Nurses and Midwives

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:14): As we know, during this crisis all work is essential. We on this side of the house are here every day for all workers in all roles in this state, but today I am here for my nursing and midwifery family, particularly for the casual nurses and midwives who, day to day, hold up the hospital system. In one hospital alone, we are losing 250 casual nurses from the workforce on any given day. They are not getting any shifts. Some of them have not been given shifts for three or four weeks.

Nurses are not wealthy people. Nurses are hardworking. Midwives are multiskilled and multitalented. For many of the people in the casual pool across our hospital system—and we are talking Flinders Medical Centre, the Women's and Children's, The Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Adelaide, the Lyell McEwin, Modbury, all the country hospitals—these nurses and midwives do not have just one certificate: they have many. They can work in intensive care, high dependency, in the nursery looking after babies. These are nurses who have held our hands, looked after us and been there for us when we have needed them. They have been at the beck and call of the public and the private system for decades, and now they need us.

I have been a nurse myself for nearly 35 years. I have gone from working in the most respected profession to being a politician. I often joke about that, but it puts me in an absolutely amazing position where I can speak up for my nursing colleagues I have worked with over decades. I have been absolutely swamped by letters, emails, messages, phone calls and cries for help from some of the hardest working and most dedicated staff in our hospital system over the past few weeks. I have to tell you, I am absolutely gutted. I have no answers for them.

We have tried to get answers in here from the Premier. I raised this in a speech yesterday. I talked about nurses—nurses who were not able to feed their children, nurses in the private sector, nurses in the public sector. Some of them are single parents, some of them have children with special needs, and they cannot work full time; they need to work casual hours. These nurses and midwives go on the casual roster and therefore do not have to work over rotating shifts seven days a week. They can set their roster. They are at the beck and call of others. They will pick up extra shifts. They will cut their shifts short if need be. They are very, very flexible.

I worked as a hospital coordinator for nearly 20 years. I know how these people work. They are the most incredible staff, and we cannot lose them. When I talked about them yesterday, I talked about public nurses. Later on in the day, the Attorney-General actually verballed me in the committee stage of the bill and said that it was private hospital nurses that I was talking about. It was not: it was public sector nurses. I have checked Hansard. These are the nurses who are going without work, and their children will go without food if they do not get work, so they need to be utilised.

These people have the skills to support our community. They have the skills to get out there and educate and look after the people in the community who are confused about COVID-19 and frightened. We can invest in our talented nurses and our workforce in order to educate the community and put out the best ever grassroots public health campaign using telephones. We know how effective telephone calls are. I had a letter sent to me today, and I would just like to read to you a few bits out of it because it sums up probably dozens and dozens of messages that I have received. This is from an RN in the casual pool. She states:

I am trying to highlight the current plight of casual nurses in the employ of SA Health! We seek someone who can highlight this publicly on our behalf...

I would like to point out to both the public and government the financial plight that myself and many of my friends and colleagues are facing. We are Nurses who are employed by SA Health on casual contracts, which have until now filled a large gap in the hospital system. Most of us are highly educated, and knowledgeable nurses who can cope in any situation (we work across all areas of the hospital), but we are currently experiencing unprecedented numbers of casual shifts. [We have not worked for weeks.]

She goes on to explain that she understands why elective surgery has been cancelled. These people are educated. These are the ones who are informing the people who are informing the people who are informing us. They need to work. These people find it distressing and insulting that they now hear that you are recruiting.

This government, this minister and the Premier are talking about recruiting and upskilling nurses. There are hundreds of them. They are already there. They have been recruited. They are upskilled, they are amazing and they are wonderful. They hold our hands, they cry with us, now they need us. The government has to listen, and we have to retain them. They cannot get the JobKeeper allowance. They are public sector nurses. We have to fight for them.