Advocacy

PROFESSIONAL ADVOCATE ROLE

The Association has developed a new Professional Advocate role for engaged members wanting to use their voice to advocate for their profession(s) within their context of practice. Although still at development stage, so far 20 members have been identified as leaders in their field and some have already provided expert witness on behalf of the Association at NSW inquires and consultations.

They may be involved in some of the following activities:

Media

Skills in reviewing/contributing to submissions

Expert advice/opinion

Providing evidence to relevant inquiries and reviews

Providing education about their area of practice

NSW MATERNITY SERVICES ALLIANCE

The Association initiated the formation of the NSW Maternity Service Alliance, comprising consumers, midwives, academics, and professional and industrial groups.

Wrote to Minister Hazzard requesting information, including the availability of midwifery models of care in NSW and number of midwives who work in these models

Had a Question On Notice from the Alliance put to Minister Hazzard

Developed a ‘What is a midwife?’ document, identified future work to promote midwifery care and advocate for midwives and women in NSW

NSW AGED CARE ROUNDTABLE

Meetings increased to monthly to reflect the amount of joint work undertaken with key stakeholders in advocating for aged care nurses and assistants in nursing.

Collective advocacy regarding rural and remote aged care workforce shortages was agreed at a meeting attended by 16 members representing 11 stakeholder organisations

Roundtable organisations have attended as witnesses and given evidence to the NSW Select Committee Inquiry into the provisions of the Public Health Amendment (Registered Nurses in Nursing Homes) Bill 2020 in favour of retaining and extending current legislation to require a Director of Nursing and registered nurse on duty at all times in every residential aged care facility in NSW

Members of the Roundtable collectively made a submission to this Inquiry

Successful in requesting delay to repeal of s104 of the Public Health Act NSW (2010) that requires a registered nurse and director of nurse in nursing homes

Development of 10 Questions to Ask leaflets for those accessing home care services

The Australian Government Department of Health is promoting the 10 Questions to Ask series through the MyAgedCare website and has linked the availability of the leaflets as evidence of compliance against quality standards required of residential aged care facilities. A Department of Health newsletter also went out to aged care providers and stakeholders promoting the series

CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE (CALD)

We increased the amount of professional support provided to our Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) members and created a new professional reference group for CaLD nurses and midwives. Membership currently stands at 44.

The Association signed on to the national Racism.It Stops With Me campaign and produced resources for members to combat racism in the workplace

Members have participated in filming for, and contributed to the development of online Bystander Action education

Members were instrumental in developing a CaLD Branch Essentials education program on 8 and 9 June 2021. The course ran at capacity

Members comments will be considered in the NSW Health Bullying and Harassment Policy, which is being revisited at the end of 2021

CLIMATE CHANGE

Received a Gold Climate Leadership Award for 2021 Members were successful in securing a review of the NSW Health Bullying and Harassment Policy and their input will be sought by the NSW Ministry of Health when this occurs in the

second half of 2021

Part of the Climate Change Action Reference group

Convened an Internal Environmental Committee, which commenced a carbon environmental audit for 2021

Member of Better Futures Australia Health Working Party with the Climate and Health Alliance

As a result of interest in research undertaken in the Hunter region around the transition from coalfired power to renewable energy, the Association is now involved with other like-minded unions and the Labor Environmental Action Network (LEAN) in the Hunter Jobs Alliance (HJA). The HJA has been formed to support Hunter workers through the promotion of good, low energy, renewable jobs. Three projects – Tomago green steel, Solar Schools and Cleaning up Fly Ash Dams have been chosen and currently the Association is on the Solar Schools working party.

AFFILIATIONS

Our union is part of the broader union movement with its affiliations to organisations such as Unions NSW at state level, The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) at the national level, and the Public Services International (PSI) and Global Nurses United (GNU) at the international level.

We are also affiliated to other organisations that keep the Association informed on and engaged in the health aspects of issues such as climate change, trade, tax systems and privatisation.

Unions NSW

The Assistant General Secretary is the President of Unions NSW and the Association has other Officers involved in a number of Unions NSW committees. The Association often takes a leading role in any broad union campaigns and this was most recently demonstrated in the NSW government’s freeze on wages of all public servants last year.

Given the recent decision of the government to reduce the 2.5% cap even further, Unions NSW affiliates understand the need to campaign to inform the community that wage increases are needed to drive our economy into full recovery. There is a notion in the workforce broadly that now is not the time to ask for wage increases when others lost their jobs in the pandemic, however we know that those people won’t get back to work unless the economy is healthy and employers hire more people. It’s also fair to say the NSW government has the resources to pay public servants fair wages and we must pursue wage increases both as members of our own Association and as an affiliate of Unions NSW.

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)

The Assistant General Secretary holds one of the eight Junior Vice President positions on the Executive of the ACTU.

The ACTU was instrumental in the establishment of JobKeeper and the increased supplements to JobSeeker when the pandemic hit. It was also the ACTU who pushed hard to achieve free childcare for a substantial period during the pandemic. They are now fighting hard to make that free childcare a reality in Australian society going forward.

We know women were the biggest losers in the fallout of the pandemic and the ACTU, under the leadership of President Michele O’Neil and Secretary Sally McManus, worked tirelessly to ensure there are opportunities to improve womens’ working lives and work towards equality in the post pandemic world. Their five point plan to a better Australia is available on the ACTU website. Public Services International (PSI)

The Association Assistant General Secretary occupies the female titular positions on the PSI Executive for our region – Oceania. This position also represents women at the global level.

The pandemic put a halt to all face to face meetings, so Zoom meetings were undertaken. Given the time zones, it meant meetings attended by the Association are held close to midnight. We have persevered and attended the meetings as required.

The main topic at every meeting has been the pandemic and its impact on health organisations globally. PSI’s close connection with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) has resulted in extra meetings to ensure all affiliates know the latest information on the pandemic as well as the situation on vaccinations and other COVID related matters. Our affiliation has been most beneficial during this time.

PSI with the Association and ANMF produced three reports following the forensic investigation into the tax practices of the for-profit and not-forprofit aged care providers. This led to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety seeking extra input from our reports to inform some of their recommendations to the government on aged care. It’s projects like this that make our affiliation to the Global Union Federation (GUF) meaningful, providing us with real ways to make a difference.

While the pandemic and all its challenges have been the main topic of discussion this year, the PSI campaign to adopt the ILO Convention c190 on Violence and Harassment, which aims to eradicate violence and harassment in the world of work, is still underway and was the main issue covered by the World Women’s Committee. The Association is a participant in the current campaign to get this Convention ratified in every country. Australia has not ratified and we must ensure it does, particularly given the inflamed situation in this country.

Global Nurses United (GNU)

This is a group of over 30 nurses’ unions across the world who meet annually to discuss issues of importance to their members. The last year has been particularly difficult for nurses’ unions around the world as they advocate for their members during the pandemic. Australia has not suffered the adverse effects of the pandemic like many other countries and we certainly did not lose health workers to the pandemic through the course of their work. 1500 nurses have died worldwide and the situation continues. Nothing will return to anywhere near normal until the world majority is vaccinated.