Big issues remain in our health and aged care systems, and under his leadership the NSWNMA will continue the fight to make our workplaces safer and our communities better, says new General Secretary Michael Whaites.

“I once heard a trade union leader say, many years ago, if you’re at a meeting and you’re representing workers and you say nothing at that meeting, then shame on you. I’ve always carried that with me. My number one job is to ensure that our members voices are heard and respected,” Michael Whaites told The Lamp.

Michael was voted in by NSWNMA Council as the new General Secretary following the resignation of Shaye Candish at the end of 2025.

He comes to the position with a long history of union activism.

Michael says his grandparents and parents were active in volunteer community organisations “and that instilled in me that it was a good thing to be helping others, that it was something you should do, whether it was your job or not”.

This led him to choose nursing as a profession.

“I felt it was a job where you can make a valuable contribution so it just seemed like an easy decision.”

After he did his nursing studies, he worked in a number of nursing homes before enrolling to study midwifery, with his clinical placement at Nepean Hospital. Jobs followed in Sydney, initially at Ryde Hospital, and then Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

“I just absolutely loved the work I was doing,” he says.

“There are times when I absolutely miss it. It’s just incredibly rewarding when you can see that you’ve made a difference to someone’s day and to someone’s life.

“The thing that really stands out from my time at RPA was the crew that I worked with, at both the antenatal high-risk, but also across the maternity service – just a great bunch of people who made the work you do day in and day out enjoyable.

“When you are working in nursing or midwifery and you’ve been on a particular ward for a while, the trust that you have in each other, knowing that if and when things take a turn for the worse, when there’s an emergency on the ward, you can look around and know that everyone knows what to do, when to do it and how to do it. You have that level of professional trust and teamwork. That’s a beautiful thing.”

THE BIG PICTURE

Michael says he got his initial taste for union activism at Nepean Hospital where he did his postgraduate training for midwifery.

“After helping to re-establish the branch at Ryde Hospital, it was at RPA that I got heavily involved and where I held delegate and branch official positions. It was a very active branch at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

“We tried, but failed, to stop the closure of the nurses’ quarters, the Queen Mary building. Now, when you note the housing affordability crisis for nurses and midwives and the recruitment difficulties that leads to for services, you see the lack of foresight by Health at the time. The cutting of services today, carries problems well into the future.

“When I was working at RPA, I really started to understand the problems facing our healthcare system. Even at a big tertiary centre of excellence in a wealthy nation, you’re still struggling for resources. That’s one of many signs that the system isn’t working.

“More often than not, it’s about the funding of the health and aged care system itself , and the choices that governments make about priorities. That made me realise that if we really want to see change, in order to fix things locally, you have to fix things on a statewide level, at a national level, and, at times, at a global level”

Michael says this is what led him to get a job at the Union.

“I thought if I want to be part of winning real change at a state, national or global level, then maybe I should give that a go.”

In his earliest campaigns as an organiser Michael says he learnt a lot from branch leaders.

“Listening to them and their advice, learning from their expertise and knowledge, and bringing that all together for the collective effort is what being union is all about.

“The local branch know their community, and how to turn out those community members in order to show the local politicians exactly how they feel and what they wanted.”

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

For three years Michael worked part time as an educator for the Association and part time for Public Services International, as the sub-regional secretary for Oceania, coordinating public sector union work across New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

“That was an awesome opportunity. All our work is ultimately influenced by what’s going on at a global level. When we talk about government being able to afford more nurses, more midwives, paying nurses and midwives more, they need tax revenue to pay for that. If we want improved health and aged care services, we have to fight national and global tax avoidance and evasion.

“One of the key things I did when I worked for PSI was coordinate a national public inquiry into privatisation across Australia. The other big project I undertook at PSI was helping to establish what is now called the Centre for International Tax Avoidance, (CICTAR) which is exposing tax avoidance by public service providers, and through that exposure, leading to changes to tax rules and corporate behaviour. The evidence CICTAR put to the Royal Commission into Aged Care was groundbreaking

Michael says despite all our significant achievements in recent years big fights remain.

“Nurses and midwives and carers deserve a pay rise that reflects their importance within our communities. We should be able to enjoy life while we’re working and in retirement.

“Issues around workload and pay are always going to be important for union members.

“But we also have to be looking at issues like affordable housing and making sure our superannuation system is fit for purpose. Looking at the effects of climate change is going to be key and so too is fighting against hatred and bigotry.

“The fight for a better world, at work, at home and in our communities is union business. It is a great honour to have been appointed as the General Secretary of the best union in the country, and I look forward to continuing the work with members as we win that better world.”