Health system
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:05): (1390) My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, 97 per cent of the eligible members from the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation, in their union ballot, have agreed to take industrial action across all Victorian public hospitals. What advice have you received as to the impact of this action on patient care?
The PRESIDENT: Order! I could not hear the question. Ms Crozier, if you could ask the question.
Georgie CROZIER: My question is: what advice have you received as to the impact of this action on patient care?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (14:06): Thank you, Ms Crozier, for that question. It is a really important question around the way in which, for protected industrial action which can be taken within the framework of enterprise bargaining under the Fair Work Act and which is guided by a process between parties to a negotiation underpinned by a ballot conducted within the framework of the Fair Work Act, we understand and can quantify the impact on patient safety and staff availability as that protected industrial action might occur. Ms Crozier, we will always support the rights of working people to be able to collectively bargain and to bargain within the framework of the Fair Work Act. We are fiercely proud of a process of negotiation that is underpinned by good faith and that enables us to reflect and recognise the extraordinary contribution that our nurses and midwifes and doctors and allied health workers – pharmacists, psychologists, medical scientists, cooks and cleaners – make to the health system every single day. Across Victoria though – let us just be really, really clear – healthcare workers deserve to be respected, they deserve to be valued and they deserve fair terms and conditions of employment. That is why enterprise negotiations continue in good faith. It is also why it is important that I do not seek to cut across or be seen to be cutting across those negotiations as they continue. That being said, Ms Crozier, patient safety is the absolute priority in the way in which this occurs. That is a view that is shared by everybody who sits around that negotiating table. It is a process that is underpinned by an expectation that any protected industrial action is undertaken in a way that protects patient safety and also minimises disruption, Ms Crozier, to your earlier point. I have been really clear in my expectations around the way in which protected industrial action occurs, and I also want to acknowledge the work of health workers, professionals and those people in the care sector more broadly, Ms Crozier, who you have referred to, who continue to engage in the combination of protected industrial action on the one hand and minimising the impact on the other. I also want to be clear, Ms Crozier, that we support the rights of workers to be able to collectively bargain because we know that it is essential that we can respect and recognise their contribution in a way that not only keeps pace with the cost of living and a way that recognises the fundamental benefits of a fair safety net of minimum terms and conditions but also recognises that everybody deserves to have job terms and conditions that reflect their value.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:09): I thank the minister for that response. I note that you mentioned patient safety, but you hardly even uttered the words patient care or understanding that it disrupts patient care, their treatment, that goes to their overall health and wellbeing. Minister, your government is going to war with teachers and now doctors. The Department of Health is undertaking redundancies that have seen a constant churn of IR advisors. This situation has been going on for months and months and months, and there is huge concern amongst many, many doctors. What is the government doing to resolve this industrial action in order to avoid further impacts to a health system that is already in crisis, given the concerns that these doctors are raising around the impacts to patient care?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (14:10): Thanks, Ms Crozier; I did refer to patient care in the answer to your substantive question. I also just want to take you up on some of the comments in your preamble. Our average days per year of industrial action this term is 3.2. Under you, Ms Crozier, it was 6.1 days on average. You referred to paramedics as thugs, as goons and as militants when you refused to bargain in good faith. You opposed increases to the minimum wage. You opposed penalty rates. You opposed fair and safe terms and conditions.
Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, I think she is the outgoing health minister – she is not going to last long – but I know she is having a bit of a go and attacking the opposition. I would ask you, President, to bring her back to the substance, because it is about patients. It is not about her, it is actually about patient care and the concerns of doctors. What are they doing to resolve this issue?
The PRESIDENT: The minister should not be using question time as a vehicle to attack the opposition. But I do believe that she addressed the response at the start of her answer. It does not help when the minister gets provoked during a point of order as well. I think we will let the minister, in her 15 seconds, respond.
Harriet SHING: We support fair terms and conditions for workers. We support collective bargaining. We support nurse-to-patient ratios. We support increasing our paramedic workforce by 53 per cent since coming to government. We support multibillion dollar investment in our workforce. Again, the same could never, ever be said for you.