Susan Walton is among a dedicated band of workers who fronted the union push for aged care reform.

 Aged care worker Susan Walton will never forget the day she made Barnaby Joyce cry.

Susan is an NSWNMA member and assistant in nursing at an NSW aged care facility.

She met Joyce, the National Party leader, as a member of a union delegation to parliament house, Canberra, to lobby for aged care reform in 2021.

“I went to Joyce’s office with another aged care worker from Queensland,” Susan said.

“Joyce started by saying his father didn’t have to worry about a nursing home because he was being cared for at home by Joyce’s sisters, who are nurses, and his brother, a doctor.

“I said, that’s fantastic, but I invite you to come to my facility for a couple of hours and see me trying to look after six people like your father.

“And you can tell me which one you’d like me to go to first.

“The one on the floor who’s fractured his hip, the one who’s demented and attacking a resident, the one who’s soiled himself while waiting to go to the toilet, the one in extreme pain who needs his medication, or the one who’s walked out the door and wandered off?

“As I described the conditions at the nursing home he got upset and the tears started.

“He offered to organise a meeting for us with all National Party MPs and kept his promise. I couldn’t attend the meeting but some of my colleagues went back to Canberra for it.”

Susan has been lobbying for aged care reform for more than a decade and gave evidence to the aged care royal commission in 2019.

Light at end of tunnel

She has lobbied MPs in Canberra and at state Parliament House in Sydney, given TV interviews and campaigned for aged care reform during state and federal elections.

In the process she’s made “wonderful friendships” with other union members.

Susan describes the Labor government’s recent aged care reforms and Fair Work Commission wage increase as “light at the end of the tunnel”.

“We are getting closer to achieving a better and fairer system, but it won’t come overnight,” she says.

“The extra care minutes from October next year should mean more staff on the floor and more RN time with residents.

“It will be up to unions and workers to make sure providers enforce the new rules.

“At my facility we currently have one RN responsible for 120 people at night.”

Susan says the 15 per cent award wage increase must be followed by increases to above-award enterprise agreements like the one covering her workplace, which pays $26.90 an hour.

“The low money and constant understaffing are causing people to leave in droves.

“It’s a hard job and you’ve got to be a caring person to do it. Not many are going to do it for $26.90 an hour.

“They’ve got to bring back conditions as they were when I started 19 years ago – before Prime Minister John Howard changed the aged care laws to remove accountability from providers as to how they spend taxpayers’ money.

“That’s when everything fell apart.”