ALP responses

1. Industrial relations

Does your party support multi-employer bargaining?

Labor has for the first time established a right to collective bargaining for all employees. Labor has provided a range of options for employees to engage in collective bargaining. The Fair Work Act now allows agreements involving multiple employers where this suits the parties and is their preference.

Labor also provides special arrangements for employers who are technically separate but are strongly interconnected. These single interest employer declarations allow employers such as public hospitals within one state, or aged care facilities run by a single organisation, or a group of church-run schools, to bargain together with their employees as if they were a single enterprise.

Will your party make changes to unfair dismissal legislation?

Labor believes all employees have a right to be protected from being sacked unfairly. WorkChoices took away those protections from millions of Australian workers, allowing supervisors to sack workers for any excuse they liked with no right to challenge their dismissal. Under the Fair Work Act, Australians have greater job security - once employees have gone through a reasonable probation period of 6 months (or 12 months for employees of small businesses), they have a right to challenge an unfair dismissal, with a process that is fast and fair.

What is your parties' position/policy on individual work contracts?

Labor opposes take-it-or-leave-it individual contracts where employers use their superior bargaining power to cut the pay and conditions of working people. Under WorkChoices, AWA individual contracts stripped away basic rights from working people. Hundreds of thousands of Australian families lost money out of their household budgets - including penalty rates for weekend work, shiftwork and overtime. For example, women working full time on AWAs took home $87.40 per week less on average than workers on collective agreements.

Under Labor, everyone has a right to bargain collectively, and no work contract can undercut the safety net of the modern award system.

What is your parties' position/policy on improving health and safety laws for workers?

The Gillard Labor Government is committed to having harmonised national OHS legislation in place by January 2012. State and Territory Ministers have agreed to adopt a model Australian OHS Act to replace 10 Acts across Australia and over 400 OHS regulations and codes of practice, a reform that eluded previous governments for 35 years.

This reform will result in consistent and better safety standards across Australia, and will prevent future state governments weakening safety laws.

What is your parties' position/policy on improving superannuation contributions?

Labor introduced universal superannuation in the early 1990s, and as a result Australians now have a pool of more than $1 trillion in retirement savings. However, to give all Australians greater financial security in retirement we need to increase superannuation further and so a re-elected Gillard Labor Government will increase the superannuation guarantee rate from 9 to 12 per cent - giving a 30 year old on average wages an extra $108,000 by the time they retire.

Does your party support pay equity for women workers?

Labor strongly believes in pay equity, based on our values of fairness and equity. By abolishing Work Choices, Labor has got rid of industrial laws that were attacking the rights of female employees and widening the gender pay gap. By creating a decent safety net, a stronger set of minimum national employment standards, a right to collective bargaining, increased superannuation and a fairer system for minimum wage increases, we are ensuring a fairer go for women workers.

In addition, through the Fair Work Act we have strengthened equal remuneration provisions to include the right of employees to equal pay for work of equal or comparative value.

2. Workforce

What is your parties' position/policy on increasing nursing and midwifery workforce numbers to meet demand?

The Labor Government has already taken action to address the national shortage of nurses left by Tony Abbott and the former Coalition Government. We have funded an additional 1,134 nursing and midwifery university places and over 30,000 additional vocational education and training places, including enrolled nursing places and nursing scholarships. Since 2007, we have also funded more than 900 aged care nursing scholarships and more than 1700 enrolled nurse training places.

How will your party improve the education and training system for nurses and midwives, including initiatives to provide adequate clinical placements for nursing and midwifery students?

As part of the National Health and Hospitals Network reform plan, Labor is investing $523 million to boost the nursing and midwifery workforce. This includes funding to support almost 4,600 practice nurse positions in general practice, funding for training and education and incentive payments to assist nurses and personal care workers in aged care, and funding to establish the first ever rural locum scheme for nurses.

Labor has also invested $1.1 billion through the Council of Australian Government's health workforce reform package. This package includes increasing undergraduate clinical training and supervision capacity.

3. Aged care

How will your party close the wages gap in aged care?

Labor understands the importance of the work that nurses and aged care workers do ¨C without which we wouldn't have an aged care system.

The Labor Government has increased aged and community care funding by around 30 per cent. To ensure a fair deal for all workers, the Labor Government ended WorkChoices and introduced a fairer industrial relations system with collective bargaining at its heart.

The Government has also asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a public inquiry into aged care - this will examine future workforce requirements and develop options to ensure the sector continues to have a suitably qualified and adequately remunerated workforce.

How will your party provide the right skills mix and staff numbers to ensure high quality care in aged care facilities?

We have asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a comprehensive inquiry into aged care. Part of this work will include developing options to ensure we have a skilled workforce into the future. Another important part of the development of workforce strategies is research being undertaken that explores the right number and skills mix of staff to provide care.

While this is underway, we are investing and providing more support to nurses and aged care workers. In this year¡¯s Budget, the Government invested an additional $60 million in financial help for around 50,000 personal care workers, assistants in nursing and nurses to help further develop careers in aged care.

What is your parties 'vision' for aged care in 2020 and what policy initiatives would you support to enhance the employment of nurses in aged care into the future?

A re-elected Gillard Labor Government will drive further reform in aged care. Labor is taking full policy and funding responsibility for aged care and has a vision for national system of aged care where older Australians can move easily from care at home through to high level residential care as their needs change.

We have already backed this system with $636 million in new investments in this year's budget, and will continue to deliver:

  • A more highly skilled aged care workforce;
  • More aged care beds and places;
  • Improved access to primary health care services; and
  • Stronger protections for older Australians receiving care.
What will your party do to improve funding/reform of the health system in Australia?

The Gillard Labor Government is committed to building a better health and hospitals system. In 2008, we increased funding to hospitals by 50 per cent in 2008 - to $64 billion.

The Labor Government has also delivered the biggest reforms to our health system since the introduction of Medicare almost three decades ago. This includes a further $7.4 billion to make sure more hospital beds are available, there are more doctors and nurses, and it is easier to receive high quality primary care services close to home.

Will your party work towards establishing an e-Health system that enhances patient care?

The Gillard Labor Government has invested $466.7 million over the next two years to establish a personally controlled electronic health records system for Australia. This will boost patient safety, improve health care delivery, and cut waste and duplication.

In June 2010, the Gillard Labor Government passed legislation to introduce a Unique Health Identifier, which will enable all Australians to be safely and securely identified should they wish to use a personally controlled electronic health record.

5. Climate Change

In government what will your party do to combat the harmful effects of climate change in relation to the health care sector?

The Gillard Labor Government recognises that climate change is real and we need to build a community consensus about putting a price on carbon in the future. Labor are already taking real action to increase the use of renewable energy and reduce our carbon emissions, such as through ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, supporting green jobs and setting an expanded renewable energy target.

6. Social Justice

What measures will your party take to close the gap in health outcomes and life expectancy between Indigenous and non©\Indigenous Australians?

The Labor Government has marshalled unparalleled resources and worked across governments to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. In November 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to six ambitious targets for closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage with respect to life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational attainment and employment outcomes. In this year's budget, almost $1.2 billion has been allocated for Indigenous health programs and other health programs benefitting Indigenous Australians. This is an 87 per cent increase in Indigenous health funding since the last budget of the former Coalition Government in 2007/08.

What action will your party take to address the serious social problem of housing affordability and homelessness in Australia?

Federal Labor has invested $4.9 billion in new funding to address homelessness, with an additional $400 million from the States and Territories. This has supported initiatives such as increasing funding to homelessness services by 55 per cent; and supporting the construction of more than 80,000 affordable homes across Australia by 2012.

Does your party have any policies in place to ensure homeless and disadvantaged people have access to a range of health and income support services?

As part of its initiatives to support homeless and disadvantaged people, the Labor Government has:

  • Introduced weekly government support payments for people are at risk of homelessness.
  • Invested $80.4 million for Emergency Relief and financial counselling in recognition of the impact of the global economic downturn on vulnerable people.
  • Delivered $10 million to boost the Personal Helpers and Mentors program, to give homeless Australians with a severe mental illness greater access to one-on-one support.
Does your party support a compassionate and humane approach to refugees that complies with Australia's obligations under international law?

Federal Labor will work towards an effective, sustainable, long term regional solution to deal with the challenge of irregular arrivals.

The Gillard Labor Government will work with our regional neighbours and with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to develop a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.

The Australian Council of Refugees has said Federal Labor's plan is a positive step and Julia Gillard has spoken to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to reiterate the Government's support for the development of a sustainable, effective regional protection framework.