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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4088 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

I think it is interesting that Mr Smyth specifically excludes the chief nurse position from his criticism of fat cats and public service featherbedding. Why does he do that? He does that because he is comfortable bashing up public servants. It is a sport he enjoys. It is a sport the Liberal Party has always engaged in, and he does it again. It is fair game to beat up public servants, to call a senior public servant a fat cat, and to say that the public service featherbeds. It is fair game to say that the ACT's hard-working public service sits around twiddling its thumbs and doddling, not actually doing any real work-that we're overstaffed at the senior levels; they don't have enough to do. It is fair enough to bash public servants, but, dear me, it is not fair game to bash nurses.

Why is it that Mr Smyth will launch a whole-scale attack on two senior public servants but not on a senior nurse? It is because he is happy bashing up public servants, because it's where he comes from. He has no understanding of the public service or how it operates. He thinks they're all sitting over there doddling; they're not real workers; they're not actually making a real commitment; they're not in the private sector so they don't count.

But, dear me, you had better not be seen to be attacking or casting any aspersions on nurses. So let's not actually attack the chief nurse position which we have created. Let's actually attack public servants, because it's what the Liberal Party does, it's what they've always done, and it's what they will continue to do.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. I actually asked at what level those two positions were being filled, which must have been overlooked, so I assume the Chief Minister is taking that on notice. But my supplementary question is: at what level will the ACT chief nurse position be filled?

MR STANHOPE: I'm more than happy to provide a specific public service classification for Mr Smyth. The chief nurse position, I believe, is a 1.8, but I'm not quite sure what level the new executive directors are at. But certainly the chief nurse position is a very significant position, and I am pleased that at least at the end, as a supplementary or as an afterthought, Mr Smyth is prepared to actually give some acknowledgment to the fact that he actually recognises this position and its importance.

One of the great problems we have in the ACT, and of course in all health systems around Australia, is the drastic, gross work force shortages that we face. Of course, the greatest of them is in relation to nursing. I think it is probably not lost on us that the single greatest number of workers within the health system is, of course, nurses, and the most undervalued and least respected of the health work force traditionally has been nurses. There is a very significant issue here for us in relation to this ACT-wide, national and international shortage of nurses. The predictions for nurse shortages into the future are truly frightening, and it does behove us to pursue a whole range of options.

The Commonwealth, of course, needs to lead the way; it needs to play its part. Just last week I called on the Commonwealth, at least as an immediate, interim response to the major work force shortages we have in nursing, to agree to abandon HECS for, say three years. There are things that can be done immediately. We can show that this really is an urgent issue. We can actually say, "Let's not have HECS in relation to nursing."There

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