Thursday, 9 June 2022

Ministers statements: healthcare workers

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:09): I am delighted to be able to report to the house that this morning I and the member for Melton, in his capacity as a parliamentary secretary—the outstanding parliamentary secretary that he is—were able to join with the leadership of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) down at their office to make a very significant announcement: a $3000 payment paid in two $1500 components, one in the middle of August and one at the end of September. This is about retention and also thanking staff for the amazing work that they have done. It is about encouraging people to maybe do an extra shift and indeed maybe to get some people who are qualified and have been out of the system for a period of time to come back and work in the system. It has been warmly welcomed by all of those health unions. It has been warmly welcomed, I think, by staff, who see this as a positive acknowledgement of their contribution and also fair recognition of the enormous pressure and unprecedented circumstances that they are dealing with each and every day.

I thank every member of that team—and that is the key point. We had the secretary of the nurses union today not just talking about nurses but also talking about the fact that—cleaners, ward clerks, the whole team—health is delivered by teams of people, and each and every one of them in our hospitals will be eligible for these payments, or a pro rata element of these payments, depending on whether they are part-time or full-time. I want to thank all of those unions who have worked so closely with us—the AMA, the ANMF, the ambulance union and many others—to develop this package. It is about saying thank you, but more than that, it is about retaining staff, it is about getting through winter and it is about properly valuing and honouring the contribution that our health professionals make every hour of every day in every shift right across the system. It sits in stark contrast to those who criticise endlessly and are in fact bagging our staff.