federal campaigns on which the ANMF is working are: 'Patients before profits, protect our penalty rates'; RNs 24/7 in aged care; the Robin Hood tax; the end of violence in the workplace; and, of course, domestic violence, campaigning with Rosie Batty. It also takes some credit for defeating the GP co-payment—for now.

Current issues discussed were: the attack on penalty rates, which would mean a drop in pay for most nurses; poor staffing and skills mix in aged care; paid parental leave; the 'Stop Passing the Buck' campaign for graduate nurses (the federal office also has a working group looking into issues and surveying employers to get the real answers); and the new reconciliation action plan.

Tony Mitchelmore spoke about key campaigning issues and talked about swing voters, which are really on the increase and which we, as members of political parties, understand. They did a focus group exercise and found some very interesting results, with one funny quote from the focus group about the change from Abbott to Turnbull, along the lines of 'same excrement, different shovel'.

Wendy Harmer spoke. She had the conference in stitches about the book she had on various ways of nagging, and said that it was going to help in the next political campaign. She also warned that an adolescent boy and a menopausal woman were never meant to share a house, which I think many of us can relate to. Rosie Batty then gave us goosebumps talking about domestic violence, about 1800RESPECT, and about her campaign Never Alone, which now has 40,000 members (ANMF is a founding partner).

Attendees had dinner together and then there was a night of dancing, and on day 2 the conference heard from the Hon. Mark Butler. Mark was the minister for ageing, and he talked about his book Advanced Australia: Politics of Ageing and increased his sales at that conference. He spoke about the growing number of baby boomers, and they talked about health issues and shared funny stories. The conference also heard from the new federal senator Robert Sims, from the Greens, who talked about their health policies and how they feared more cuts from the Liberal government. It is also noted that no federal Liberal politicians attended—again—even though they were invited, and that was very disappointing.

One of the key issues they are now campaigning about is the Border Force Act. Delegates were moved to tears by a presentation and photos from a lawyer and doctor reporting on conditions and on the physical and mental health of children on Nauru in detention. They say they will never be silenced. The Hon. Nick Champion, a federal Labor member spoke, as well as Ged Kearney from the ACTU, who was quoted on radio as saying, 'The day they play the rugby grand final on Tuesday morning is the day we will discuss changing penalty rates.'

Time expired.