Page 1148 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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I begin by recognising the demographic issues faced by all Australian governments in this area and how vital the work of nurses in the aged care sector is to these issues. The work of aged care nurses is amongst the most challenging in the health sector. Elderly people often suffer from complex, chronic conditions, more complex, chronic conditions than other members of the community, and, as such, consume more healthcare services.
It is clear that one of the most significant issues facing Australia is the ageing population. As our population ages, healthcare and healthcare costs increase. The ACT is no exception, with rapid growth in the oldest age group. Currently, one in eight Australians is over the age of 65. By 2032, four times as many people will be aged over 85 years, nearly three times as many will be aged in their 70s. As such, aged care is critical to the community and a matter that must be addressed immediately.
Nurses are integral to addressing this problem and to the health system overall. They do a wonderful job caring for our community and particularly, in relation to this motion, the elderly members of our community. They ensure that people lead pain-free lives, that they receive medication on time and that, to the extent that they are able, they enjoy those years by receiving the best medical treatment possible if they require medical treatment. This is very challenging work, but it is work that we all acknowledge is performed to the highest standard by nurses, including nurses here in the ACT.
The ACT government is conscious that we must continue to attract and retain a highly skilled and professional work force so that we can deliver the level of care and the quality of care that older Australians and the wider community expect. A lack of pay parity for aged care nurses is significantly undermining these efforts. As the former Minister for Industrial Relations, this is an issue close to my heart.
The care of older Australians, a picture of the residential aged care work force in 2004, was the first comprehensive look at the residential aged care work force. This report showed that one of the main issues for improving and retaining nurses in the aged care sector is the lack of pay parity with their nursing counterparts working in other sectors. Nurses who work in the aged care residential sector are not ACT Health employees. Rather, the aged care residential sector comes under federal government jurisdiction and nurses working in this area are employed by the private sector organisations for which they work.
However, ACT Health employs nurses who work in aged care, for example, at the Canberra Hospital, and, as ACT Health employees, they are subject to the terms and conditions of the public sector nursing staff agreement and are therefore amongst some of the highest paid nurses in Australia.
The disparity in wages in the ACT between a nurse working in the aged care public sector and a nurse working in the aged care private sector is astonishing. A nurse working in federally controlled aged care facilities could earn anything from $236 to $312 a week less than a nurse working in a public hospital. This depends on whether the facility has an award or an EBA in place. That is a 23 to 39 per cent difference in wage outcomes compared to the public sector. Some aged care facilities in the ACT, especially the not-for-profit organisations, negotiate individual agreements that bridge the gap with
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