HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-05-13 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Motions

International Nurses and Midwives Days

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. S.G. Wade:

That this council—

1. Recognises the World Health Organization declaring 2020 the 'Year of the Nurse and the Midwife';

2. Recognises both International Nurses Day and International Day of the Midwife;

3. Recognises the courage, hard work and compassion of nurses and midwives in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic; and

4. Thanks nurses and midwives for their outstanding service in hospitals, homes and the community to protect and maintain the health and wellbeing of all South Australians, year in year out and during the COVID-19 pandemic

(Continued from 29 April 2020.)

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (16:53): The World Health Organization declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. Ordinarily, of course, nurses and midwives play an integral role as professional partners in the delivery of health care across the globe, but their worth has perhaps never been so evident or deeply valued as it has been this year with the devastation of COVID-19 sweeping our world.

Nurses and midwives truly devote their lives to caring for families, mothers and children. They educate and offer life-saving immunisations and health advice. Nurses are there when we enter the world and invariably hold our hands and offer comfort to our loved ones as we take our final breath. In many communities there are no medical practitioners or allied health staff. It is the nurse or midwife who is available to support a community's full healthcare needs.

This designated year is to recognise the vital role of nurses and midwives, to celebrate their work, highlight the challenges they face and advocate for increased investments in the nursing and midwifery workforce. Each year, we celebrate International Nurses Day on 12 May, the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the acknowledged founder of modern nursing. The Lady with the Lamp lived to the age of 90 and died in 1910.

We have celebrated International Nurses Day since 1965 and since 1988 the International Council of Nurses has declared a theme for each year. This year, the council announced the theme as 'Nursing the world to health'. With the scourge of COVID-19, I am sure the irony of this is not lost on any of us. The intent of the theme was to shine a light on the way nurses are able to address such a wide range of contemporary health challenges. Who could possibly have imagined that our nurses would be facing a global pandemic, possibly the biggest healthcare challenge of our time, indeed of our lifetimes?

On 5 May, we celebrated the International Day of the Midwife, as we do every year. The theme is 'Midwives with women: celebrate, demonstrate, mobilise, unite—our time is NOW!' This theme was set to highlight the vital role and dedication midwives play in caring for women, children and families. Midwives play a vital role in preparing women for pregnancy, ensuring women and their precious babies traverse pregnancy and childbirth safely. They educate and inform women. They ensure they are empowered and they provide support throughout the experience.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our midwives have been faced with some extraordinary challenges, with it being necessary to restrict the numbers of people attending births because of the physical distancing guidelines. This has been deeply challenging for women, their partners and their healthcare teams. The Australian College of Midwives has been advocating around this issue and supporting state branches, which in turn are supporting midwives with the delivery of these difficult policy settings.

Indeed, my eldest daughter is giving birth to her first child in these unusual circumstances. We are waiting any moment to hear that she has gone into labour. I would like to acknowledge some of the wonderful people who are helping her in that circumstance in the Mount Gambier hospital. Sonya and her amazing team have needed to provide antenatal classes via computer participation. They have needed to prepare extra resources to mail out. They need to be available to answer questions that would normally be answered in those on-site settings.

They have needed to try to prepare women who perhaps have not had a chance to tour the maternal facility at the Mount Gambier hospital so that they can feel supported, they can feel prepared and as comfortable and ready as possible as they enter into the exciting experience of giving birth. Midwife Maddie is one of the many excellent midwives who have been able to do appointments over the phone, supporting women such as my daughter, and then assisting in the various gaps that must necessarily occur when we are trying to do things over the phone that would otherwise be done face to face.

They are just examples of the wonderful healthcare teams that we have in Australia. It is because of such wonderful healthcare teams that Australia has been able to face this COVID-19 pandemic head-on and avoid the widespread and sweeping tragedies that we have seen in other nations in the world. We have seen tremendous leadership by our health workers in working with expert epidemiologists and infectious disease experts. We have relied on and trusted science.

Governments have been able to trust the advice they have been given and in turn have delivered the policy settings based upon it. Amidst the raging COVID-19 pandemic, our nurses and midwives have continued to turn up to work. These healthcare professionals have continued to show extraordinary resilience. Life-saving care and life-sustaining care has been delivered to patients from staff with dedication and compassion.

As we consider the devastating numbers of COVID-19 transmissions and deaths globally, in what are widely known as highly skilled and modern healthcare nations such as the UK, USA, Italy, Spain, Germany and others, how grateful we can be to live in Australia. How grateful we can be for the nurses and midwives at all levels who have provided care and support during the COVID challenge and continue to be armed and ready for any surge that might now come as we tentatively reduce the restrictions and face the reality that at some point we will see people entering our state again.

I want to particularly note the thousands of nurses who work with distinction in our regions and in our remote areas. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation nationally and the South Australian branch, led by Adjunct Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars, have provided industrial advocacy when it was evident that the supply of PPE was inadequate and when it was feared we had insufficient surge capacity in terms of beds, and they continue to fight for a deal in relation to special paid COVID-19 leave.

Along with the Australian College of Nursing, they have also been at the heart of the call for upskilling and the provision of education packs and resources for clinicians across a range of workplaces. Our Labor team, in particular the member for Kaurna and the member for Hurtle Vale, has been very active in relation to getting a better deal for our healthcare workers. We have seen the government agree to some of our suggestions such as free car parking for hospital workers during the pandemic.

However, it has been a huge disappointment to see the lack of care shown by the state government in relation to the huge number of government casual nurses left without work because of the sudden halt to elective surgery and the reduction in hospital presentations. Our government-employed casual nurses are not eligible for JobKeeper payments. The health minister, the Premier and the Treasurer have all refused to address this, although other states have done so. As a consequence, we still have casual nurses who have had hardly any income whatsoever for the past two to three months.

Yet, there are many opportunities where they could have been engaged in public health education, screening and welfare programs. Our highly skilled nurses could have supported all of these. That they were ignored and not supported is a disgrace, and this government should truly hang its head in shame. Casual nurses who have been told at short notice that all their shifts have been dropped have been offered no support whatsoever by this state government.

These front-line healthcare workers have pleaded with the government for support but their pleas have been disregarded. These casual nurses still have responsibilities—they still have mortgages, they still have bills to pay, they have families to support—and it is truly disappointing that they have been treated so poorly. I hope that, as elective surgery schedules now start to gradually increase, we will see the work increase and flow to our valuable casuals who can get back to supporting their families again.

The opposition has led the call for the state government to waive the costs for nurses associated with their annual compulsory registration costs which require every nurse in South Australia to pay a yearly figure of $175 to be able to continue to work as a nurse. If the state government does truly value the work of our nurses and midwives, the absolute least it could do is waive their registration fees this year. I am advised that these registration fees are not due until the end of May, so there is still time for the government to do the right thing and waive the registration fees for 2020.

In this, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, as we celebrate the very special days for both professions, I offer a heartfelt thanks to all nurses and midwives providing a service in hospitals, homes and the community, protecting and maintaining the health and wellbeing of all South Australians now and for the rest of 2020. Thank you for your dedication, your passion and your commitment.

The Hon. T.T. NGO (17:02): I also rise to support this motion. I recognise and celebrate the incredible superhuman nurses working in our state, around the country and around the globe. I thank the nurses and midwives for their dedication and commitment to our community. Nurses and midwives see us at our best and our worst. They bring life into the world and they see it out. They are there for the bits in between, which are sometimes messy and sometimes painful. They see us when we are most scared and most vulnerable. They help us when we are weak and they become someone with whom we secretly share our fears. They hear things we might never tell our loved ones.

Nurses and midwives quickly develop relationships in trust and care, and this comfort can make all the difference to someone who is anxious when facing the unknown. Theirs can be the last face we see and the last hand we hold—a privilege, a heavy weight of sadness. Nurses and midwives also share our joys. They are part of a select group who see faces of newborns before anybody else. They support us while we recover and they see us back to good health, sharing in our gains and victories. They join our lives for moments, but daily they see the meaningful impact of their medical expertise, experience, training and compassion.

My sister, Dung, is also a local nurse and has been nursing for 25 years. I noticed that the minister and the Premier visited her ward a couple of weekends ago. I know she thought that her appearance in the photo was not very good, but she told me that she was very happy with that photo. My daughter, Renee, is also a graduate nurse, and started her employment in February this year, right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. I have a little insight into the challenges they face every day because they are committed to helping others: I see that their jobs are not glamorous and that patients can be rude and demanding.

Nurses and midwives give up time with their own families and friends to care for us and ours. Their work times vary, they work through the night and at times the rest of us might think inconvenient, they are called in unexpectedly and they put their lives on hold for us. Nurses and midwives bravely go into strangers' homes to provide support and care. While the coronavirus pandemic is challenging for everyone, what has given hope, lifted spirits and inspired confidences are the medical staff who have worked tirelessly around the world.

Visions of neighbourhoods coming together in the evening to clap and cheer for front-line health workers have galvanised communities. Hopefully, this strengthened the will of those workers, knowing that their communities are behind them. We have also seen footage of the toll that the pandemic has taken on nurses, health workers and carers—how the devastation and death has also deeply affected those people of great strength and grit, who bear more pain and loss that anyone should.

The artist Banksy recently produced an image that is perfect for our time. It is of a child flying its superhero through a make-believe sky, but Batman and Spider-Man are slumped in the child's discarded toy bucket. The child's superhero is dressed in a nursing uniform, red cross on her chest and face mask in place.

In closing, I want to also acknowledge the casual nurses in our state. I understand that many, due to COVID-19 restrictions, have been left without work and have forgone wages during the pandemic. It beggars belief that any medically trained worker would not be supported during this time. I also want to thank the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, led by its secretary, Adjunct Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM, for protecting and fighting for nurses and midwives while they protect and care for us. Lastly, I urge the state government to demonstrate the appreciation we feel towards our invaluable nurses and midwives, not just through words but by waiving nursing registration fees for 2020.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (17:09): International Nurses Day is celebrated every year on 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birthday. Nurses and midwives devote their lives to caring for so many, in hospitals and in the community. Nurses provide care all day, all night, every day, everywhere. It is so important that nurses be acknowledged for the role they play in providing high-quality health care to all those who need it.

We acknowledge the compassion, professionalism and commitment that nurses display in caring for their patients. The World Health Organization has designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife in honour of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. During this time, we not only acknowledge and appreciate our nurses but we acknowledge the role they have played in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indeed, perhaps it could not be timelier that 2020 is the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. The coronavirus has revealed that around the world the courageous work of nurses is irreplaceable. Nurses are selflessly on the front line, caring for those who have been hospitalised with COVID-19 and doing so with commitment and compassion. Nurses preserve our human dignity day after day, particularly during a time of so much uncertainty. It takes a combination of strength and selflessness to undertake this work, to change lives and to save lives every day.

I also wish to acknowledge that nurses and healthcare workers in other places in the world have lost their lives to the coronavirus. That front-line health workers have themselves contracted this disease and passed away is an unspeakable tragedy. In some countries a lack of personal protective equipment has contributed towards the high rate of infections among nurses and other healthcare staff. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. These nurses, who have loved ones, including many with young children, have lost their lives because of their caring work. This is heartbreaking.

That nurses and healthcare workers have suffered in the face of this pandemic is an important reminder for our healthcare workforce that safety is paramount. All governments have a responsibility to keep their healthcare workers safe.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown nurses and healthcare workers at their finest. However, there is no doubt that the demands on nurses and healthcare workers has been immense. Beyond the immediate and intermediate challenges presented, we must ensure that, looking to the future, our healthcare systems receive the substantial investment required to meet the demands of the future.

Indeed, it was very unfortunate to see so many casual nurses left without shifts for the duration of the non-urgent elective surgery ban. Furthermore, public hospital nurses could not access JobKeeper payments and effectively faced unemployment. Many of these nurses have dedicated their working life to the public healthcare system and are relied upon by the health system to work flexible hours. I have heard anecdotally that some nurses were able to be deployed, yet many hundreds of nurses were left with few or no shifts. I join with so many South Australians who were shocked to see public hospital nurses left without work. Redeploying these experienced nurses should have been a priority; quite frankly, it makes no sense that it was not a priority.

In a more ordinary year, there would be events planned to celebrate our nurses. Sadly, this year those events will have been cancelled or postponed. Even though these events cannot take place, the importance of recognising, acknowledging and thanking our nurses has never been more important. To all nurses, midwives and other healthcare workers in South Australia, thank you. You have spent time away from family, your loved ones and worked long hours, caring for those in our community who have contracted COVID-19. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:13): I rise on behalf of the Greens to support this motion and to recognise the vital and important work of nurses and midwives in our state and around the world. I know that you, Mr President, like me have nurses close to us in our family. My aunt is a nurse and a midwife and used it to travel the world, most notably in the Middle East, so I always saw it as a very glamorous profession when I was growing up, although I know that the reality is far from that.

This year, of course, has been dubbed as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. I do not think anyone realised at the start of this year just how true that would become. Let's not forget that in the past week, we also had the International Day of the Midwife on 5 May and International Nurses Day on 12 May. I would also like to acknowledge that last night we were all invited to light a candle in honour of nurses who have lost their lives in saving lives, in treating and caring for patients with COVID-19 around the world.

This year we have so much to thank nurses and midwives for. Nurses in particular have been at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has highlighted the difficult and invaluable work that nurses do and just how much we rely on them. Nurses and other healthcare professionals have been heralded as heroes, and quite rightly, but they have been challenged like never before. Many have stepped up to take on new roles and training, and it has been great for nurses to have the opportunities to upskill and provide even more support than normal during this public health emergency.

It is also important to remember that nurses have been on the front line of providing health care and have played a significant role in public health advocacy well before the pandemic. Nurses and midwives are often the first, and sometimes the only, point of care in their communities, and they play a vital role in providing health services. Their work is usually hidden and in the background. It has now been thrust into the limelight, and we have seen an incredible outpouring of gratitude from the public.

But applause does not pay the bills. You cannot eat praise, nor does it help when our front-line healthcare providers face misdirected anger and often abuse. We cannot forget or ignore the fact that, while we are thanking nurses and midwives here, words are not enough. Most nurses in Australia earn below the average Australian wage, even if they work full time. On International Nurses Day, whilst publicly singing their praises, the New South Wales government froze nurses' pay during the pandemic. Moving forward, we need to ensure that nurses are properly compensated for their valuable and vital work and that they have safe working conditions.

We also need to ensure that front-line workers, such as nurses and midwives, during the pandemic are protected and that they have access to adequate PPE but also that should they become sick they do not fall through the cracks. We cannot ask them to choose between their health, their essential work and their ability to put food on the table.

While we are recognising the capability and importance of nurses during this pandemic, on the advice of the World Health Organization, we should be looking at other recommendations that they have made in regard to nurses and midwives and their capabilities in providing care. For example, let's talk about the WHO's recommendation on a broader range of health practitioners being enabled by law to provide abortion services.

In 2003, WHO's safe abortion guidance recommended that abortion services be provided at the lowest appropriate level of the healthcare system. The recommendation was that mid-level health workers can be trained to provide safe early abortion without compromising safety. It includes as mid-level providers midwives, nurse practitioners, clinical officers, physician assistants and others. Yet, 17 years later, we still lag behind in action on this recommendation. I hope that while we celebrate the capability and service of nurses and midwives here we remember that we could be enabling them to provide more accessible care to women and girls around our state right now. I hope that soon our laws will catch up with best health practice.

I would also like to reflect, as other speakers have done, on the theme of this year's International Day of the Midwife, that theme being 'Midwives with women: celebrate, demonstrate, mobilise, unite—our time is now!' This is being used as a rallying call for midwives to be part of leading and demanding political action for a gender equal world.

According to the International Confederation of Midwives, 'We are the feminist profession.' Midwives use their voices to speak up in community discussions around female genital mutilation, child marriage, contraception and sexual reproductive health rights. We need to ensure that we are listening to their voices on gender equality, particularly coming up to recovery from this pandemic, where reports and data are already showing us that women are bearing the brunt of the impact of this virus.

I am glad to have this opportunity today to recognise and reflect on the enormous positive contribution to our communities and our collective health that nurses and midwives make. I thank them for their tireless and selfless dedication and service, and tell them we will continue to fight for your rights at work and for fair compensation, just as we will continue to listen to your voices. Now more than ever, we are aware of the vital work that you do and respect your expertise.

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:19): I, too, rise to speak in support of the motion. As we know yesterday, Tuesday 12 May, was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, said to be the founder of modern nursing. Fittingly, International Nurses Day is a day dedicated to the men and women, past and present, who have chosen this most admirable profession. The World Health Organization has named this year, 2020, as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. It is a timely recognition, considering the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it has had on all of our lives.

I am in absolute awe of the selflessness of the nurses and midwives who dedicate their working lives to caring for people. They have a profound impact on lives every day. Like many of us in this chamber, I speak from personal experience, not only as a hospital patient myself but also seeing the care and attention that nurses have given my loved ones at different times over the years. Somehow in some way they deal with suffering and they deal with death and dying on a daily basis. It is a profession that many of us simply are not cut out to do.

Midwives are present at the miracle of birth and it is most often joyous but occasionally, of course, also heartbreaking. Midwives help a mother to bond with her child and provide essential guidance both before and after birth. They do the same for the fathers of those children. It must be such a privilege to be present at such an important time in the parents' lives and to witness a baby draw breath and open its eyes for the very first time. It is, indeed, I am sure a very rewarding career.

I also wish to recognise the strong commitment of Indigenous midwives and—forgive me for my pronunciation—Ngunkaris, traditional Aboriginal healers to birthing and health care on country. As we know, Indigenous men and women have been acting in these roles long before Florence Nightingale was born. As I have said, it takes a certain sort of person, a special sort of person with unconditional empathy for people from all walks of life, to be a nurse.

I am in awe of nurses who care for children with a terminal illness. I am in awe of nurses who comfort the family of a loved one who has just passed, expectedly or otherwise. I am in awe of nurses who care for the elderly, the vulnerable, the disabled and the lonely—and I am just not sure how they do it. Nurses do not just attend to the physical care of a patient, their role is all-encompassing. In the past Australian nurses were called to war alongside our soldiers. They were often the last face a soldier saw. Some gave the ultimate sacrifice themselves. In their work, nurses recognise that a peaceful death is just as important as a peaceful birth.

Personally, I will be forever grateful to the nurses who carried me through the passing of my mother: Hannah, Ed, Norelle, Bishnel, Bina, Elaine, Glynnis, Julie, Macy, Leonie, Lesley, Emil, Tracy and Paula amongst others—and, of course, the birth of my son, the most difficult and the most joyous occasions of my life. The care all of these nurses showed to my family and to me will never be forgotten but one nurse in particular will always hold a special place in my heart for her compassion, her caring nature and her warmth for making my mum and me both as comfortable as possible on the eve of her passing. To all of them I say thank you.

It takes a special sort of person to be present at the end of life when a person closes their eyes for the very last time—day in and day out—and to do so with empathy, caringness and warmth. Our frontline healthcare workers have been doing an exemplary job in the midst of the current coronavirus pandemic. I take this opportunity also to thank all those essential workers in our healthcare system, our disability workers, our aged-care workers, our mental healthcare workers and all our hospital staff, the backbone of our health system, and the engine rooms of our health system, who do not always get the same level of recognition for their work but who go above and beyond each and every day to keep our loved ones safe and the wheels turning in our healthcare system.

According to the World Health Organization, 23,000 healthcare workers have tested positive to COVID-19 across more than 50 countries. A hundred nurses are estimated to have died as a result of caring for infected patients, although that number could well be higher in reality. In South Australia a 20-year-old intensive care nurse who worked on coronavirus patients in her role at the RAH tested positive for the virus in April. This was despite wearing her personal protective equipment and adhering to all of the protective protocols and behaviours. While most South Australians are worried about social distancing it is the very nature of the role of a nurse and midwife that it is impossible for them to maintain any distance from their patients.

Many front-line nurses and midwives have not had contact with their family and friends since the pandemic began. Many go home at the end of each shift knowing full well that trying to keep as safe as possible may result in their own loved ones being exposed to heightened risks. It is a true reflection of their empathy for others. They are concerned they will put others at risk more than for themselves. Such is the selflessness of this profession.

There are more than 35,000 nurses and midwives registered in South Australia, and we should not ever take that for granted. In fact, I am constantly reminded that in many other parts of the world, even in my parents' birth country, having a nurse at your loved one's bedside remains a privilege to which they are unaccustomed. Even in many developed parts of the world, if your loved one falls ill the only option you have is to hire the services of a nurse to sit by their side and provide care for them during their hospital stay. This is a common practice.

It has always astounded me that this is the case, but I think it would be equally astounding to members of our community that, even in developed countries, providing the services our nurses do here, day in, day out, is not always a given. If you cannot afford a nurse, then family members have no other option but to take on that role themselves. So we should never take for granted just how lucky we are in Australia and in South Australia.

As the world adapts to a new normal post COVID-19, I hope that many more young boys and girls, men and women, will choose this most admirable profession as their calling. Up until recently my son would have me believe that all superheroes wear capes, but as he rightly pointed out to me during a hospital visit recently sometimes they wear scrubs. With those words, I wholeheartedly support the motion and I thank the Minister for Health and Wellbeing for providing us with the opportunity to give our thanks and show our appreciation to all of them.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (17:27): I thank honourable members who have contributed to the discussion today: the Hon. Clare Scriven, the Hon. Tung Ngo, the Hon. Russell Wortley, the Hon. Tammy Franks and the Hon. Connie Bonaros. This 2020 International Nurses Day is occurring, as the Hon. Tammy Franks highlighted, in the 2020 International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. Many of us were looking forward to a calendar of events to celebrate the profession. Instead, 2020 was to be the year of the pandemic, but what a profound demonstration of the courage, skill and compassion of nurses.

We appreciate that this pandemic still has a long way to go, but as honourable members have highlighted repeatedly already the nursing profession has demonstrated all of those aspects: courage, skill and compassion. I thank the Hon. Clare Scriven for highlighting the fact that not only are nurses excelling in their direct care for people experiencing COVID-19 but are also dealing with a range of challenges that have been put before them in terms of the delivery of ongoing services. It was delightful to hear about her daughter's journey in Mount Gambier and I wish the Hon. Clare Scriven and her family every blessing as that birth proceeds.

In terms of the team working with her, they are adapting their model of care to quite extraordinary circumstances. As the Hon. Clare Scriven highlighted, to support a mother through a midwifery journey when you cannot even visit the site is a real challenge, and right across the health system we have 18,000 nurses in the state hospital system and the equivalent of about 13,000 FTEs. I doubt whether there was a single nurse or midwife who did not have to adapt their model of care in the new environment. Of course there was a cadre of nurses who delivered care in the ICU context and in other parts of the network to provide nursing care to people who were or are COVID positive.

I acknowledge the Hon. Tung Ngo's sister in the ICU unit at the Royal Adelaide. It was my privilege, together with the Premier, to visit that unit a week or so ago. At that stage, it was the ICU in Australia with the largest number of patients having been through that unit. If I recall correctly, there were 18 patients who had received ICU care at the Royal Adelaide ICU. To talk to those nurses about the journey they have been through, the care that they have provided in the most extraordinary circumstances, was a real privilege.

In that context, I certainly accept the point the Hon. Russell Wortley made about the importance of safety at work. We talk a lot about sovereign risk in terms of defence procurement and supply, but I think this year we saw the issue of sovereign risk in terms of the most basic guarantee of worker health and safety in the nursing profession in terms of PPE. The reliance of the world on one or two countries to provide such a vital resource was a risk that proved to be very challenging for the whole world, and it still remains a significant challenge. I think one of the real successes of South Australia this year has been the Detmold manufacturing group stepping up to provide the domestic production. That will be a major guarantee of the health and safety of nurses and other medical workers for years to come.

I accept the Hon. Tammy Franks's point that nurses need to be valued, and that is exactly what this government is doing with a realistic enterprise bargaining offer. We are optimistic that it will be resolved and accepted. I note that the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation regards what is on the table as a big win for nurses.

I would like to join the Hon. Tung Ngo and the Hon. Connie Bonaros in highlighting the compassion and empathy of nurses and the fact that they are with each of us in our key life events from birth right through to death. I would like to pause and acknowledge the strong nurse leadership that we have in South Australia. In particular, I want to put on record the respect I have for the Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, Jenny Hurley, who is a constant source of wise counsel and, to be frank, a ferocious advocate for nurse professional development, which I greatly appreciate.

I would also like to acknowledge the industrial and professional organisations that represent nurses, in particular the Australian College of Midwives, the Australian College of Nursing, the Australian Nursery and Midwifery Federation, and I acknowledge there are a range of nurses professional bodies, particularly in some of the specialty areas of nursing. I would like to also thank the nurses and midwives who offered me hospitality yesterday and on the actual day of International Nurses Day. It was a privilege to be in Ward 5E, a surgical ward for gastro and liver services at the Flinders Medical Centre ably led by their nurse unit manager, Kylie Finlay, and also to be at Ward 4A, which is a general ward run by Nick Piltikidis.

It was also a privilege, later in the day, to join the Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer and nurse leadership from across the department and the networks in a sharing of cake in the Hindmarsh Square complex. That event really highlighted the bittersweet nature of the year. As I said, we were looking forward to the 2020 International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife to celebrate the nursing profession, but it has also been a very challenging year and a year that has seen nurses give their life in service. At that commemoration, we shared not only cake but also a sprig of rosemary and a minute's silence. I would like to thank nurses and midwives for everything they do every day, but especially what they have done in 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife and also the year of the pandemic.

Motion carried.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT