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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3864 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Bedside nurses are the backbone of the hospital system and both public hospitals have significant numbers of vacant, funded nursing positions. A lack of qualified and experienced nurses adds to the burden of general shortages in specialist areas.

A few notes on Canberra's public nursing employers illustrate the problem. At the Canberra Hospital there is a shortage of qualified nurses in the intensive care unit, in mental health services, and in the oncology and paediatric wards.

Calvary Hospital needs qualified staff in intensive care, mental health, operating theatres, the emergency department, and oncology. ACT Community Care needs nurses who are qualified in gerontology, oncology/palliative care, paediatrics and alcohol and drug services. These are real positions that are going unfilled, despite available funds, because of the state of the national nursing labour market.

ACT wages and conditions: when the last round of ACT public sector nursing enterprise agreements was being negotiated, during 1999, the ACT could boast national leadership in nursing wages and conditions. We also continue to give our nurses the highest superannuation benefits in the nation. The wage rises in that round of negotiations were enhanced by the employers, who were able to assist nurses significantly by opening up salary sacrificing options previously available only to the management and medical staff.

At that time, the ACT financial situation was still in a state of operating loss and this put pressure on our entire public sector to contain costs. Additionally, the Canberra Hospital, our largest nursing employer, was suffering acute financial difficulties at that time. Happily, with effective management and support from this government, this situation has been stabilised.

These factors resulted in the current health service provider enterprise agreements offering agreed outcomes in the three provider organisations, with the highest wage increase being 2.6 per cent over two years. ACT Community Care, the Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital each have separate certified agreements with nursing staff that vary in their details and in the expiration dates.

Strengthening the nursing workforce initiative: the government has decided to financially support an employer offer of variations to the 1999 agreements. There are four main benefits for staff included in this offer: a wage outcome of 11.7 per cent across the system, with additional pay points for registered nurses levels 1 and 3; the extension of a scholarship scheme for both re - entry and advanced nursing specialty courses; an increase in nightshift penalties; and a bonus for qualified nurses who work in an area of particular need for 12 months.

I will give you an outline of the details of each element.

There are two aspects to this wages offer: a common wage outcome increase of 11.7 per cent over the next 18 months or more, depending on the date of the expiration of the EBA for each agency, and an extension of the salary ranges for registered nurses 1 and registered nurses 3.

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