Health Workforce

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (15:08): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question without notice to the Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector on the topic of health workers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Today, it has been reported that in Victoria an agreement has been reached between the government and the union to increase paramedic wages. It comes after negotiations have been ongoing since February 2023 and resulted in industrial action in March. Under the four-year agreement, paramedics will now receive wage increases ranging from just under 17 per cent to 33 per cent over four years. Victorian Ambulance Union secretary, Danny Hill, has said that senior paramedics will soon become some of the most well compensated in the country.

My question to the Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector is: what is the government doing to ensure that South Australia can compete for qualified health workers with other states that are willing to pay much higher wages than here in South Australia, and will the government commit to matching the pay increases we have seen in other jurisdictions to stop paramedics from leaving South Australia and potentially compounding the ramping crisis that Labor promised to fix?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in these areas and his slightly, as always, provocative questions. If his question is will I make a commitment here in question time to match the very highest offer that occurs anywhere around Australia for every aspect of an enterprise bargaining agreement, no I won't. What I will commit to is what we said before the election and we have continued to do: enter each round of bargaining for an industrial agreement in good faith with their representatives in a particular union.

The honourable member mentioned paramedics. I haven't seen the details of exactly what was negotiated, what reforms went with pay increases which might be efficiency reforms within the EB and what parts of the workforce and paramedics different pay rises might apply to, but what I will say is that genuine desire to bargain in good faith was on display very soon after we came to government. Members will recall that for the four long years of a Liberal government under the former minister, the Hon. Rob Lucas, who would stand up and very proudly demonise union leaders, there was not a pay rise in the whole four years for ambulance workers in South Australia.

I am very proud that as a new Labor government we were able to come to an agreement with the union that represents ambulance workers, voted on by the members of that union, not just for a pay rise for the years going forward over the three years of that industrial agreement but for back pay in each year that they missed.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: For the back pay in each year that they missed. So we will continue to negotiate in good faith with each industrial agreement that comes up for discussion.