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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 790 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 29 November 2022 by Ms L. Mettam

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

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.