Thursday, 12 May 2022

International Nurses Day

Ms HENNESSY (Altona) (10:14): I am delighted to rise today and I would like to acknowledge all the wonderful hardworking nurses from Melbourne’s west, but in particular in my electorate of Altona. It is of course International Nurses Day today, and there has never been a tougher couple of years for those wonderful hardworking professionals. I want to pay an enormous tribute to all of the nurses in my electorate, many of whom work at the Werribee Mercy. They are delighted with the announcement in the state budget of a $236 million expansion. They are very grateful for our investments in things like the Point Cook community hospital, the investments that are being made in respect of Sunshine Hospital and particularly an emphasis on alcohol and drug treatment expansion services.

Some of the important reforms that our government have delivered in collaboration with nurses and their representatives have been things like nurse-patient ratios. I want to lend my support to this debate that is occurring at a federal level in the prelude to the federal election. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made it crystal clear that ensuring that we have proper investment in nursing workforces in the aged care sector is critical if we are to rise to the challenge of any of the recommendations laid out in the Neglect royal commission interim report into aged care. That means ratios and that means nurses in aged care, and it cannot come soon enough.