I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
I am so proud to lead a Government committed to Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through a Voice.
And it is an honour to be here with you, in the presence of so many of the members of a union that has been such a steadfast supporter of the Yes case.
No one knows better than you that the most straightforward and effective way to get better results is to listen to the people on the ground.
As you put it so succinctly last month:
Just as a good clinician listens to their patient, a Voice to Parliament is about listening to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
And you and all of your members know all too well that health outcomes have to improve among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Right now, we live with a paradox. We are one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, yet there are Indigenous communities still suffering the brunt of diseases that have been eradicated from most of the planet.
Writing in The Australian last week, the great Evonne Goolagong Cawley spoke about how three members of her own family have died from preventable heart conditions. In Evonne’s words:
That has been the past, and it is the cruel reality of the present – but on October 14 we have the opportunity to make sure it isn’t the future.
Right across our continent, the members of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation recognise that what none of us can afford to do is to keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing for so many decades.
Friends, there are few professions that shape our lives as profoundly as the one you have all chosen.
Your members are there at the beginning of our lives and at the end – and you are one of the essential ingredients that makes it possible to live all the years in between to the very fullest.
I could stand here and do nothing but sing your praises. I could spend the next 10 minutes finding different ways to say how vital nurses and midwives are.
But if there’s one thing you don’t need, it’s someone standing here, saying nice things to you, then walking out the door.
No matter how positive they are, words lose their weight of meaning if they’re not backed by action.
That is not the path my team has taken. If there’s something Australia has had enough of, it is governments that make announcements but don’t deliver.
Ever since we were entrusted with the great privilege of forming Government, my team and I have been repaying that trust by working for Australians every single day.
Among our priorities is ensuring that we will never see a repeat of the decade of neglect endured by our aged care sector.
This has involved implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care.
And a core one of those recommendations was making sure every aged care home had a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day.
We are well along the path to making this a reality. On average, there is now a registered nurse on-site in aged care homes 98 per cent of the time.
Eighty-six per cent of facilities now have a nurse on-site 24/7.
The majority of the remaining homes are very close to 24/7 coverage.
And we expect that these numbers will continue to improve every month.
Since Labor came into Government, the average number of care minutes provided per resident per day has increased, including nearly 37 minutes of registered nurse care.
Aged care residents now receive a total of more than 1.8 million additional minutes of direct care every day. That’s 657 million minutes per year.
I am also incredibly proud of the fact that in our budget in May, we committed to funding the record 15 per cent pay increase for aged care workers. That includes a boost for registered nurses, enrolled nurses and nursing assistants on site.
This is what happens when unions, providers and governments work together. This is how we can change the lives of Australians for the better – at all stages of life.
As part of our work to expose and close the gender pay gap, we introduced the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill last year which included provisions that make it easier for the Fair Work Commission to ascertain when work has been undervalued because of gender.
This takes on particular importance in female-dominated sectors where lower wages have lingered like a relic from another era.
It’s a situation that’s been allowed to slide for too long by successive governments.
As a society, we cannot continue to accept the situation where certain occupations are paid below their true worth, just because a majority of the workforce are women.
Expressing gratitude to care workers for their dedication and service is in no way a substitute for meaningful action.
Our Secure Jobs, Better Pay bill will mean real progress for working women, including:
- The requirement that gender equity and job security are considered when applying the Act;
- A prohibition on pay secrecy clauses;
- The implementation of Recommendation 28 of the Respect@Work report – that is, the positive duty to prevent sexual harassment;
- The creation of two new expert panels within the Fair Work Commission dealing with the Care and Community Sector and Pay Equity;
- And the introduction of a new equal remuneration principle that no longer requires the applicants to identify a male comparator when trying to prove gender-based undervaluation of work.
We are also working to take some of the pressure off nurses by making it easier for Australians to access healthcare in a timely way, and reduce the likelihood of a condition being left to develop to the point where the services of a nurse are required.
And that work starts with the great Labor legacy that is the cornerstone of our health system.
After nearly a decade of Coalition cuts and neglect, my Government is making Medicare stronger for all Australians.
We are delivering critical funding for the urgent needs of today, and – driven by the instinct to shape the future rather than let it shape us – we are carefully developing and introducing reforms for the healthcare of tomorrow.
With historic investments in Medicare, we will triple the bulk billing incentive – the largest increase to the incentive in the 40-year history of Medicare.
We’re already delivering cheaper medicines for 6 million Australians, effectively halving the costs of medicines and reducing the number of visits to the doctor and the pharmacy.
And we’re making it easier for Australians to get the care they need, by growing the health workforce and supporting all our trusted health workers to do what they’re trained to do.
We’re making a difference through our investment in TAFE. This is one area where we haven’t just kept our promise but exceeded it.
Recent figures show that fee-free TAFE enrolments have hit more than 214,000 in the first six months. That’s six months earlier than expected, and nearly 35,000 enrolments more than our target.
And the biggest winner is set to be the care sector, with courses across health care, aged care and disability care attracting nearly a quarter of total enrolments.
Prior to the election last year, we committed to rolling out 50 new Urgent Care Clinics
across the country.
I’ve had the pleasure of attending a number of openings, and I look forward to more. Indeed, this morning I will be travelling to Perth for another UCC announcement.
When we complete our rollout, we will have exceeded our target and there'll be 58 centres across the country giving Australians urgent care, taking pressure off emergency departments all over the country – and the nurses who are their backbone.
And all Australians will need is their Medicare card.
What it all adds up is a medical system where Australians don’t treat their own health as something they need to put off until it’s absolutely necessary.
Since our election last year, my team and I have spent every day working for Australia. We have kept faith with the Australian people and kept our word.
We will maintain the momentum we have built because after all the near decade of lost opportunity under the previous government, there is so much to do.
And you are very much at the heart of it.
When I had the honour of addressing you during the election campaign last year, I touched on the bigger picture of which nurses and midwives are part.
I talked about how taking care of each other is at the heart of how we see ourselves as a people and a nation, but also about how we need to get our health system right for the proper functioning of the economy.
No economy can come close to realising its potential without a healthcare system worthy of the name. Stronger health care is a precondition for a stronger economy and, in turn, all the life-improving reforms that a stronger economy makes possible.
And a proper healthcare system cannot be everything it can be until the hardworking health workers of this country have a proper partner in government.
A government that has your back just as you have the back of every single Australian in your care.
A government that’s always ready to walk the talk.
Because that is what matters most in the end.
I say to you and to all your extraordinary members: You have our thanks. You have our respect.
And there are so very many times when you have our awe.
But, most importantly, you can take more than just our word for it – you have our actions.