NURSES — INDUSTRIAL ACTION
790. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I have a supplementary question. How
can the minister at all suggest that the concerns of our hardworking nurses and
midwives are imagined?
Ms A.
SANDERSON replied:
At no point did I say that.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, please!
Ms A. SANDERSON: I said that
the view of the commission was that the conduct of senior officials of the
Australian Nursing Federation could be viewed as dishonest. That is the view of
the commission in how it is promoting the
agreement. That is in a transcript. That is the view of the commission—that
the ANF leadership could be viewed as dishonest in its communicating
about the agreement. That is the view of the commission. That is not my view;
that is the view of the independent umpire.
At
some point, the member will come under scrutiny. I saw on Friday this—I
do not know what you would call it—rambling shemozzle of an
op-ed that she put, essentially supporting illegal industrial action in our
hospitals. It was essentially supporting illegal industrial action!
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, please!
Ms A. SANDERSON: At no point
have you ever said whether you are going to support ratios. At no point have
you had a point of view about it. Do you support illegal industrial action?
Ms L. Mettam: I have never
supported the strikes.
Several members interjected.
Ms A. SANDERSON: So, you do
not agree with that —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, please!
Ms A. SANDERSON: That op-ed
was a rambling mess of self-contradictions. On one hand, the member is saying
that the airing of ''dirty laundry of warring unions has been played out
in public''. What is the member talking about? There is one union
involved! We are negotiating with one union, and the orders were independent.
She also criticised us for setting
up the State Health Incident Coordination Centre. She actually criticised us
for taking it seriously and putting patient safety first. I can only think that
she does not understand what the state health incident centre is or she thinks
we should not activate a system when we have to support patients. The reality
was that was uncontrolled and illegal
industrial action, and we did not know where staff were going to come from or
what impact it was going to have. Our priority was absolutely patient
safety. I think the system did an outstanding job. I have to thank all those in
the state health incident centre, all those in the hospitals and all those
staff—nursing, clinical and non-clinical staff—who came to work
and delivered safe patient care.