Submission to the House Standing Committee on Regional Australia: FIFO workforce practices
Published: 8 December 2011
The Queensland Nurses’ Union (QNU) thanks the House Standing Committee on Regional Australia (the committee) for providing the opportunity to comment on the use of ‘fly-in, fly-out’ (FIFO) workforce practices in regional Australia. In this submission we set out our concerns about the impact that FIFO practices are having on communities, particularly the nurses and health care workers that support them. The QNU recognises that the expansion of mining activity has affected many regional areas in Queensland and other states. In this submission we highlight the Mackay region in the Bellyando Shire.
Nurses and midwives are at the forefront of health care and have direct experience of the outcomes of alcohol and substance abuse in regional, rural and remote areas. They are the largest occupational group in Queensland Health and one of the largest across the Queensland government. Nurses are the most geographically dispersed health professionals in Australia, working independently or collaboratively to provide professional and holistic care in a range of circumstances.
The QNU - the union for nurses and midwives - is the principal health union in Queensland. The QNU covers all categories of workers that make up the nursing and midwifery workforce in Queensland including registered nurses, registered midwives, enrolled nurses and assistants in nursing who are employed in the public, private and not-for-profit health sectors including aged care.
Our more than 45,000 financial members work across a variety of settings from single person operations to large health and non-health institutions, and in a full range of classifications from entry level trainees to senior management. The vast majority of nurses in Queensland are members of the QNU.
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