Annual conference is an occasion to celebrate our wins and progress as a union and an opportunity to reflect and to reset in order to meet the existing and coming challenges.

We have not won all the things we have fought for this year but there has been plenty to celebrate. We have had a mammoth year together with tremendous campaigns on all fronts.

This year’s annual conference theme Influence for Change signalled how we, as nurses, midwives and carers, are at the forefront of change in health.

Let’s briefly restate some of the memorable achievements of the past year.

The successes on gender reform are worth highlighting. The NSWNMA and the Teachers Federation fought hard for, and won, changes to the NSW IR Act which are among the most significant improvements in workplace rights in 30 years.

These changes aim to achieve gender equality in the workplace and to achieve equal renumeration for men and women doing work of equal or comparable value and to eliminate the gender-based undervaluation of work.

In the public health system and in private hospitals there has been record breaking and historic industrial action by members fighting for improvements to pay and conditions.

In aged care it has been another big year, considerable progress has been made, and reform is moving in the right direction after decades of neglect.

Our historic special case begins

As The Lamp goes to print, we are embarking on one of the biggest legal cases in living memory in the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission on behalf of public sector nurses and midwives throughout the state.

Our comprehensive case aims to increase wages by providing evidence that shows the impact of:

• the gendered undervaluation of the work you do
• the work value increase over the past 16 years
• the impacts of productivity and inflation; as well as
• recruitment and retention across the Public Health System.

After rejecting the government’s 3 per cent per year over three years offer, we made the case for:

• a 35 per cent pay increase over 3 years
• Sick Leave to increase to 20 days, and
• a meal allowance for Patient Transport

We have been meticulous in the preparation of the case. Our evidence amounts to a total 17,451 pages – 7,739 pages of expert evidence and 9,712 pages of member evidence.

We expect the hearings to last six weeks with an outcome in 2026.

The challenges going forward

Our special case in the IRC is a major initiative to deal with the issue of pay but there are other obstacles to building a sustainable public health system.

We have commissioned research by eminent academics to explore different forms of flexibility of work that nurses, midwives and carers want.

As a union if we can deal with pay, with flexibility and with workloads we’ll be in a position to genuinely address burnout.

The recent Standing Together Against Racism report confronts us with another challenge that we must all meet together – racism in the workplace.

The report found a staggering 64 per cent of nurses, midwives and AiN/ care workers from a culturally and linguistically diverse or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background had been a victim of racism.

This is unacceptable and the NSWNMA is committed to collaborating with other key stakeholders to improve education and reporting around this issue in order to create safer workplaces for all our members.

We need to be ambitious

By working together, we have achieved incredible things this year. We’ve campaigned like never before. We’ve raised our voices like never before. And we’ve showed our strength like never before.

We need to set the bar high and be ambitious. Our goal is for workplaces that provide better job control, where gender equality exists and where governments and employers respect and value the work that you do.

Let’s move forward with passion and determination to create a better future for nurses, midwives and carers.