Thursday, 13 August 2026

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (10:41): No-one disputes the importance of safe staffing levels. As someone who spent 30 years nursing in the acute health system, I know exactly what safe staffing means for patients, for nurses, for midwives and for the quality of care that is provided in the healthcare system by the nurses, by the midwives and by all the healthcare staff. But there is something deeply concerning about a government congratulating itself for putting more ratios into legislation when across regional Victoria hospitals are struggling to find nurses and they are struggling to find midwives and other health professionals needed to provide the care. A ratio written into an act is not another nurse beside a hospital bed, it is not another midwife in a birthing suite and it means very little if our hospitals cannot find the workforce to deliver it.

I want to put on the record, to begin with, my thanks to all the midwives, the doctors and the entire health workforce. Allied health workers and support staff are equally integral: radiographers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, social workers, cleaners and kitchen staff, occupational therapists, speech therapists – the list goes on. We need a health system that works cohesively, and we have had that. I want to take a minute to explain that anything I say here is not a criticism of any of the staff in the system. The system is not supporting them. Putting ratios into place is vitally important, but it will not fix a broken system alone. There are extraordinarily hardworking people in our health system, and it is not their hard work that is not making this work but the increasingly difficult circumstances. So any criticism is not of the workforce; it is of the system they are being asked to work within.

Labor have spent more time boasting than they have delivering, and staff are carrying the consequences of governance decisions, shortages, pressure, burnout and increasing demand. The government announcing another expansion of ratios presents as improving patient care, but regional hospitals are already struggling with meeting the ratios that are in place now. The truth is that hospitals are having to apply for exemptions and variations because they simply cannot find the nurses to staff the hospitals. It is quite insincere to be here today with the third tranche of this legislation putting ratios in place in other hospitals when the government has not been able to deliver the nurses to actually put them in place where they have already been announced. Legislation itself cannot manufacture nurses and midwives. You can legislate a ratio, but you cannot legislate a nurse into existence.

So before congratulating itself on another tranche, the Victorian Labor government should explain why the existing requirements cannot be consistently staffed. In the regions there is no doubt we are struggling with getting enough staff. We have seen the government boast about increasing training for nurses, putting more nurses through training, but then we also hear that these nurses are often not getting graduate positions in the hospitals. There is nothing more soul-destroying to a nurse than not being able to implement the learnings of the previous three years to actually care for people, and you do need to put in practice what you have been learning to be able to consolidate and train your skills to be the carer that you want to be. I know the nurses that I have always worked with and know well care about their patients and care about the outcomes, and they feel very, very vulnerable when it is not working properly. They feel responsible, and it is not their responsibility. They have got a government that is not supporting our health system because it is allowing it to be deprived of funds and break.

I look at what I went through in 2017. I was part of the perinatal inquiry, a committee that looked at perinatal services. It was quite confronting to hear the people in the regions saying, ‘If we don’t address workforce strategy planning now’ – and this was 2017, nine years ago – ‘we will be faced with shortages in the region.’ And it was not just in maternity services. This flowed over, they said, to other areas. They recognised then we needed more gynaecologists, more anaesthetists, more paediatricians, more midwives, more supporting services such as maternal and child health services. But that was not listened to. The recommendations recognised from that inquiry to incentivise and attract health professionals into rural and regional Victoria were ignored, and nearly a decade later regional communities are living precisely with that problem. We have seen maternity services particularly downgraded right throughout South-West Coast, but it is not just maternity services but many services. We are seeing people trying to get hospital appointments for ENT specialists, for urologists, for ophthalmologists, and we are not able to provide those services anymore.

Ten years ago when I entered this place, after nursing for 30-odd years in the acute system, one of my first bill speeches was on how proud I was of the Victorian health system. But today I genuinely cannot say I feel as proud. I am certainly as proud, if not more proud, of the staff and the nurses and the doctors and the allied health staff who all support the health system, but they are working under extraordinary circumstances. That is purely because of this government putting through bills like this one, which change nothing because they have not got the structure and the foundation underneath that has been invested in by the government to fulfil the promise of being able to deliver on ratios. So it is very disappointing that I have to stand here and say that we have got a government that has not really listened to our community.

Health is vitally important, but here we have got a situation, for example, where the Victorian communities out in regional Victoria have to go further – travel further, have more transfers to other services – to be able to get their health needs met. We have a system that used to exist 10 years ago and still exists in the same format today. Getting assistance from the government to go to Melbourne, for example, to receive treatment that you cannot receive in the regions – sometimes you received that 10 years ago. An example of that is having a pacemaker put in. I did that in 1999 at Hamilton hospital, actually – I did not personally do it; I assisted a doctor to do it. My mother at 93, last year, got transferred from Warrnambool to Geelong to have a pacemaker put in. Things have changed but the capability is not keeping up with that, and that is resulting in people travelling. Ten years ago you could go to Melbourne and have accommodation supported by the government and you would get $45 a night. It is now 2026. You cannot get any accommodation in Melbourne for $45 a night. You would be out of pocket, I would say, around $200, because $245 is what you have to find.

Here in South-West Coast we have got examples of how we have diminished the health service. We have got a helipad in Portland. If you have got less services, the helipad in Portland should be providing quick transfer to Melbourne if it is needed. It is closed. The helipad was closed by this government three years ago, with no explanation and respect for the community as to why or what we have to do to be able to get it back up and running. They take away services and they stop people being able to get quickly to the hospital – that is actually nonsensical. The hospital was promised in 2020 after 10 ‍years of us waiting patiently for an announcement to say we can have a hospital that will meet our future needs. That hospital will now not meet our future needs because apparently the scope is being cut. Despite me asking in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee what exactly has been cut and despite me making representations several times to the health ministers – as they change – about what is what is going to be delivered now, secrecy prevails.

This is a government that has asked a lot of the health service community but not actually supported them with the right amount of funding or the right infrastructure. We are not getting the better outcomes that we should be in the regions. We are getting worse outcomes, and that is proven with our higher rates of cancer, our higher rates of cardiac disease and our higher rates of even otitis media. I mean, it is right down to things that should be able to be treated but cannot be. If you have not got an ENT specialist for little kids going off with what is known as glue ear, or otitis media, you are getting deafness. You are getting outcomes that you do not want to see and should not be seeing in 2026. This is a very disappointing situation to find ourselves in, because we have a health system that we were proud of. I was very proud of it. We have great staff, but this ratio change will not actually put more nurses in front of patients where they need to be.

 Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (10:51): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026. I do want to begin by thanking and acknowledging all the health-related staff across our state for the work that they do, but in particular, in relation to this bill, I acknowledge nurses and midwives, who continue to care for Victorians and keep them safe. The vital role that nurses and midwives play across our healthcare sector is highly valued, and I know that in my electorate of Geelong my community are very grateful to the nurses and midwives in my community. They have nothing but praise for them. I often hear stories from constituents about their experience, whether it be in the hospital or one of the health services, and how much they appreciate what our nurses and midwives do in our community.

It is so important that we continue to listen to the likes of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), who represent those nurses and midwives, and understand the vital role that that union plays in getting that message across – what nurses and midwives are telling us needs to happen in our communities and our healthcare sector. They support and care in so many different areas, such as end-of-life care, accident and emergency, intensive care, mental health and so many other areas in our healthcare system. It is really important to ensure that they continue to deliver the best care to patients, and that is why this bill we are delivering, with safer nurse- and midwife-to-patient ratios, is so important to our communities.

As our population demands grow – and I know certainly we are experiencing that in my community right across the Geelong and Bellarine region – we are dealing with many more complex health needs in our community as well. We need things like more nurses, more midwives and more healthcare providers to be able to address those needs in our community. We do know how important that is, and we have listened to our community. We have listened to nurses and midwives through their incredible union, the ANMF, and we will continue to do that because they know what is needed. We rely on them to feed back to us what is needed in our healthcare system, and I am really proud that we are now increasing that work and making sure that safe patient care and the nurse and midwife ratios are addressed, as has been fed back to us as a government.

I talked about the increase in population and the demand for services in our community, and I am really proud that this government has funded the new Geelong women and children’s hospital, which is absolutely imperative in our community. We will see more and more new nurses coming on board to work in that new hospital. We know there is a huge demand for women’s and children’s services. We also know that people in the Geelong and Bellarine region and beyond need to travel to Melbourne, to the Royal Children’s, for some of those services. To be able to get that on their doorstep at University Hospital Geelong is a game changer for those families. I have heard from those families time and time again about the challenges that they have, and they are not complaining; they are saying that travelling to Melbourne with their child who needs care is very, very challenging and time consuming and impacts on their entire family. This for many people in my community and right across the region will be a game changer, and we will need those nurses in there to make a difference. The hospital is under construction. It is about halfway through, scheduled to be completed by 2028. That is something that we are all looking forward to, knowing that we will have a state-of-the-art facility with incredible nurses, midwives and other medical professionals in there delivering what our community needs. I know that my colleagues the member for Lara, the member for Bellarine and the member for Western District are really excited about the service that it will be providing once it is completed.

The bill will further strengthen nurse-to-patient ratios, which is really important. We will add an additional 253 full-time equivalent nursing positions in our world-class health system. As I just mentioned, with the women’s and children’s services coming on board in Geelong, we will need those staff. With free TAFE, we know that there are so many people at the Gordon TAFE, for example, training to be in that new hospital. We know we need those nurses. We know that in a couple of years time there will be jobs there for those nurses to go into. This is a really important part of making sure that we are delivering what we need in our community: not only the facilities but also the nursing and midwifery staff that will be required to fill those positions as they come on board.

The legislation will reclassify 26 hospitals, including 17 in rural and regional Victoria, to a higher level. That does not impact on Geelong, but I am sure our colleagues on this side of the house are very grateful for that. The amendments to the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015 are backed by a $109 million investment, which again is really important. The bill will change how hospitals are categorised in the safe patient care act, updating the law so that certain hospitals are recategorised at a higher level for the purposes of required nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios. This means they must roster more nurses for the same number of patients, improving staffing and patient care. This will improve nurse-to-patient ratios at 26 hospitals across Victoria in general medical or surgical wards, emergency departments and intensive care units. We know that having higher ratios of registered nursing staff to patients increases patient safety and improves patient outcomes through reduced lengths of stay and fewer adverse events.

The amendments will help to create safe and satisfying workplace environments for our nursing workforce and help manage the increasing demands their work entails. I know that nurses are feeling very strongly about this. It is important that we look after them so that they are able to look after patients on the wards and in emergency situations, end-of-life care and all those really critical areas, but right across our health system, because we know the importance of the work that they do. We have to look after them so that they do not burn out and do not leave the health sector, because we do rely on them. But we need to look after them, and that is what this bill will do. The stronger staffing ratios mean better, safer care for Victorians when and where they need it most. It also means less pressure on our hardworking nurses, preventing burnout so we can retain the workforce. The additional roles will also create more opportunities for graduate and early career nurses. Nursing and midwifery jobs in Victoria are only safe under a Labor government, and we know that. We delivered a massive 28.4 ‍per cent pay rise and have consistently strengthened nurse-to-patient ratios.

As I said, this is a really important bill, and I am really proud that we have brought this to the Parliament on the advice of ANMF and on the advice of nurses and midwives, helping to address the demands that are on them every single day. As I said, in my community of Geelong people are so grateful for the work that they do in our community, that they are there caring and supporting those patients when they need it. This bill is really important, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (11:01): I am pleased to rise today to talk about the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026. I am pleased to rise today on this, and of course we do not oppose this bill, and nor should we when we talk about patient care and getting the best health outcomes for our community. The purpose of the bill is to implement the outcomes of the government’s hospital classification review, which sought to assess hospitals’ workloads in determining staffing requirements, which is really, really quite important.

Let me start by saying that in my community the staff at the West Gippsland Hospital do an exceptionally good job. I know a lot of the nurses up there and have met the doctors, the orderlies and everyone that works there. They do an amazing job in a hospital that is actually in very poor condition. I know they will not mind me saying this because they talk to me all the time when they see me down the supermarket. They are really, really disappointed in the government because they did not keep their commitment to starting a new hospital in 2024. It was extremely important for our community that this hospital actually got off the ground and got started. But not only was it important for the community, it was actually more important – well, just as important – for the staff that work at West Gippsland Hospital. I agree with what the member for Geelong stated earlier about how wonderful our healthcare workers are. And they are; they do an extraordinary job. I could not do their job, absolutely. The work they do – looking after our loved ones or our children or our partners and trying to provide them the best health care they possibly can – is really important. When we talk about safe patient care, of course we are going to support safe patient care.

Probably what I am going to touch on today, especially in regard to my community, is: what about safe work conditions or better working conditions for the staff at the West Gippsland Hospital? I am going to express their frustration. I will park my frustration to the side for a moment, but I will express their frustration. When I am out and about and they see me and they come and talk to me, they keep saying to me, ‘Wayne, keep pushing for a new hospital. We desperately need a new hospital.’ When we reference West Gippsland Hospital, it was built in 1939. It is not fit for purpose anymore. It is only an 80-bed hospital. When you consider that the population of Warragul and Drouin now is about 43,000 people, you can understand why those 80 beds are no longer fit for purpose. The nursing staff are so frustrated. They are there for a good reason – they love what they do; they care about people – but when their work is impeded by the condition of the hospital, they become frustrated. The member for Geelong rightly pointed out earlier that we do not want our staff to burn out, and we do not. We should be giving our staff, our healthcare workers in this state, and our allied health workers as well, the best possible conditions to work in to deliver the best possible health care we can give our community. I have nurses coming up to me and saying, ‘Wayne, you wouldn’t believe it, but the other day I had to wheel someone into the midwifery ward for recovery,’ and they feel guilty about it because they have got a patient trying to recover and heaps of babies crying. It is not what I would say is a relaxing environment for anyone to recover. When I ask them why they could not go into the recovery room and they say, ‘Well, we’re using that as a storage room,’ it gives you an idea of or a picture of the hospital. I have nurses come up and say to me, ‘You wouldn’t believe the amount of leaks in this hospital.’

I will acknowledge that the government has committed some money to West Gippsland Hospital and Wonthaggi Hospital. In reference to West Gippsland Hospital, I believe it is for a new roof and some works on the Cooinda Lodge. The new roof is fine – that will stop the leaks – but it will not fix the problem. The problem is that, as I said, we have an 80-bed hospital. If you go to West Gippsland Hospital at any point in time on any given day, you will see cars parked right down Landsborough Street. Imagine trying to get up there if you are pregnant or if you are elderly. You have got to walk up this road and then you have still got to walk up a hill to the hospital and get across the intersection. There is no pedestrian crossing and no parking. The hospital is totally inadequate now for the population of my community.

I will go back to what I stated earlier. This hospital was built in 1939. With this facility they have renovated everything they possibly can to fit people in. I had a text message from a gentleman the other day who was in the emergency department being treated in the corridor after sitting there for 13 ‍hours. He was not having a go at the staff – the staff were doing the best they could with the situation they had – but he was asking when this hospital will be built.

Back in 2022 the government did commit to building a new West Gippsland Hospital. I can actually remember in 2023 the then Premier Daniel Andrews sitting in that chair over there, and for once the hospital landed in the budget. He turned around and winked at me. I thought – I cannot say it – ‘Really good.’ I was going to say that was a really hot thing to happen. I actually thought, ‘This is really good for my community.’

Members interjecting.

Wayne FARNHAM: I did not say anything unparliamentary – not a thing. You anticipate; you should never anticipate. Wait till I say it. I remember the Premier winked at me, and I thought, ‘This is a really good thing for my community,’ because they had fought long and hard to get it. I thought, ‘Great, it’s in the budget; we’re one step closer.’ Then for 12 months I gave the government the benefit of the doubt. Being a builder, I do understand that things need to be designed. They need to be planned. You have got to get oxygen and gas consultants in. You have got to get the nurses, the cooling. You have got to do all those things when you are building a hospital – water et cetera, hydraulics, heating, all of that. So I gave them the benefit of the doubt. In 2024 there was no uplift. In the 2024–25 budget I thought, ‘Well, that’s all right. I can see the drawdown. They’re still planning.’ 2025–26 should have been when there was an uplift in the budget to deliver the hospital. There was no uplift. Then we hit 2026–27, and there was no forward funding at all. So you can imagine the frustration of the nursing staff at that hospital at finding out that there was no uplift on the budget, and the likelihood of that hospital starting in this term of government absolutely dissipated. It did not happen.

I have been fighting for this hospital on behalf of my community for a very long time, as did the previous member for Narracan Gary Blackwood. He fought very hard as well, and I carried on that work. I was very pleased the other day when the Leader of the Opposition Jess Wilson came down to my area, along with Georgie Crozier, a member in the other place, and said that we are going to build the West Gippsland Hospital – an $850 million commitment – and we are going to take that hospital from 80 beds to 223 beds. We are also going to have a training facility in that hospital as well for nurses, aged care, more birthing suites and more emergency department beds, because it is what is needed. Not only that, we are adding accommodation. We know we are in a housing crisis, and if we are going to train people there we need them to sleep somewhere, so we are adding accommodation into this.

All I will say in closing, in the last 40-odd seconds I have got left, is the West Gippsland Hospital bats well above its average for the facility that it is. The nursing staff, the doctors and everyone involved do an enormous job. When you have about 11,600 presentations to the emergency department a year and what they deal with, it is phenomenal. But people do get frustrated because they are sitting there at times for 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 hours. All I can say is, yes, we support this bill, but what I would have liked for my community is for the government to actually stand by its word and start the West Gippsland Hospital.

 Jordan CRUGNALE (Bass) (11:11): I rise today to make a contribution on the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026, a bill that further strengthens Victoria’s world-leading nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios and delivers safer care for patients while providing greater support for our hardworking health workforce. Anyone who has had a personal or family experience in a hospital knows just how important our nurses and midwives are. They are there for some life’s happiest and some of life’s most difficult moments. In Bass nurses and midwives are a vital part of our community and workforce. They care for local families every day and deserve a health system that supports them to do their job safely and effectively.

There was a collective community cheer when Bass Coast Health and Gippsland Southern Health Service joined the new Bayside Health network alongside Kooweerup Regional Health Service, Peninsula Health and Alfred Health. This creates a more coordinated, connected health system for communities across the south-east and into Gippsland, strengthens existing partnerships and provides greater opportunities for healthcare workers to build their careers across the network. This bill delivers stronger staffing ratios, providing funding for an additional 253 full-time equivalent nursing and midwifery positions across Victoria, and reclassifies 26 hospitals, including 17 in regional Victoria. It is backed by a $109.7 million investment, because this Labor government understands that safe staffing means safe patient care.

For my community one of the most significant aspects of this legislation is the long overdue recognition of the growing role of Wonthaggi Hospital. For years local nurses, midwives and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) have argued that Wonthaggi Hospital had outgrown its historical classification. They recognised what our community already knew. Our hospital is caring for more people, managing more complex presentations and delivering a broader range of services than ever before. Of course over the summer period our population more than doubles. Under this legislation, Wonthaggi Hospital will be reclassified from a level 4 hospital to a level 2 hospital, while its emergency department, previously without a classification, will also become a level 2 service. This is a significant achievement for Bass Coast and South Gippsland and a direct recognition of the scale and complexity of care already being delivered locally. Importantly, this is not about changing a label. Hospital classifications determine staffing levels, workforce support and ultimately the quality and safety of patient care.

The Bass Coast is growing. We have an ageing population, many families are moving to our beautiful area and calling it home and of course we welcome millions of visitors each year. Presentations to hospital are increasing and becoming more complex, and this classification means the law will better reflect the realities faced by our health service, our workforce and our community. For our nurses and midwives this outcome represents years of advocacy. For our community it is the recognition that Wonthaggi Hospital has evolved into a major regional health service, providing, as I have said before, increasingly complex care and playing an increasingly important role within the Bayside Health network.

I particularly want to acknowledge local ANMF delegates Kate Lindsay, Minnie Hopkins and also Jenny Buxton, and former CEO Jan Child, as well as the ANMF branch secretary Maddy Harradence and the executive, former secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick and all the delegates and members across Victoria who have worked tirelessly over many years pushing for safer staffing levels, stronger ratios and appropriate recognition of the growing demands being placed on regional hospitals, especially in Wonthaggi. The ANMF described these reforms as one of the most significant improvements to ratios in more than 25 years and the result of years of advocacy from frontline workers. Midwives provide expert care and support to women and families through one of life’s most important milestones. The strengthened ratios contained in the legislation will provide additional support to maternity settings, including improved staffing requirements in antenatal and postnatal wards, helping ensure women and babies receive safe and high-quality care.

On 14 April I was at Bayside Health regional care at Wonthaggi Hospital with Bayside Health regional care group CEO Louise Sparkes and chief operating officer Christine Henderson, and we were very excited to announce a major investment to deliver major upgrades to Wonthaggi as part of the stage ‍2A redevelopment – a new pharmacy, a pathology clinic, medical imaging and a mortuary suite – as part of the $65 million upgrade across Wonthaggi and West Gippsland hospitals. There has also been much talk over the years about using the shell space to expand maternity and neonatal care. There is a whole floor still available and we are super keen to get this work happening, but it does need to be done in a coordinated way to ensure safety, capability and a continuation of care. The aim is for a higher level so more babies can be delivered close to home, and I am so pleased that this work has started and we are on the way.

Labor has already invested and delivered a massive $115 million redevelopment of Wonthaggi Hospital, with new operating theatres, a procedure room, an emergency department and an inpatient ward, which opened in 2022. I would like to acknowledge those that have helped drive these reforms too, including a number of former ministers for health: Martin Foley, Harriet Shing in the other place, the member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas and the former Premier Jacinta Allan, whose government’s commitment to stronger ratios, workforce investment and hospital reclassification laid the foundations for the legislation before us today.

Beyond this legislation Labor continues to invest in the infrastructure, services and workforce our communities need. We have built 12 new public hospitals, recruited more than 17,000 nurses and midwives and continued investing in Victoria’s public health system because we believe health care should be high quality, publicly accessible and available when people need it. Labor has invested in services such as the virtual ED, the virtual women’s health service, Smile Squad and Chemist Care Now and has expanded access to surgery and specialist care for children. As I have said, we have delivered the $115 million redevelopment at Wonthaggi Hospital, opened Phillip Island Community Hospital and Cranbourne Community Hospital, with Pakenham next year, and supported healthcare worker accommodation in Wonthaggi to help attract and retain staff. Our region has also benefited from more than $13.5 million across 31 health grant funded projects. Across the broader network our investments include the new Frankston hospital, a PET scanner for Peninsula Health and the Casey Hospital emergency department expansion and children’s zone as well.

In closing, this bill is about backing the people who care for us when we need it most. It recognises the increasing demands on our health services, supports our nurses and midwives, improves patient safety and helps ensure communities like Bass can continue to access high-quality health care close to home. It acknowledges the expertise and professionalism of our nurses and midwives, strengthens their profession and provides the staffing support needed to deliver the very best care to Victorian patients. To all our nurses and midwives, thank you for the care, compassion and dedication you bring to your work every day. I commend the bill to the house.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (11:20): I am more than happy to rise to contribute to the debate on the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026. This is a bill that the Nationals and the Liberals do not oppose. It is intended to improve safety and achieve better health outcomes for patients as well as more support for hardworking nurses and midwives in our public hospital system. I think we can all agree that this is an outcome that is positive, particularly in the regions, where health care is consistently one of the top five issues that face our community, whether it is access to specialist care, beds within the public hospital system, elective surgery waiting lists and complications at times with being able to deliver babies locally. We do not oppose this bill, but there are a couple of things that the topic of this bill allows me to talk on.

As always, I will start by thanking our hardworking frontline staff in the public health system – our nurses. My mother-in-law was a nurse for over 30 years in the public system and is now being treated by the public system at the Alfred on a regular basis. I heard the member for Narracan say earlier, amongst other things which may or may not have made sense, that he could not do the job. Nor could ‍I. You have got to be one of those people wired very, very differently to how I am wired to make all those sacrifices that our healthcare workers make day in, day out to save other people’s lives. Sometimes I think in this place we might think that we are saving the world, but those people really are angels doing God’s work, so I sincerely thank them. That extends to our ambulance officers, our ambulance community officers – anyone that is responding to medical emergencies with medical care. That extends also to aged care, disability, mental health, palliative care and allied health. It is all one big ecosystem.

The concerns that we do have with this bill, though, as with the previous amendments in 2025, are the adequacy of funding and health services’ ability to comply with the new requirements given the current workforce shortages and overstretched hospital budgets. I am in close regular contact with the acting CEO at Mildura Base Public Hospital, and the underfunding and the overstretched resources in hospital budgets are a primary concern of his – and the amount of money or resources that go towards fly-in, fly-out staff. There has been a change of management at that hospital, and there have been some conversations around the best way to utilise those really stretched budgets, which would obviously be to have a local workforce instead of a plethora of agency nurses, locums and fly-in, fly-out specialists and surgeons, which are extraordinarily expensive, particularly for hospitals that have a stretched budget. He is quite a creative thinker in fiscal terms.

One of the concerns that has been raised is: how do we attract a workforce to be able to meet these ratios, first and foremost, but also how do we give consistent continuity of care to patients that obviously need it? The Leader of the Opposition Jess Wilson, the member for Kew, was in Mildura at the end of July to make an announcement of a big investment of $180 million into Mildura Base Public Hospital to help with patient flows and to work with the board, work with management and work with clinicians to get to a point where we can make sure that we can actually deliver this. We could promise $750 million or $850 million towards a new hospital, but if we cannot deliver that, then it is an empty promise. We want to make sure that we can actually deliver that, working with the board and clinicians and management at the hospital. The main immediate issue we need to solve to stop ambulance ramping and to make sure that people are not waiting in an emergency room for 24 hours is additional beds, so that $180 million will go towards a new acute ward. The administration, allied health and mental health – any outpatient services and administration – will move over to the Eleventh Street site next to St Joseph’s College, and once that floor is cleared that will allow room to be redeveloped into a new acute ward with 30 new beds, with 18 new beds in the emergency ward, which will have an immediate impact on patient flows and ultimately patient care. That is something that we can do and that should have been done five years ago. The Nationals and the Liberals are the only ones that will deliver that, because, again, creative thinking in hospital administration and the hospital board has come up with this plan, which can actually be delivered and be delivered quite quickly as a stage 1. We know that there is always more work to do, particularly in the public healthcare system. There is always more work to do.

These solutions, particularly out in the regions, should be place based and community led. I have long spoken about how most solutions out in regional and rural Victoria should be place based and community led. So I do want to thank the management, the clinicians and the board that has contributed to this solution for how we can best impact in a positive way patient outcomes at Mildura Base Public Hospital, and that is one of those. That investment also includes, though, some modular accommodation, so we can attract a permanent workforce that can learn. We have the GP academy with Monash School of Rural Health, so now we can train GPs just like the poster boy for rural generalist health care in Mildura, Dr Travis Taggert, who is my GP. He is one that is a real champion for rural generalist care. He is in the midst at the moment of developing a super clinic. Again, this is his own money he is putting into redeveloping Ontario family clinic into a super clinic. With that GP academy, students can do all of their GP training end to end in Mildura. They do not have to go away from Mildura, because often we lose them then to the system – they get sucked into the thrill of being in these big hospitals or trauma centres and things like that, and they do not come back. But if we can grow our own – which is far more cost effective for families, instead of having to house uni students in the city or in other places like Ballarat and Warrnambool that have biomed on offer – and if we can do that in Mildura, that goes another step towards that.

We will have more announcements with regard to allied health training as well hopefully in the not-too-distant future with Monash. Again, I want to congratulate the Monash School of Rural Health for really taking proactive, creative steps to address the workforce issues that are faced within regional and rural Victoria. I have been there around the table for the conversations at every step of the way, and the flexibility and creativity in providing solutions has been absolutely remarkable. When you have got such bright minds around the table asking can we do this, my mantra is to always jump to yes first and then figure out how to do it, particularly when the outcomes are so vitally important, and they are when it comes to health care in the regions.

The staff-to-patient care and the midwife-to-patient ratios, again, are something that we do not oppose, but we recognise that there are workforce challenges, and we are working creatively with different agencies, universities and different GPs, like Dr Trav on the ground and his super clinic. The boards have gone up. It is going into an old Chinese restaurant that was an icon on Deakin Avenue in Mildura for a long time, and I asked Dr Trav on my last visit if he was going to keep the roof of the Chinese restaurant, and most disappointingly he said no, which is a shame. But the fact that we will have that super clinic there, along with Monash and along with the investment of $180 million into Mildura Base Public Hospital, means that Mildura will very soon be a mecca of medical training in the regions, and it will be somewhere that is so attractive for people to come and learn every aspect of service delivery within the medical fraternity. I am really excited about this, and of course we are not opposed.

 John LISTER (Werribee) (11:30): It is an honour to speak about nurse-to-patient ratios in this place, as I have many times since I was elected as member for Werribee, as it is a particularly busy time in my household when it comes to medical care down there at Werribee hospital. In fact I heard the news that we were increasing nurse-to-patient ratios at Werribee hospital, operated by Mercy Health, waiting in radiology with my partner for our appointment to check in on our little boy who is on his way. It was quite the moment. I texted the CEO at the time and I said, ‘I’ve got some good news.’ He’s like, ‘Has the baby come yet?’ I’m like, ‘No, not quite yet. But you’re about to get some more nurses on shift at Werribee.’ This bill is really important for communities like mine. We always talk about the Wyndham area being one of the fastest growing in the nation, and in fact we are probably one of the fastest growing – literally growing babies at a rate of knots. Nurse-to-patient ratios are not just about our general ward nurses and our nurses working in emergency, which I will come to in a moment, but also about midwives and having that support for our midwives at places like Werribee, where they are helping around 100 to 110 little people come into the world and join our community in Wyndham and make their way through our care system. It is particularly important for me to speak on nurse-to-patient ratios. Many people on this side have mentioned this: we come from families of nurses. In fact I am pretty sure most of my aunties, if they were not teachers, were nurses, so I understand the hard work that they do in our hospitals.

This bill reclassifies 26 hospitals, including 17 in rural and regional Victoria, to have that higher level of care. Only Labor governments can be truly trusted to deliver these sorts of reforms. In fact we pioneered nurse-to-patient ratios here in this place a few years ago now, and it is great to see them extended out to these other hospitals as well. These reforms mean that we have that one-to-one nurse-to-patient ratio in all shifts in ICU for all level 1 and 2 hospitals. While Mercy is not necessarily a level ‍1 or 2 hospital, I will have to correct myself: for many a time I have spoken about the Mercy having a critical care unit. That is what they have to classify themselves as if they do not necessarily meet some of the requirements around nurse-to-patient ratios and the types of doctors on shift at that critical care unit. However, in my meeting with the CEO a few weeks ago they confirmed that they have now been reclassified so that they are an intensive care unit down there at Werribee hospital, meaning that they can treat those higher acuity patients and also have more higher acuity patients come through surgery. It is pretty exciting. I have been calling it a critical care unit, but it is in fact an ICU.

It also means when we have better nurse-to-patient ratios, we have increased capacity in emergency departments, something particularly important out in Werribee – our emergency is under the pump. We have not only supported increased nurse-to-patient ratios and emergency at Werribee over these years but also provided funding for ambulance fast-track, which came through last year, which means that we are getting more ambulances back out on the road quicker when they arrive at Werribee hospital, and there has been quite a significant improvement in ambulance response times as a result of that. But we are also backing our emergency department down at Werribee by building them a brand new facility, which is huge. It feels very space age walking in there when compared to the almost bush-style hospital of the previous facilities that they had there. It is amazing to see and something I am very much looking forward to as a local member with my neighbours from neighbouring electorates: to open that emergency department this year with a $95 million investment in this year’s budget, with that increased staffing and more resources there, which I will come to in a moment.

Having that one to four midwife-to-patient ratio in postnatal and antenatal wards, particularly on night shifts, is very important. When I met with Werribee Mercy Hospital management, I spoke about what the benefit of this change of classification will be and where we will actually see it on the roster. It will be in particular in those afternoon shifts, which are at the moment being done one to five; that will come down to one to four. I was also particularly keen to know from a workforce point of view where the nurses are coming from. While I have been a teacher and I have seen many of my students go into nursing and also at Werribee hospital go into their nursing career, where are we getting them from? The great thing is they will be able to bring a lot of those people from the current pool that they run of nurses who come in and fill different shifts where they need them to put that one to four on in the afternoon shift. That is across a lot of different wards, not just emergency; it is in post-surgery, and it is in some of the general wards as well. I am really, really delighted to see that that will happen. Afternoon shifts, despite sounding a little bit casual, are not casual at all. In fact it is quite often the time when people are getting ready to be discharged before the evening, and also medication rounds coming around can make it quite busy. So it is really important to have that capacity built in at Werribee hospital as well.

I have spoken about some of the other reforms in patient care. I spoke about the ambulance fast-track at Werribee, which is doing amazing things to get those buses back out on the road, but also something that was pioneered and trialled at Werribee was the postnatal nurses assisting the midwives with the mums, which I think is particularly important. The midwives are there to help Mum and baby, but frankly I am a bit biased; I think one of the most important people in that situation is the mum. So having that extra person in those units has been of great benefit. I know there has been amazing feedback on that, and it has now expanded across more hospitals in Victoria. That is something that came out of trials at Werribee, so it is really important.

Also at Werribee – I have spoken a little bit about the ICU and the classification of that now – this Labor government has invested in the psychiatric unit there. Nurse-to-patient ratios are a big, important thing in our mental health system, particularly there at Mercy. Our mother–baby unit is a big beneficiary of having increased nurse-to-patient ratios because it means that those nurses can spend more time with mums and bubs as they work out how to settle in to this new life that they have suddenly been brought into, as well as that work in the emergency department and having all hands on deck, particularly on those busy nights and weekends that we have out there at Werribee.

But there are threats, and we have spoken about them on this side. While we talk about the threats of cuts from potential Liberal–One Nation coalition governments, I think it is important to also reflect on the track record of conservative governments when it comes to health care in the western suburbs. Peter Dutton cut nearly $100 million from the Mercy Hospital during their time when the federal government was in charge. We saw things like bulk-billing, so critical to keeping people out of hospital, drop right off the planet. There was barely a bulk-billing clinic in the Wyndham area. Now we are up to 80 or 90 per cent – I do not know, my federal colleague is always giving me the figure of bulk-billing under a Labor government – partnering with us to have not only primary care, which is excellent, but also this hospital care that we are backing in with these reforms.

I would also like to thank the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, who I have spoken to quite a lot leading up to the transition to the new emergency department and worked with on how that looks. Some of those are things that we need to do to prepare to open the emergency department. It was this government that made sure that our nurses were backed with a 28.4 per cent pay rise, consistently strengthening nurse-to-patient ratios along the way, and that is thanks to a strong union. I know many of my relatives have been members of the ANMF over the years. They are great for a bumper sticker. You can always tell if there is a nurse on the road because they have got their ANMF bumper sticker on. They are a fantastic union, and they are doing so many good things down at Werribee to make sure that they are respected and treated well down there. I think the most exciting thing about the new emergency department – I have been into the tearoom at the current emergency department, which is quite small and a little bit dark – is that it is open and bright and has a balcony looking back out towards the bay. It is a beautiful space for people who we cannot do enough for.

I think it is so important to continue to legislate for this, to make sure that no matter what happens we put in place structures to keep this as part of policy in Victoria and have these nurse-to-patient ratios. Only Labor governments truly support health in the western suburbs. We have seen investment to increase our maternity services – $250 million in this current budget. We are going to see more leading up to November. I commend this bill to the house.

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (11:40): I rise this morning to contribute to the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026. This bill actually first came to my attention recently in Colac. I was approached by a group of hardworking local nurses from Colac Area Health, who brought it to my attention and wanted to know a little more about this bill and when it was coming through. They were certainly of the belief that this will help ease some of the pressures in their own workplace in Colac, because Colac Area Health, which has been providing service in Colac now since the 1880s, will be reclassified as a level 3 hospital. While that is a great thing for the staff there and ultimately a wonderful thing for the people of Colac and district that will come in and be cared for by Colac Area Health, it is also incumbent upon the government to make sure that they have got the necessary funding and support behind it.

What this essentially means is that there will be a requirement, when the bill comes into effect, that there be more nursing and midwifery staff on hand in Colac Area Health. We know, for example, that particularly the urgent care department at Colac Area Health has grown exponentially over the last 10 or 12 years. They are now seeing in the ballpark of around 15,000 presentations a year, which is an enormous growth in an urgent care department that was built originally for around 3500 to 4000 ‍visitors. So it is providing a huge service. Congratulations to the administrators and managers of Colac Area Health in recent years, who have managed to create some really good relationships with the large university hospital, Barwon Health, an hour or so down the road. We have been able to work with them and with Deakin University in order to provide extra medical staff to allow those increased urgent care services to come into force.

One of the keys to being able to provide greater medical support within a large rural hospital like Colac Area Health was the decision by the hospital some years ago to fund and build employee accommodation. That employee accommodation has enabled us to provide somewhere for visiting doctors to stay and help support the embedded medical health workforce in Colac in recent years. I do not often give the government a pat on the back – in fact, it almost makes me feel ill to do that, almost ill – but I will say we have benefited from a recent grant, ‘we’ being the Colac community and Colac Area Health, for some worker accommodation.

Members interjecting.

Richard RIORDAN: I know, those opposite; it is not often. But despite erroneous media to the contrary, I am a great supporter of the Colac health service. It is no doubt that having some extra employee accommodation close to the site will be of benefit to the community. But my question still remains, having been involved for some 16 years and reappointed regularly by a former Labor government to the position of chairman of the Colac Area Health board, I am well aware of its often parlous financial state, not because it is badly run but because the demands of a busy rural community can be expensive. As so many rural and regional Victorians know, there is often a shortage of health professionals, and so a lot of the heavy lifting falls back onto the community health service. Colac Area Health has done well with the support of both government and the philanthropic sector to provide extra accommodation. One thing is clear about these changes to nurse-to-patient ratios: they will require more nursing staff within the organisation. My concern would be about the ability of a large rural hospital like Colac Area Health to continue to attract extra staff, because people with the necessary nursing qualifications in our area have a few options for their work. We have got Epworth an hour away, Barwon university health an hour away, Warrnambool and Ballarat.

There are many larger health services that often are able to recruit and attract nursing staff, so a smaller level 3 hospital, which Colac Area Health will be, could in fact find themselves having to pay agency staff to fill the new legislative requirements. This government, as we all know, is running rapidly short of cash and is not always in a position to fund the things that we need – we have certainly seen recently a run on the need to have very expensive pot plants in government departments. But this is a real government service. This is providing the basic care and needs of sometimes remote rural communities. I would hope that when the Colac Area Health management team come to government and say, ‘We just don’t have available staff and we’re going to have to recruit agency staff to fill the gaps,’ the necessary financial support will be there, because unfortunately in small rural health services there is a lot of cross-pollination of staff, often working across various important health provisions across the organisation: in urgent care, in maternity, on the general ward or just helping in Corangamarah Aged Care and other places.

It is at the point where most people with the necessary skills are already employed, so if the government does not fully fund these new promised ratios, then unfortunately it will be our local community that will pay the price in perhaps reduction in other services. I am really looking forward to these extra support resources for the people of Colac and district and those that use Colac Area Health, but I do hope that that is funded properly and adequately so that management can fill the rosters as they will be obliged to but in a way that does not force them to cut other services within the organisation. One of the great advantages of Colac Area Health is it is quite well known throughout regional health services as being a truly fully integrated health service – everything from primary care; aged care; community care services; a very, very vibrant neighbourhood house service; and adult day activity centres. It is a very wideranging set of services that certainly my community relies heavily on. It is very interconnected, and it would be a shame if, to meet these new government regulations, the government does not come fully on board and support the health service to the full extent to make sure that this is a no-cost commitment from the government to my local community.

Just in conclusion, ongoing funding and support of health services is always vital, and for communities like mine with urgent care services, rather than fully funded accident and emergencies, there are always opportunities to continue to support those services to make sure that there is adequate room for them. I want to refer briefly to a letter I received this week from a young family constituent who went in the middle of the night with young children into the Colac Area Health urgent care, and I had the good fortune of passing this on to the hospital themselves. They pointed out that hospitals at the best of times could be pretty traumatic. Colac’s urgent care is quite small, the waiting room is pretty cramped and in the middle of the night, with young children running harum-scarum all over the place, it would be useful to have some provision for some child entertainment, whether it is a TV they can watch or some toys they can play with in a corner and not cause too much distress for the other people who are also waiting. As those of us who have had the experience of waiting late at night in an accident urgent care know, it is never fun at the best of times, even if you have not been seen in 5 minutes or a couple of hours, and unfortunately, urgent cares can be like that no matter who is in government or who is running them. They are highly problematic at times, but it is never a particularly fun experience. So any pressure that can be relieved on supporting the consumers, the people that are using the hospital, would be money and time well spent in the administration of a truly caring health service. That concludes my contribution on this particular bill. The opposition are supporting it, and we just also trust that the government will properly fund and support our smaller rural services.

 Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (11:50): I rise to speak with great pride in support of the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026. This is a bill that goes to the very heart of what it means to be a Labor government: making sure that when Victorians walk into a public hospital they are met by enough nurses and midwives to look after them properly and those very same nurses and midwives are not stretched thin. It delivers on our government’s commitment to reviewing hospital categories under the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015, and it further strengthens and protects nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios right across this health system.

Much has changed in our hospitals since these categories were set over a quarter of a century ago – patient acuity, complexity of care and population growth in our outer suburbs and our regions – and this bill fixes that. Rather than leave those categories to guesswork, our government commissioned the hospital classification review, which used a transparent, published methodology – three separate algorithms drawing on publicly available datasets common across every Victorian public health service – to properly assess the workload and set staffing requirements. Two of these algorithms apply to speciality and non-specialty hospitals under schedule 1, and a third applies to schedule 3 for hospitals with emergency departments. It is evidence based, it is methodical decision-making, and our government has committed to reapplying that methodology every two years so staffing ratios never again fall a quarter-century out of date. What does it actually mean in practice? This bill will reclassify 26 hospitals to a higher level, 17 of them in rural and regional Victoria – including in your part of the world, Acting Speaker Addison – and nine in metropolitan Melbourne. I am quite excited, because one of those nine hospitals happens to be the Angliss Hospital in the beautiful district of Monbulk. It recognises the complexity of the work that these hospitals which have been added actually do.

I would like to now speak about that hospital, the Angliss Hospital, because it means a great deal to my constituents across Monbulk. I tell you what, if you want to find a hospital with the best views from ward rooms, you will find it right there, because you are right at the base of the Dandenongs and looking through most of those windows you see the beautiful mountain rising and the blue of the gum trees. It is an incredible, beloved hospital. It has been caring for our community since 1939, and actually in 2017 it marked the 100,000th baby born in it. Since then probably about another 20,000 have been born. Every time I speak with constituents across the district, whether it be on the phones, on a doorknock, in the community, wherever, the second I mention the Angliss the response is either ‘I was born there’ or ‘My children were born there’. It is beyond loved, and I am thrilled, because it was only a matter of weeks ago that I had the absolute honour of cutting the ribbon and officially opening our $112 million redevelopment and expansion of the Angliss. It is fabulous. This is what Labor governments do. I tell you I felt pride in the joy I saw on the faces of every healthcare worker from the doctors to the nurses, the staff, allied health practitioners and the technicians who work so hard and have such skill in sterilising the equipment that is used. Never underestimate how important that is; sterility of a hospital is everything. There was joy on their faces.

My cousin – I am going to give her a shout-out here – Melissa, formerly a De Martino but now a Lee, is one of the senior theatre nurses there. She loves the Angliss. She actually told me a story about when she was training to become a nurse. She was in that moment of – and I remember this from when I was doing my teaching rounds – ‘Is this the career for me?’ She ended up on a nursing round at the Angliss and went, ‘This is it. This is my life career and I love it.’ So she has been there since she was a self-described baby nurse. It is a community, and there is such an incredible culture amongst the staff at the Angliss. It is beyond loved.

I could not be happier, because our area out there, the Knox part of Monbulk district, is growing. The population is not growing so much across the district of the actual mountain range, but it is ageing. With a growing population in one part and an ageing population in the other, it is absolutely befitting that the Angliss is reclassified and that those nurse-to-patient ratios and midwife-to-patient ratios are strengthened. It supports our staff and incredible nurses.

I am the daughter-in-law of a nurse, a British one but a nurse nonetheless, who has told me countless stories of what she encountered as a nurse. The nurses I know here do exceptional work, and even though we always praise them when we talk about them, we can never praise them enough, because they are the angels amongst us. As the daughter of a woman who 21 years ago was given three to six months to live and is still with us now but has such complex healthcare needs, I can tell you how much I value our nursing staff. They have kept my mother alive. Three days a week she goes to Wonthaggi Hospital for her dialysis. They hold her hand, they talk to her and they make sure that she is taken care of three days a week. She knows them by name, and they know her. They are part of her extended family now, so a shout-out to them for all the work they do for Mum, and for my son and my daughter, who both have spent far too much time in hospitals for different needs. The nurses are just extraordinary. Without them, we are in trouble, so this bill goes to the very heart of the support that we give them as a Labor government. We will back our nurses in every day of the week. Every budget we put out there speaks to our values of how much we care for our nurses, and I am thrilled to speak on this bill as a result.

I can wax lyrical for a long time about the wonderful jobs they do. I should probably get into a bit more of the detail of the actual bill now. But it is not a slogan when we talk about how much we back our nurses in; these amendments actually do it. Line by line and ward by ward, across the state the uplift will add 253 full-time equivalent nursing and midwifery positions to our public health system, and that is supported by a $109.7 million investment by our government. We know, and the evidence actually tells us, that higher ratios of registered nursing staff to patients improve patient safety, reduce lengths of stay and reduce adverse events. This is not just good for patients, it is good for the nurses and midwives too. It means safer, more satisfying workplaces. It means less burnout and a workforce that can actually sustain a long career in our public system, rather than being driven out of it. It opens the door wide for our graduates and early career or ‘baby’ nurses, to quote Melissa, to step into the profession with the support around them that they deserve.

As I said before, I do not think we can say enough how much we owe them a debt of gratitude, because they work in some of the most demanding, high pressure environments in our community. They give everything they have to complete strangers having the worst days of their lives. They make their existence better. They are the ones that hold a frightened patient’s hand in the middle of the night. They are the ones counting a newborn’s first breaths. It was a nurse who made sure that my son is alive today, because his Apgar score when he was born was 2. If anyone knows anything about an Apgar score, that is ‘push the button’, and it is a frightening number for a baby to have. It was the nurses and midwives in that room who made sure that my boy is here today, and I am so grateful to them. Every ratio in this bill – now I am getting emotional, sorry – and every additional position it funds is our Labor government’s way of saying that we see the work, we value it and we are going to give our nurses the best we can. So I thank you all. I thank everyone who did the work on this in the background. I thank our nurses and our midwives, the angels that they are, and I commend this bill wholeheartedly to the house.

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (11:59): It is lovely to follow the very heartfelt contribution by the member for Monbulk talking about the contribution that our nurses and health workers make every single day. Whether it is through family members of ours who work in this space or those who are nearest and dearest to us who have been treated and cared for with the compassion of those workers, we as a Parliament, I think it is fair to say, very much value and appreciate the work of our nurses and our health workers every single day.

It is on that note that I also rise to speak in support of the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2026. I do so as of course the state member for Pascoe Vale, which is home to one of the highest proportions of doctors, nurses and health workers generally in Victoria. As of 2024–25 I am very proud to say that 19.2 per cent, almost 20 per cent, of local workers work in the health, community and social services sector. That is around 10,300 local residents working to keep people healthy and well. A lot of those workers in my community may work at a lot of the different local health precincts: John Fawkner hospital, Brunswick Private and the old Vaucluse hospital down on Moreland Road as well as our local GPs and pharmacies. But many of them actually work to service some of our state’s biggest and most important health precincts down in Parkville at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Women’s Hospital, the Royal Children’s, Peter MacCallum and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre to name a few. They work across our medical tech sector, which is so important. We recently hosted them in Parliament, just last sitting week, to celebrate and recognise their work. Many of my local workers also work at the Austin Health precinct over in Heidelberg and of course at the Northern Hospital and in Whittlesea and Mill Park.

I am a proud son. My mum migrated to Australia from Italy, and her first job when she came to Australia was working at St Vincent’s Hospital just on Nicholson Street here. She was not a nurse, but she was someone who worked in the health sector there at St Vincent’s, basically cooking and preparing the food in the old surgeon’s dining room at the time and serving food to the patients in the wards. I am also very proud of my wife Anna. She is a long-time worker in this space. She was a long-time social and community worker, doing important work over many, many years prior to starting her own business to keep people healthy and well as a social worker with VincentCare, with Vacro and with the court integrated services program over in Heidelberg and so many other wonderful community social welfare organisations too.

I just want to give a bit of a shout-out to my mother-in-law Pauline, who has recently suffered health issues. She has been cared for very well and very diligently at the Ballarat Base Hospital. My wife has been going up there quite regularly over the last week to also care for her, but I just want to acknowledge the health workers that are keeping her healthy and safe so that she can make a good recovery. We pray for her recovery but also thank the health workers for her care.

The health and wellbeing of everyone is absolutely paramount. Regardless of age, background, income or postcode, we know that everyone across the community deserves the right to quality health care. It has always been federal and state Labor governments that have done incredible work, investment and reform in this space. We have established, sustained and protected Medicare and the pharmaceutical benefits scheme; built and expanded new hospitals, health and wellbeing services; and backed our doctors, nurses and allied health and community health workers right across the sector.

I also want to acknowledge our thoughts during this time are with Azariah, a young girl from my community who has recently undergone a heart transplant. She is being cared for very diligently as we speak. We pray that the heart takes and is accepted by her body and that she can go on to live a healthy life. Our whole community is right behind her and her magnificent family during this very, very difficult time. I say that as the local member, as a local dad who knows the family very well, but also as someone who is the co-founder of the Parliamentary Friends of Transplant Australia and who has been advocating so strongly around organ donation and tissue donation awareness. Our thoughts and our prayers as a Parliament are with Azariah and her family during this very, very important time.

On the safe patient care bill, Labor is making sure Victorians have the very best care with stronger, safer nurse- and midwife-to-patient ratios. This bill will further strengthen nurse-to-patient ratios. We have added an additional 253 full-time equivalent nursing positions to our world-class health system. The amendments to the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015 are backed by $109 million in investment. This legislation before us at the moment will reclassify 26 ‍hospitals, including 17 in rural and regional Victoria, to a higher level. This bill will change how hospitals are categorised in the safe patient care act, updating the law so that certain hospitals are recategorised at a higher level for the purposes of required nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios. This means they must roster more nurses for the same number of patients, improving staffing and patient care. This will improve nurse-to-patient ratios at 26 hospitals across Victoria in general medical and surgical wards, emergency departments and intensive care units. We know that high ratios of registered nursing staff to patients increase patient safety and improve patient outcomes through reduced lengths of stay and fewer adverse events. The amendments will help to create safe and satisfying workplace environments for our nursing workforce and help manage the increasing demands that their work entails.

This bill, as I said, will add an additional 253 full-time equivalent nursing positions across our world-class health system and reclassify 26 hospitals, including 17 in rural and regional Victoria, to a higher level. They include Maryborough, Maroondah hospital, Mercy women, the Royal Women’s Hospital, Werribee Mercy, Angliss, Rosebud, the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the Victorian Heart Hospital, Sandringham, Ballarat Base Hospital, Bendigo Health, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Shepparton, Bairnsdale, Echuca, Sale, Swan Hill, West Gippsland, Wimmera, Wodonga, Wonthaggi, Ararat, Colac, Wangaratta and Hamilton.

Stronger staffing ratios mean better, safer care for Victorians when they need it most. They also mean less pressure on our hardworking nurses, preventing burnout so we can retain the workforce. The additional roles will also create more opportunities for graduate and early career nurses. Nursing and midwifery jobs in Victoria are only safe and will only continue to grow under a Victorian Labor government. We have delivered, let us remember, a 28.4 per cent pay rise and have consistently strengthened, protected and sustained these very important nurse-to-patient ratios. We know the Liberal–One Nation coalition do not respect nurses, and if given the chance they will axe thousands of nurses. They will axe thousands of workers. They will axe $40 billion out of the Victorian budget, which will sack one in seven public servants and also affect frontline services.

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Pascoe Vale needs to be factual. He should know that we have several members on our team who have been nurses, and we are not cutting $40 million. This absolute nonsense peddled by –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): I will rule on the point of order. It is not up to me to determine what is factual and what is not, but my expectation is for every member in this house to be factual in their contribution.

Anthony CIANFLONE: If we are talking about being factual, the member for Eildon I think said they are not going to cut $40 million because it is actually $40 billion, with a ‘b’. I note that.

This also marks the delivery of a commitment for stronger staffing levels in hospital settings. This work has been driven by the advocacy of nurses and midwives, and I want to acknowledge the ANMF, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, for its work on this important reform. It means that patient ratios across Victoria will include, in ICUs, the gold-standard one-to-one nurse-to-patient ratio on all shifts for all level 1 and level 2 hospitals, as well as a team leader and liaison nurse in emergency departments; improved staffing ratios in resuscitation cubicles on morning shifts in line with afternoon and night shifts; in maternity wards a safer one-to-four midwife-to-patient ratio in postnatal and antenatal wards on night shift, down from one to six; and in high-dependency and coronary care units the introduction of an in-charge nurse overnight. These changes will support better patient outcomes and more specialised care for Victorians who need it most and will reduce pressure on staff and help improve working conditions.

Again, we continue to deliver not just through these reforms that we are backing to help recruit and encourage more nurses to take up such an important career but through $270 million to make it free to study nursing and midwifery. We have delivered safer ratios, building on this bill as well. We have strengthened pay and conditions. We invested $26 million in the budget for the graduate nursing and midwifery program. We have done a lot across regional areas as well, but locally, I want to highlight the work we have done with the Medicare urgent care clinic which has opened at 444 Sydney Road, doing incredible work from 8 am to 10 pm. We have expanded the Chemist Care Now program for a lot more local people to access free care without the need for a GP appointment or a script. This work is all about improving health care.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (12:09): We – that is, Labor – are making sure that Victorians have the very best care with stronger, safer nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios. This bill will further strengthen nurse-to-patient ratios, and I will speak further to that. More specifically, the bill will change how hospitals are categorised in the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015, updating the law so that certain hospitals are recategorised at a higher level for the purposes of requiring nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratios. This means they must roster more nurses for the same number of patients, improving staffing and patient care. I think there is not a Victorian who at one period or other in their lives is not going to have to engage with a health service or a hospital, I would have to think. It is arguably when you are at that vulnerable point, probably one of the most vulnerable points in your life. For some unfortunately it will be a protracted process, subject to the particular ailment or incident that they have experienced. Therefore making sure that we provide the safest patient care is absolutely vital, and making sure that we have appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios and midwife-to-patient ratios is critical, but also so we look after those who look after us, because at the end of the day if we expect them to fulfil their jobs with the highest precision in terms of skill, compassion and care, then we need to back them in. That is exactly what Labor does.

Specifically, the bill will add an additional 253 full-time equivalent nursing positions to our world-class health system. The amendments to the Safe Patient Care Act are backed by a $109.7 million investment. You can see therefore the priority of our government when it comes to health, because for anyone, if you do not have your health, quality of life is severely depreciated. The legislation will reclassify 26 hospitals, including 17 in rural and regional Victoria, to a higher level. I will not go through those hospitals as I think they have been well articulated in the chamber, but nonetheless I am not in any way pulling away from the significance of each and every one of those hospitals and what they mean to the people in those communities and the staff who work at each of those hospitals.

What are we really talking about here? Stronger staffing ratios mean better, safer care for Victorians when and where they need it most. I know there were some concerns raised by one of the members opposite regarding staffing issues. All of this has been negotiated very closely with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), those who act on behalf of the nurses, representing the nurses and their interests, so all of this has been considered very carefully and in close collaboration with those who are actually delivering the care. They are not random figures et cetera or requirements. They are very carefully considered and have been projected for the specific purposes that Victorians need and deserve. It also means less pressure on our hardworking nurses, preventing burnout, so we can retain the workforce as well, because we want them to know that they are supported to be physically able to do all the tasks they need to do.

The additional roles will also create more opportunities for graduate and early career nurses. This is also really important obviously for succession and into the future. We need to support those who have time and experience in the profession but also those coming through for future generations. Nursing and midwifery jobs in Victoria are only – I am going to say they are only safe under a Labor government. We delivered a massive 28.4 per cent pay rise and have consistently strengthened nurse-to-patient ratios. I have to say, the Liberals’ record is a bit shaky. If given the chance, they will axe thousands of nurses and wind back ratios to deliver $40 billion in cuts.

Steve Dimopoulos interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: More than a bit shaky. Like quicksand, exactly. Mark my words, they have done it before; they will do it. We are just being factual

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Through the Chair.

Nina TAYLOR: Through the Chair, with the greatest respect to the Chair, and pardon me for that. In any case, I am just reflecting on something that is factual, and they have form in this space.

Steve Dimopoulos: Last time they employed a nurse was before the moon landing.

Nina TAYLOR: Another reflection there relevant to this conversation. I think in terms of our government record, from Wednesday 1 July strengthened ratios enshrined into law last year came into full effect. It marks the delivery of a commitment for stronger staffing levels in key hospital settings. They were driven by advocacy from nurses, midwives and the ANMF. I really want to emphasise that point just to allay the concerns of those opposite, because as I say, we have not come about with these reforms randomly or in isolation. It is through close consultation with those who truly know, those on the front line, who understand the circumstances under which they operate. It means, from now, patient ratios across Victoria will include for ICUs the gold standard of one-to-one nurse-to-patient ratios on all shifts for all level 1 and 2 hospitals as well as a team leader and liaison nurse – the closest hospital to my electorate would be the Alfred Hospital, which is a level 1 hospital, just to give an example there; for emergency departments improved staffing ratios in resuscitation cubicles on morning shifts in line with afternoon and night shifts; for maternity services safer one-to-four midwife-to-patient ratios in postnatal and antenatal wards on night shifts, down from one to six; and for high-dependency and coronary care units the introduction of an in-charge nurse overnight.

Again, we can see the precision with which these reforms have been developed, and I think it is pretty much common sense. I say that loosely as someone who has not worked as a nurse, but I am reflecting on the information that we have received from those who are actually on the front line and delivering those vital services for each and every one of us every day. What will this do? This will support better patient outcomes and more specialised care for Victorians who need it most. Importantly, the new ratios will reduce pressure and deliver safer working conditions for nurses and midwives. Those opposite, if you give them a chance – Liberal–One Nation, if they were to get through – will cut jobs and will wind back ratios, and that will only put patients at risk. So this is something that everyone needs to think about.

We have a strong record, again coming back to our Labor government’s record, in terms of backing in our health workforce. We continue to deliver on the $270 million initiative making it free to study nursing and midwifery.

A member interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, fantastic. We have delivered safer nurse- and midwife-to-patient ratios. We have strengthened pay and conditions for a number of key sector workforces, including nurses and midwives. We have invested $26.78 million in the 2026–27 budget to strengthen the graduate nursing and midwifery program through the delivery of an additional 250 graduate nursing and midwifery positions in the health system, which is continuing to build the workforce that we need into the future. I think it goes without saying how vital it is to bring through that succession and that forward planning in terms of being able to continue to deliver the highest possible care in our state for the benefit of all those we love and our broader communities. It is just really important. That might sound like a simplistic comment to make, but as I say – and I think I can relate to a number of relatives when they have been at that most vulnerable point and knowing that you can trust that the person who is looking after them – know that we have their back and that they can deliver the service that they have to with the compassion and care and skill that all Victorians deserve. They really need to know that we have their back, and they do under a Labor government. We have our record, and we are continuing to deliver in terms of providing the appropriate ratios and overall funding support for our fantastic nurses and midwives.

I certainly want to express my gratitude, because I think it takes a particular skill set to be able to handle often having to discuss some pretty difficult prognoses. We know in hospitals they are dealing with people at their most vulnerable point and not necessarily going to have the best possible outcome, because sometimes the human body is, as we know, extremely vulnerable. However, doing all we can ‍– I think it is upon us to make sure that we support our nurses and midwives – is absolutely paramount, and that is exactly what we are seeking to do with this bill.

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Minister for Sport, Minister for Equality) (12:19): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.