❓ A member of parliament questions the Minister for Health regarding enterprise bargaining negotiations with nurses, alleging delays in meeting with the union and refusal to include workload regulations in the EBA. The Minister denies the allegations and accuses the member of misrepresenting his statements.
AnsweredQoN 229Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer the minister to his statement in this House on Tuesday that the Government was making great progress in negotiating the upcoming enterprise bargaining agreement with nurses, which will avoid strike action similar to that in Victoria. (1) Will the minister confirm that for several weeks he refused to meet with the Australian Nursing Federation to begin negotiations, despite at least four written requests from the union to do so? (2) Will the minister also confirm that he is refusing to include a mechanism in the EBA for regulating workloads, which is one of the nurses’ key requests? (3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(1) Will the minister confirm that for several weeks he refused to meet with the Australian Nursing Federation to begin negotiations, despite at least four written requests from the union to do so? (2) Will the minister also confirm that he is refusing to include a mechanism in the EBA for regulating workloads, which is one of the nurses’ key requests? (3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(2) Will the minister also confirm that he is refusing to include a mechanism in the EBA for regulating workloads, which is one of the nurses’ key requests? (3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(1) Will the minister confirm that for several weeks he refused to meet with the Australian Nursing Federation to begin negotiations, despite at least four written requests from the union to do so? (2) Will the minister also confirm that he is refusing to include a mechanism in the EBA for regulating workloads, which is one of the nurses’ key requests? (3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(2) Will the minister also confirm that he is refusing to include a mechanism in the EBA for regulating workloads, which is one of the nurses’ key requests? (3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(3) As negotiations are not even under way and nurses are striking over conditions in both the south west and the Swan Health Service, will the minister now concede that he is far from ensuring a smooth transition to the new EBA? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: (1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
(1)-(3) I would like to provide the following answers asked by the member for Murdoch, which are no, no and no. The member has again seriously misquoted and misrepresented the view I put to this Parliament on Tuesday this week. I never said that great progress had been made - if I can quote his words back to him - in the EBA negotiations with nurses. Those words will not be found anywhere, either directly or by implication. I certainly did refer to the difficulties encountered in Victoria, in which more than 1 000 hospital beds have been shut and more 1 000 elective surgery procedures have been cancelled. I certainly said I was very keen on avoiding those issues. Having said that, I wish the member would quote me accurately, if he wishes to put a question to me, and get the underlying base right.
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