Nurses' Wages

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (14:56): Supplementary: given the government won't commit to matching Victoria's offer, is the minister concerned that these nurses and midwives are going to leave South Australia and move interstate, where they can get a better offer?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for his question. I do not have a jurisdictional comparison of the base that this has been taken from, and pay rates and the exact matching of various conditions—and that is one element of where someone decides to work. A very important element is the quality of life you get while you are working as well. I might be accused of being biased, but I think that living in South Australia, and Adelaide in particular, affords you a quality of life that you can't find in many other places in this country.