MEDIA RELEASE

LABOR FINALLY NOTICES NURSES

14 July, 2003 MIN 413/02

Simon Crean’s nursing plan announced today simply follows commitments already made by the Government in its higher education reform package, Backing Australia’s Future.

Labor’s policy consists of additional nursing places and additional funding for nursing training – both of which have already been announced by the Howard Government.

The Government has already committed to providing almost 32,000 additional places to universities over the next five years, including:

• an additional 574 nursing places for regional campuses ($17.1 million);
• an extra 745 places for private higher education institutions, targeted to the national priority areas of teaching and nursing ($22.1million);
• 655 nursing and teaching places at Avondale and the University of Notre Dame locked into teaching and nursing;
• 1,400 university places in 2007, growing to more than 4,000 in 2008 to support population growth. Institutions will be given flexibility to allocate these places, including to nursing and teaching ($10.9 million).

In addition the Government announced in its higher education reform package in May, $40.4 million in additional funding for nurses to assist with the costs associated with clinical practice whilst at university.

The Government has also ensured that HECS fees for nursing and teaching students will not rise - and may in fact go down in some institutions.

The Commonwealth is also working with the States and Territories, nursing organisations and universities to progress recommendations arising from the National Review of Nursing Education.

While additional funding and nursing places are needed, they will not, on their own, address the real problem of the large number of nurses leaving our hospitals.

The South Australian Education Minister has observed, for example, that there is not a nursing shortage in South Australia - just a shortage of nurses who are still nursing.

There are approximately 90,000 registered nurses in NSW but only a third are working in public hospitals.

It has been estimated that 20% of nurses leave the profession within the first year and a third within three years.

Simon Crean is too weak to use his influence with his Labor State colleagues to press for better working conditions and remuneration to keep nurses in the workforce. The Labor Party, as ever, prefers to simply reach for the public credit card.

"There needs to be a major investment in retention of the existing workforce, recruitment of nurses not currently employed in nursing, and recruitment from overseas. All the evidence suggests that it will be impossible to meet the demands for nursing services by focusing on new graduates alone. The most crucial factor in ensuring an adequate supply of nurses for the future will be to retain as many of those nurses currently employed as possible, particularly those in the earlier years of their careers."

(National Review of Nursing Education p. 13)

The Labor Party continues to drip feed its education policy to the media, apparently afraid of a proper analysis of the funding behind the promises and comparisons with the Government’s comprehensive reform package which also includes:

Labor’s determination to ignore the requests from the university Vice Chancellors for flexibility to vary fees up or down within a set range would also deny universities access to additional revenue.

The largest rise in the most expensive course in the country would add about $2000 a year to a student’s HECS bill- which they wouldn’t start repaying until earning more than $30,000 a year.

Every additional dollar raised would go into universities to, among other things, reduce class sizes and better reward academics.

Labor should release its complete package for public scrutiny now.

Media contact:

Dr Nelson’s Office Ross Hampton 0419 484 095

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