October 9, 2026

Private Sector

Private sector nurses need affordable housing too

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“I work in residential aged care on the Northern Beaches, where I’ve cared for residents like Jennifer, Michael and William for years,” RN Sabita Chaudhary Khatiwada told the Minister for Housing.

“I love seeing them every day – it’s the best part of my job. In this role, I get to support people with dignity, build trust, and be there in some of the most important moments of their lives.

“But I can’t afford to live anywhere near my workplace. I travel from my home where I live in Campsie – over 30 kilometres away. It often takes me one-and-a-half hours each way, longer in traffic. I’m lucky – most of my shifts are eight hours long, but colleagues who work in other residential homes tell me they work six-hour shifts, and they spend half that time commuting. The cost of fuel, tolls, and car maintenance is a huge expense for my family. I often work double shifts so driving in the dark, when I’m exhausted, isn’t safe for me. Public transport would take me over two hours each way – walk, bus, train, bus, walk again. Some of my colleagues do that every single day.

“I know I speak for many Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses, Carers and student nurses working in private aged care and hospitals. We are essential – but we’re often left out of essential worker housing schemes. As private sector workers, we’re excluded from policies that could help us to live closer to the people we care for.

“We don’t want to leave jobs we love or our patients who we’ve built relationships with. We’re asking you to think about us in your housing decisions – so we can keep doing the work that matters, with the people who matter.”

NSWNMA Councillor Sheridan Brady’s questions to the Minister for Housing:

Q1: “Will you commit to change the NSW Affordable Housing Ministerial Guidelines so that essential worker housing is clearly included in the definition of affordable housing, with eligibility criteria that reflect the true cost pressures on nurses, midwives, and carers – such as ensuring housing is considered unaffordable when rent exceeds 30 per cent of their income – so they are guaranteed fair access to affordable housing?”

Q2: “Will you also ensure that all nurses, midwives and carers in NSW who are in need of support to access secure housing, whether public, private, primary or aged care,  are  eligible  for  essential worker housing, as recommended by the upper house inquiry?”

Minister Jackson’s reply”

“The answer again is essentially yes. The ministerial guidelines for affordable housing are currently under review. The intention is to update them, to reflect exactly the points that you have made. I recognise those guidelines have been too narrowly construed and lots of people such as yourself have been excluded from that. They are under review, and we will ensure that they capture all those essential workers you have described not just public sector workers but also those working for community organisations or private aged care providers. It will also include people working in childcare or other professions.

“That will not ensure access to housing. We can update the eligibility but the work that we have to do to build the housing so that you are just not sitting on a list is just as important. But the first step is that eligibility question and we will get that updated.”■

NSWNMA fights for Healthscope jobs and entitlements

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The NSWNMA is fighting to protect the jobs and entitlements of members employed by Healthscope hospitals.

The future of Healthscope remains in doubt after it went into receivership in May with $1.6 billion in debt.

Healthscope is Australia’s second largest privately owned hospital operator.

It was previously owned by the giant Canadian-US private equity company Brookfield, which loaded up Healthscope with debt as it repatriated profits back to investors.

Brookfield then placed its distressed business on the market, before handing Healthscope over to their lenders and exiting the company entirely.

As part of creating a competitive sale process, one of the options currently being proposed by the current management is to restructure Healthscope into a not-for-profit company which, they say, would save money on payroll and land tax and help retain its network of 37 hospitals.

In an email to staff in September, chief executive Tino La Spina said Healthscope had received offers for some of its hospitals but could not find a buyer for the company as a whole.

He said turning Healthscope into a not-for-profit company could avoid Healthscope being broken up with some hospitals “stranded without a buyer” and closed.

He said the not-for-profit proposal “gives us the best chance to keep our hospitals together and minimise the risk of closures and job losses.”

La Spina also made a pitch to staff to adopt a salary packaging proposal, which he said was necessary to enable Healthscope to make tax savings and secure not-for- profit status.

The current salary packaging proposal would see 90 per cent of the benefits of a salary package program go to the company and 10 per cent to employees.

DOUBTS ON SALARY PACKAGING PROPOSAL

As The Lamp goes to print, Healthscope is proposing to ask all staff nationally to vote on a n a mend mention to their enterprise agreement to introduce salary packaging.

NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said Healthscope had asked all ANMF branches to support the not-for-profit proposal.

She said that in NSW, given Healthscope has indicated plans to incorporate the salary packaging proposal into a vote on the long- delayed EBA as a whole, any response must be considered very carefully.

“At this point, Healthscope executives have not provided enough detail on what the salary packaging structure would look like,” she added.

In an email to members, Shaye said, “Throughout this administration process, your union has been fighting to secure your jobs and entitlements, regardless of who the ultimate new owner/s of Healthscope facilities are.”

“We continue to lobby (federal and state governments) to intervene and support jobs and the delivery of patient care to the community.”

Shaye said it was not certain the not-for-profit proposal would receive regulatory approval from the Australian Charities and Not- for-profits Commission and the Australian Taxation Office.

“Healthscope will also need to satisfy lenders that its (not-for- profit) proposal is financially viable, and likely to result in the repayment of debts and/or a return on investments,” she added.

She said it was unclear what would happen if Healthscope failed to get the necessary regulatory approvals and support from lenders.

“In the worst-case scenario of a hospital or hospitals closing, your union is working to secure your pay and entitlements, and government support for employees impacted by any closures.”

‘Respectful and constructive’ talks on pay agreement

NSWNMA officials and Healthscope have discussed the possibility of reaching an agreement as an alternative to continuing Fair Work Commission proceedings on back pay and pay increases for Healthscope nurses and midwives.

Shaye said Healthscope agreed to consider a series of union proposals at a “very respectful and constructive” meeting on 24 September.

“These proposals included an earlier date for the payment of back pay, and maintenance of existing annual leave provisions.”

She said meetings of members and organiser visits to hospitals had shown that members’ priorities were to secure back pay and entitlements as soon as possible.

Unions and governments seek stability during Healthscope’s administration

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The interests of patients and staff are paramount in the period leading to the sale of the troubled company.

The NSWNMA and the ANMF have been in regular contact with Healthscope management and the NSW and federal governments to advocate on behalf of our members since the private hospital operator’s parent companies went into receivership, says NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish.

“We’ve spoken with the state government about the potential impact on the public-private partnership at Northern Beaches Hospital.

“Separately, we have also held talks with the federal health minister, Mark Butler. He has told Healthscope administrators they must do the right thing by the community, nurses and midwives. We welcome this support,” she said.

“We will continue to hold regular meetings with the federal health minister during this process. We’re also coordinating our efforts on behalf of nurses and midwives with other unions representing non-nursing/midwifery employees as part of an Australian Council of Trade Unions affiliates group, and this is central to our advocacy efforts.”

Healthscope’s parent companies went into receivership on May 26 after accumulating $1.6 billion in debt and defaulting on its lease payments.

“This is the outcome of a series of poor financial decisions by the previous owners, Brookfield. Instead of investing in the company to ensure it could provide quality patient care for the community in the long-term, Brookfield decided to strip Healthscope of its key assets by selling off its hospitals and entering lease agreements with the new owners,” Shaye said.

“This is a typical strategy that private equity firms like Brookfield use when ‘investing’ in healthcare – they want to secure short-term gains for their investors.”

Shaye said the union was focused on supporting our members during this uncertain time.

It had prepared resources to answer members’ numerous questions, had conducted several webinars and had prepared services for members to access if they were anxious or stressed by the insecurity surrounding the company.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the company had adequate funds to maintain operations during the administration process leading to a sale and he expected “that the interests of patients and hard-working staff will be the highest priority through this process”.

Patients and staff will be protected from Healthscope demise: Minister Butler

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The federal Minister for Health Mark Butler has emphasised that an orderly sale of Healthscope is essential to protect the interests of patients and hard-working staff.

There will be no bailout of private equity-owned Healthscope, but the federal government will “be looking over the shoulder” of all the actors in the administration and sale of the company “to make sure the interests of staff and patients going forward are protected”, Mark Butler said.

The Minister said private hospitals had an important part to play in the health system and received “very significant taxpayer support amounting to about $8 billion through the private health insurance rebate”.

“All of these parts of our system are interconnected, and there’s a very strong national interest in ensuring that every part of it, including the private hospitals component of the system is functioning well,” he said.

Butler said that the government was aware that a disorderly sales process would have an impact on public hospitals.

“(I am) determined to make sure that if there is a sale of Healthscope hospitals, which is now clear there will be, that it’s undertaken in an orderly, stable way that protects the operations of those hospitals, and through that the interests of patients and the very hard-working 19,000 staff members.”

He pointed out that these hospitals had been part of the Australian health system for a long time, predating Healthscope.

“Many of these hospitals have been operating in communities for decades. They’ve only been owned by Healthscope in its current ownership structure through Brookfield, the Canadian private equity firm, for several years since 2018 or so,” he said.

Healthscope’s woes highlighted the risks to the viability of hospitals in the private sector, he said.

He said private health insurers needed to lift the amount they “actually paid out to hospitals rather than going into profits or management expenses”.

He also cast doubts on “the wisdom of such important assets being held in the hands of overseas private equity firms”.

“There is a strong national interest in the operation of private hospitals, And, with that, comes some social licence that obligates operators of private parts of the system to do so in a way that benefits the interests of patients, not just their owners or their lenders or their shareholders.”

State government “eager” Northern Beaches Hospital transfers to public ownership

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A complex contract complicates the roll back of the Northern Beaches Hospital privatisation but the state government says it wants it back in public hands.

“Private equity shouldn’t be running acute emergency care.”

That was the blunt message NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey delivered to a community forum on the future of the Northern Beaches Hospital.

At the same forum Health Minister Ryan Park said the privatisation of the Northern Beaches Hospital “was a bad decision that had detrimental outcomes”.

“This is a model of care that, unfortunately does not deliver the benefits to the community in the way that the public health system does. When private firms are involved, there is obviously going to be a focus on the bottom line,” he said.

Daniel Mookhey said unravelling the contract was not simple.

“We’re eager to ensure that the hospital returns to public hands. We are also mindful that we don’t think private equity deserves a windfall gain,” he said.

“In order to exit we are obliged to follow the contract we inherit. That has a lot of complexity around it. The contract wasn’t written so it could easily be broken. It contains clauses that require the state, if it decides to terminate it, to pay what was the expected profits from the time at which the contract was signed”.

The contract was signed by Liberal Premier Mike Baird in 2014. Technically it runs to 2058. The Baird government intended Northern Beaches Hospital to be the first of five hospitals that would be built under this model across NSW. The contract has been renegotiated a few times according to a recent Auditor-General’s report.

Tenacity wins 16 per cent pay rise at Ramsay

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After more than 250 days of historic industrial action and three No votes, an overwhelming number of Ramsay members have voted to accept the company’s proposed enterprise agreement.

95 per cent of Ramsay nurses and midwives voted in favour of the agreement, which includes a 16 per cent pay rise over three years, of which 9.5 per cent will be paid in the next 12 months, as well as backpay from July 2023.

The new agreement is the culmination of two years of tireless campaigning by Ramsay nurses and midwives.

Ramsay is the country’s largest private hospital operator with 39 facilities across NSW including hospitals in Sydney, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Newcastle, Wollongong and Albury.

There have also been significant improvements to conditions including:

  • reduced patient loads for nurses in-charge of hospital
  • restrictions on non-clinical duties
  • increased paid parental leave for primary carers and supporting partners
  • increased overtime and weekend penalty rates for casuals
  • improved rights and paid leave for branch officials.

Ewan Gemmell from Southern Highlands Private says members should be proud of the pay rise and the improvements in conditions they won in the agreement.

“We started off from a base of 8.5 per cent over three years, and despite Ramsay saying it was the best they could offer, we ended up with twice that,” he said.

Jess Griffis from Warners Bay Private agrees that the pay rises were significant.

“The pay increases that we secured is the thing that people are most excited about. Another big win is an extra two weeks’ parental leave for primary carers, taking it to twelve weeks.

We also secured two weeks of parental leave for secondary carers, which Ramsay had never had before,” she said.

Jess says there are improvements in the agreement that should lead to better patient care.

“We secured a clause restricting the non-clinical duties that nurses do, like making beds or food services, which can be fulfilled by other classifications. That will free up nurses for more time on the floor for actual nursing,” she said.

“Another one of the new clauses means that the nurse in charge of the hospital will no longer have a patient load. At my site, we don’t have doctors on site 24/7, so if a patient is noticeably deteriorating, we now have an experienced person on hand to jump in.

“No longer having patients being cared for by the nurse in charge of the hospital also means that nurse won’t be getting pulled away from their patients to handle in charge responsibilities and can have full focus on them to ensure that they receive things like pain relief on time.”

Anne Allsopp, a midwife at North Shore Private, says there is a significant gain for casual employees in the agreement.

“Another big win was that casual employees will now get their casual loading on weekends. Previously on weekends they were paid penalty rates but not a casual loading – now they will be paid both.”

She said while the pay rise was pleasing, she “was disappointed with the lack of movement on safe staffing or ratios”.

“Hopefully, improvements in conditions and pay will mean that more nurses and midwives stay in the profession.”

NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish, congratulated Ramsay members for their tenacity and determination to win better pay and conditions.

“This has been the union’s longest running campaign of protected industrial action and it’s a credit to each and every Ramsay member who took up the fight and didn’t give up,” Shaye said.

“Members participated in more than 60 strikes including converging on the Ramsay Annual General Meeting last year, 21 bargaining meetings

and three successful no-votes, which was a testament to their remarkable resolve to show they deserved to be valued and respected by their employer.

“As part of our claim we sought mandated shift by shift nurse/ midwife-to-patient ratios for all wards and units in Ramsay hospitals. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to achieve these crucial safe staffing improvements in this bargaining campaign but the fight for ratios continues.”

A Ramsay spokesperson told Workplace Express that “we thank our nurses and midwives for their engagement and feedback throughout the negotiation process, and we look forward to delivering the benefits secured in the new agreement”.

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