10 April 2019
Unseating Liberal MP Nicolle Flint to help protect our most vulnerable Australians is the focus of a campaign launched today by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch).
Flint’s federal seat of Boothby is one of 25 marginal electorates being targeted by the ANMF across the nation in a bid to influence Australians to oust a government that has failed to act to regulate safe staffing in aged care for almost six years.
Australia’s largest union, the ANMF represents more than 275,000 nurses, midwives and personal care workers—many of whom can attest first-hand to the horrific impacts of chronic understaffing in the aged care sector.
ANMF (SA Branch) Director of Operations and Strategy Rob Bonner says the union’s federal election campaign has been prompted by the Government’s continued lack of action in introducing safe staffing laws into aged care, like those that exist to protect children in childcare.
“We’ve known for years from local and international research that the main reason for missed care or low-quality care in residential aged care facilities is that there are simply not enough suitably skilled staff to ensure the quality of care is consistent with resident needs,” Mr Bonner says.
“The government’s continued failure to regulate safe staffing has led to the aged care crisis we have today, where dangerous workloads for nurses and personal care workers continue to result in all-too-frequent incidents of missed care for the most vulnerable members of our population,” he says.
“Mr Morrison has wasted his chance to safely staff aged care. His time is up.”
Conversely, Labor candidate for Boothby Nadia Clancy is one of more than 60 federal politicians to have pledged support for staffing ratio laws in residential aged care. The Greens and numerous independents have also pledged their support for the campaign.
“Our only bias for this election is towards older Australians and the nurses and care staff doing all they can in near-impossible circumstances. Our election campaign simply comes down to who is prepared to step up and change the rules in aged care and the answer to that is clear: not this Government.”
The ANMF (SA Branch)’s four-week campaign starts this week across radio, television, outdoor billboards and letterbox drops to inform voters that the only way to Change the Rules in Aged Care is to Change the Government.
The ANMF (SA Branch) today held protests outside Nicolle Flint’s Marion office this morning and as part of a mass ‘Change the Rules’ event with other industries at Adelaide’s Victoria Square at 12.30pm.