Nurses’ unions in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and Northern Territory are running similar advertising campaigns over the next four weeks.
The first advertisements start this Sunday and the campaign continues for four weeks on Channels 7, 9 and 10 in Brisbane and Win, Seven and Southern Cross 10 across regional Queensland – in all federal electorates (marginal and non-marginal).
QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said WorkChoices now covers the vast majority of private hospital and aged care nurses in Queensland, which is a fact that seems to be lost on the Prime Minister and Joe Hockey who keep suggesting only State governments employ nurses.
“Most private hospital and aged care employers are being careful ahead of the election. However, they will not be so reticent if the Howard Government is re-elected and WorkChoices stays in place. The Howard Government is now also seeking advice on bringing public hospital nurses into the federal IR system and it has clearly stated, and shown, it is prepared to over-ride the States when it sees fit,” Ms Hawksworth said.
“Some private employers are already refusing to talk to us or bargain even though the nurses want the QNU involved in negotiations. There have also been a number of recent attempts to impose non-union collective agreements on aged care and private hospital nurses, despite the fact that the majority of nurses in those facilities want a union collective agreement. WorkChoices allows employers to get away with this type of unilateral, selfish behaviour.
 “If WorkChoices is endorsed at the federal election many of the vital rights and entitlements of nurses, including their overtime and shift penalty rates, will be up for grabs - and at the whim of the employer.
“When that occurs the consequences for nurse recruitment and retention and health and aged care services will be horrendous. As report after report shows, the nursing workforce is already delicately balanced. Recent big pay rises for public hospital nurses in Queensland and around the country, achieved by unions through State-based negotiations or industrial relations systems, have helped keep thousands of people in nursing.
“However, health and aged care services are still heavily reliant on nurse immigration to make up the shortfall of Australian nurses. If, as is expected, the United States starts actively recruiting nurses from developed countries such as Australia then things could become quite serious indeed for Australian health and aged care services. We cannot afford to lose any nurses because employers, who do not see the bigger social picture, start meddling with their pay and conditions.
“We came very close to a major reduction of acute care services about six or seven years ago, before the pay rates were adjusted and we enticed many nurses to stay or return. We already have a serious shortage of registered and enrolled nurses in aged care because of lower pay rates and heavy workloads. The capacity and quality of these vital services is what is at stake. The excessive power health and aged care employers get from WorkChoices is not in the community’s interest.
“Our health and aged care systems need an industrial relations system that gives nurses the capacity to defend and enhance entitlements that are vital to maintaining the profession as an attractive career option. WorkChoices does not do that. If it is given the green light at the next election health and aged care services face a very difficult and uncertain future.
“This advertising campaign is about making sure everyone is aware of that,” Ms Hawksworth said.
The QNU, in conjunction with the Australian Nursing Federation, is the largest health union in Australia and has more than 35,000 members working in every hospital, health facility and nursing home in Queensland. | 
