Page 1489 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 2021
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outcome. I look forward to seeing those measures; I truly hope that they are improving.
The minister mentioned that we have a highly committed workforce. Yes, we have an amazingly committed workforce. That is part of the reason that everything has continued to go on despite all of these problems. People in the healthcare sector, as I have said before, like other frontline-type workers, go to work and give everything they have. It is in their nature. People do not choose to work in health care if they are just striving for financial advantage. People do not work in the healthcare system because they just want a job; they work in the healthcare system because they are absolutely some of the best human beings we have in our society. I know that is well understood here. But that means that if the burden gets too much, they will work themselves into the ground. In some cases, as with the experience I referred to today, they have the potential to die because of the stress they are under. It is our responsibility to do everything in our power to ensure that their workplace is a reasonable one.
As I mentioned earlier, the performance indicators for this work would be great to see. After a couple of years of work it is reasonable that the public get a look at that. The amendment that we just passed talks about implementing the review recommendations with the involvement of all stakeholders. But I think the commitment is that they will all have been addressed by 30 June 2022. That gives us an end date, and a useful part of this discussion is to come away saying, “Okay, that’s the point at which we hope to have implemented all of these things.”
I would love to see a report from the original report writer about the changes they are able to see in the system and where we are tracking—what has gone well and what still needs improving—so that we go on a trajectory that improves these matters. I commend the amended motion to the Assembly.
Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.
COVID-19—Indian community
MS ORR (Yerrabi) (4.02): I move: That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on many countries and communities around the world;
(b) India is currently facing one of, if not the worst, outbreaks of any country since the pandemic began;
(c) this outbreak is beginning to spread to other regions of South Asia;
(d) while many of us here in Canberra will watch the news reporting and be saddened by the tragic loss of life and other impacts experienced in India because of the pandemic, members of our own Indian-Australian and other South Asian communities here in Canberra will be particularly affected;
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