Nurses and teachers

were left out in the cold

The Grapevine can reveal that the previous Perrottet Government, if re elected, would have left the nursing and teaching professions severely underfunded. Incoming briefings provided to the Minns Labor Government revealed that the previous Liberal Government left 1,112 temporary nurses unfunded beyond the 2024-25 fiscal year and that there would have been a critical teacher shortage.

30 August 2023

 

THE Liberal Nationals have owned up to their failure to fund 1,112 nurses across NSW, including 57.1 nursing positions in the Central Coast LHD.

 

During Question time this week, in response to a member of the government addressing the former government’s budget mismanagement – which left these 1,112 essential health workers unfunded – the former treasurer and current Shadow Minister for Health Matt Kean interjected to inform the house these were ‘COVID recovery nurses’.

 

“The Minister is being deliberately quarrelsome, misleading the house about nurses that were COVID recovery nurses,” Mr Kean admitted to the chamber.

 

Member for The Entrance, David Mehan said that healthcare in the Central Coast region is already under incredible pressure, losing these 57.1 nurses will stretch our healthcare services to the limit.

 

Minister for the Central Coast and Member for Wyong, David Harris said that the former Liberal National Government presided over more than a decade of mismanagement and underinvestment in healthcare in our rural and regional areas.

 

The Shadow Health Minister confirmed that the Coalition’s intention was to sack 1,112 nurses – at a time the NSW health system is under immense pressure.

 

The Liberals and Nationals failure to fund our essential workers is just one element of a $7 billion black hole uncovered by the Minns Government which included:

 

*a funding shortfall of $700 million for children living in out of home care; and

 

*a school repair backlog of $1.2 billion

 

Minister for Health and Regional Health, Ryan Park said, “Matt Kean has confirmed what we all knew, but they were too cowardly to admit before the election – the Coalition government had no intention of continuing to fund these essential nurses.

 

“The fact is, even post-COVID, our health system is under immense pressure and we cannot afford to lose thousands of nurses."

 

Liesl Teach, Member for Gosford, said that the community was always appreciative of the great services provided by nurses on the Coast.

 

"No one has ever asked to cut the number of nursing staff," she said.

 

“As our nurses continued to cry out for more government support, the former government secretly cut funding for nursing positions. Our great nurses deserve better than this.”

 

And what about our teachers?

 

In the lead up to the state election in March the NSW Government committed to convert the temporary jobs of 10,000 NSW teachers and 6,000 school-based support staff into permanent positions.

 

As of yesterday, the Minns Labor Government has delivered on this commitment, with some 6,000 school-based support staff who previously held temporary positions accepting permanent roles.

 

Significant work is also continuing on providing permanency for more teachers, with 6,600 temporary teachers already accepting offers to become permanent.

 

Critically, this includes 849 accepted offers from teachers and support staff across the Central Coast. This represents a much-needed boost for education on the Coast providing our staff with certainty around their employment and enabling them to focus on delivering the quality education our local kids deserve.

 

NSW Deputy Premier, Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car, said, “Achieving this milestone in just under five months shows how badly the state’s teachers and support staff were being treated by the former government, and how much many people needed the certainty of a permanent job.

 

“I am so delighted the Government has been able to offer teachers and school-based support staff these permanent positions, showing that we respect and support all they do for NSW schools.

 

“We are determined to get on with the job of supporting teachers so they can do what they do best with peace of mind about their own futures.”

 

The Government committed to end the Liberals and Nationals’ obsession with casualising NSW schools’ workforce, with temporary teachers more than doubling from about 11,700 in 2011 to about 29,500 in 2022.

 

Reaching this goal will help curb the teacher shortage crisis presided over by the former Liberal-National government, which last year saw a record 1,820 teachers leaving the profession, and a third of teachers working on temporary contracts.

 

Member for Swansea, Yasmin Catley said, “Investing in our teachers and school-based support staff is important and the right thing to do. Any permanency in our community is welcomed.”