Should Nurses Subsidise
the Health System?

September 5 2003 - Not according to the Australian Nursing Federation.

The Australian Nursing Federation reacted strongly to remarks by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott at an industrial relations conference in Melbourne. 'The idea that nurses in country areas should subsidise the health system by accepting lower wages than nurses in city areas is outrageous, said ANF Federal Secretary Jill lliffe.'

Tony Abbott made his comments in response to a question from the Australian Nursing Federation about why he thought pattern bargaining was unsuitable for nurses. Tony Abbott responded: 'Why not pay the nurses in the city significantly more than those in the country?'

'This comment from a senior member of the Federal Government is extremely disappointing. I was starting to believe that the government valued the work that nurses do, but I was obviously wrong,' Ms Lliffe said.

'Nurses, as every patient knows, are already doing it tough, with the latest report from the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare showing an 11.7% increase in the workload of nurses in public hospitals between 1998-99 and 1999-00.

'Pattern bargaining saves time and money. We don't have enough money for health as it is, nor do we have enough nurses. Imagine the cost and the waste of resources if each hospital in this country had to negotiate separate agreements for all their health workers.

'Pattern bargaining would take nurses away from the bedside, at a time when there is a desperate shortage - which is just as acute in rural areas as it is in the cities - and it is patients who would suffer.

'Pattern bargaining also means a single standard of nursing care for all Australians, no matter which hospital you are in, and regardless of your income. This disgraceful idea of Mr Abbott's would mean that people in the cities would get better care because they would be able to attract more nurses through higher wages - making the situation in rural areas even more desperate.

'How would rural hospitals attract nurses if they paid lower wages? Does Minister Abbott believe that rural people deserve poorer care?