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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-06-27 Daily Xml
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Nurses' Wages

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (14:54): 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 a pay rise for nurses.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Yesterday, the Victorian government and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation agreed to a 28.4 per cent pay rise for nurses and midwives over the next four years. The agreement includes allowances for a change of ward and being on call. There is also a right-to-disconnect clause and a change to night shift penalties. The Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, told The Age, and I quote:

This is absolutely backing in our nurses and midwives. They are the backbone of our health and hospitals system.

My question, therefore, to the Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector is:

1. Will the Malinauskas government match the Victorian pay rise for South Australian nurses and midwives, and if not, why not?

2. What is the government doing to ensure that our nurses don't simply pack up and move over to Victoria?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his question. In relation to whether we will immediately institute the results of an interstate jurisdiction's enterprise bargaining into industrial instruments in South Australia after having gone through a bargaining process, the short answer to that is, no, we won't—and I am not sure the honourable member would have expected much different from an answer in relation to that.

What we will do, though, as I have said in this chamber a number of times before, is bargain in good faith with public sector unions, which represent employees in a whole range of areas, including the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, which represents nurses in South Australia and around the country. I don't have the date in front of me, but I think it was sometime in mid to late 2022 when the last industrial agreement was negotiated and signed with the union representing nurses in South Australia. Sometime in the next couple of years that will be up for renegotiation.

What I will say and can commit to is: unlike the last government, we don't come to the table in bad faith with preconceived notions about what is or isn't on the table. We will come to the negotiating table in good faith and are happy to negotiate terms and conditions that are fair for nurses, also recognising the needs of South Australia.

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