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Speaker 1: We do know as well that a Code yellow remains

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Speaker 1: in place for Royal Darwin Hospital as well as Palmerston

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Speaker 1: Hospital due to peaks in hospital capacity. Now, a code

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Speaker 1: yellow obviously enacts a number of practices to allow the

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Speaker 1: hospital to closely manage the peak until pressure eases, and

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Speaker 1: as a result, some Category two and three elective surgeries

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Speaker 1: planned for this week will be temporarily postponed so that

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Speaker 1: patients with more urgent care can be admitted to hospital.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line is the Branch Secretary of

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Speaker 1: the Australian Nursing and Midwiffery Federation of the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: Kath Hatcha. Good morning to you, Cath.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Kath.

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Speaker 1: The code yellow at Darwin and Palmerston Hospitals as I

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Speaker 1: understand it, it's a result of that structure fire last

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Speaker 1: week which saw thirty million dollars worth of supplies destroyed.

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Speaker 1: From your perspective, Cath, what impact is that having on

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Speaker 1: our nurses at the moment.

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Speaker 2: I would say that it may or may not be

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Speaker 2: related to the Code brown which relates to the fire

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Speaker 2: we can before last, But our nurses and midwives are

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Speaker 2: under the pump. They're working shortfalls every shift in most areas,

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Speaker 2: and from what I can understand that they had too

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Speaker 2: many waiting for admission into the main part of the hospital.

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Speaker 2: They needed to collate together with the code yellow and

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Speaker 2: discharge as many as they can, whether they're having hospital

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Speaker 2: in the home care or follow up in outpatients, so

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Speaker 2: they can relieve the inpatients that are waiting in the

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Speaker 2: emergency department being double bunked in the corridors to go

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Speaker 2: into the main areas of the wards and to relieve

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Speaker 2: the pressure of the emergency department in both Royal Darwin

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Speaker 2: and Palmerston hospitals. And they're all working double shifts and

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Speaker 2: so many over times, and it's and they needed to

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Speaker 2: help and the best way to do that is to

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Speaker 2: call a code yellow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, So cat's from your perspective, this code yellow.

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Speaker 1: You know, the structure fire may have something to do

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Speaker 1: with it, but that's really not the reason. While we've

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Speaker 1: got a code yellow at the two major hospitals right now.

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Speaker 2: Well, the executive haven't let me know, and it's just

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Speaker 2: talking to our members that they're saying that they're under

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Speaker 2: the pump. They're having a lot of people coming into

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Speaker 2: the hospitals. Now, that's not the result of a fire.

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Speaker 2: That's you know, that's stock, et cetera. But you know,

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Speaker 2: extra people coming in from GPS coming into the hospital

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Speaker 2: and needing care or some sort of care, and potentially

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Speaker 2: you know that they're needing the admissions. That's not the

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Speaker 2: result of a brown or the fire. But if they're

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Speaker 2: having more and more people coming into the hospital, yes,

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Speaker 2: their stocks will run low quicker and the department will

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Speaker 2: need to get the stocks from somewhere else within Australia

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Speaker 2: or overseas to replace that. And I'm sure that they're

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Speaker 2: looking into that, but I doubt whether the code brown

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Speaker 2: has anything to do with the code yellow. And the

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Speaker 2: members are telling us that code yellows are good when

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Speaker 2: they're called because everyone comes out and helps and they

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Speaker 2: clear the people in the wards that needed or potentially

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Speaker 2: need discharging so they can admit those that are in

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Speaker 2: the corridors and being double bunked in the emergency department.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, So, Cas, how overfull are the hospitals at

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Speaker 1: the moment.

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Speaker 2: I don't know the statistics on that, but I would

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Speaker 2: say that they are full, and they're probably over one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent capacity because they're having to cut back some

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Speaker 2: of the elective surgery this week as a result.

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Speaker 1: And Katz, from your perspective, how are those staffing levels

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Speaker 1: going right now? You and I have spoken about this

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Speaker 1: on so many occasions, but not for quite a while.

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Speaker 1: How are they going?

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Speaker 2: They have slightly improved since we've last spoken. So Royal

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Speaker 2: Darwin Palmerston Hospital has about one hundred and twenty two

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Speaker 2: hundred and thirty full time equivalent down, which is a lot.

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Speaker 2: And Alice Springs is about fifty forty to fifty percent

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Speaker 2: down in their full time equivalent in nurses and midwives,

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Speaker 2: so they're in the same category. Everywhere is running on

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Speaker 2: the agency staff and potentially no one wants to get

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Speaker 2: a permanent job because the potentially they're going to get

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Speaker 2: a wage free through the anti government. They're not wanting

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Speaker 2: to commit to a fixed term employment or a permanent

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Speaker 2: position within the Northern Territory at the moment with the

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Speaker 2: way that the government is giving them a wage freeze.

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Speaker 1: So cas how big an impact is the wage freeze

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Speaker 1: having on our nursing and health sector at the moment? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Big, big play because we're losing staff in the remote

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Speaker 2: to Western Australia because they're offering fifteen thousand dollars on

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Speaker 2: a sign up contract if they come and work in

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Speaker 2: remote in Wa and similar payments with Victoria and New

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Speaker 2: South Wales where obviously the government can't cope with this

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Speaker 2: sort of strategy, so we are losing numbers with nurses

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Speaker 2: and midwives into state well.

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Speaker 1: And then we just saw the Victorian government obviously announce

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Speaker 1: that they're going to be offering free UNI fees for

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Speaker 1: nursing students. So they said on Sunday that they've got

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Speaker 1: plans to pay the entire hex debt of more than

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Speaker 1: ten thousand nursing and mid we're free graduates. So it's

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Speaker 1: under this two hundred and seventy million dollar scheme all

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Speaker 1: new domestic students enrolling in undergraduate nursing and mid with

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Speaker 1: free courses, they're going to receive up to sixteen five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars. Students will receive nine thousand over their three

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Speaker 1: years of study, but the rest will be paid off

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Speaker 1: if they work in the Victorian Public Health Service for

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Speaker 1: two years. Kath, what impact is this going to potentially

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Speaker 1: have on the Northern territory if any, that.

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Speaker 2: Will decrease some of the staff from coming in to

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Speaker 2: the territory from other states. If they all take on this,

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Speaker 2: then the Northern Territory doesn't. So we tried and take

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Speaker 2: on everyone that comes out of Charles Dalwin University. We

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Speaker 2: try and give them, well, the government try and give

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Speaker 2: them all graduate programs within the territory. But we do

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Speaker 2: have a percentage that come from other states. So this

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Speaker 2: could potentially decrease our numbers through graduates. And perhaps if

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Speaker 2: Victoria is the only one that's taking this on, then

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Speaker 2: we'll try and have to get some graduates from other

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Speaker 2: states and not Victoria. I think that this is a

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Speaker 2: good incentive if the Northern Territory government take this on,

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Speaker 2: but they also need to look at other ways of

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Speaker 2: retaining the staff and making the workloads better, improving the

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Speaker 2: work places and being kind and to keep those nurses

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Speaker 2: and midwives that are already working in the territory.

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Speaker 1: So Kath on Thursday, there is indeed this day of

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Speaker 1: action that's happening with all the unions gathering outside Parliament

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Speaker 1: House for the day on Thursday. We know that teachers

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Speaker 1: and some correctional staff are going to be striking. Any

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Speaker 1: nurse is going to be striking.

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Speaker 2: No the nurses and midwives with the Commissioner for Public

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Speaker 2: Employment are still at the table and we're still doing negotiations.

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Speaker 2: So because the corrections and the teachers have already had

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Speaker 2: twelve months ahead of us with negotiations and they've completed

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Speaker 2: their negotiations and drafting, and now they've got to the

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Speaker 2: point where they're members along with ours, are not agreeing

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Speaker 2: to the four year wage freeze. So because we are

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Speaker 2: still at the table negotiating and through drafting, the Commissioner

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Speaker 2: for Public Employment has not given us the final wage policy,

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Speaker 2: which we know what it's going to be. It's the

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Speaker 2: four year wage freeze with ten thousand dollars bonus. Now

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Speaker 2: our members have ninety five percent said they disagree with this.

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Speaker 2: They came back in our survey a few months ago

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Speaker 2: before we went to the table with the government. But

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Speaker 2: hopefully the next rally that we have have perhaps in

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Speaker 2: a month's time or earlier that we're still negotiating the

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Speaker 2: date on this, that we hopefully by then will have

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Speaker 2: some protected industrial action, we will be finished at the

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Speaker 2: table and our members we probably won't get our members

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Speaker 2: to strike. It's not like the teachers or corrections that

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Speaker 2: we can say, you know, go home for the day. Kids,

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Speaker 2: we're having a strike. Your mom and dad can look

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Speaker 2: after you. We can't send patients home that need to

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Speaker 2: be in hospital, healthcare centers that need care where we're not.

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Speaker 2: We need to make sure that our patients and our

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Speaker 2: community cared for appropriately. So we'll have to come up

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Speaker 2: with other ways to have like non nursing duties or

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Speaker 2: wearing particular shirts on particular days, or not answering the

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Speaker 2: phone for a certain timeframe, etc. That sort of action

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Speaker 2: that we won't take.

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Speaker 1: And so that's on the cards. That's on the cards

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Speaker 1: for next month.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. We're just about to finish the forms and the

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Speaker 2: process to put into the Fair Work Commission and we

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Speaker 2: will be doing some protected action hopefully in the next month.

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Speaker 1: Goodness mate. You know, the government has a real I

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Speaker 1: don't know what the correct word that's politically correct to

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Speaker 1: actually use, but they've got some real issues on their

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Speaker 1: hands right now with this pay freeze.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I was at a national meeting on Thursday

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Speaker 2: last week where my Queen Queensland counterpart had just finished

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Speaker 2: at the negotiating table with the Queensland government and they

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Speaker 2: for the nurses and midwives in Queensland have just got

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Speaker 2: four percent, four percent and three percent over the next

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Speaker 2: three years, so we are going to fall behind. We

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Speaker 2: are not going to be in the top three across

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Speaker 2: the territory, across the country, and we are going to

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Speaker 2: lose more staff if we continue with a wage freeze.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what, there's certainly some work that

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Speaker 1: the government needs to get through in this space. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how they're going to do it considering the

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Speaker 1: level of debt that they're in, but they're going to

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Speaker 1: have to get back to the table. Kath, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate you having a chat with us this morning. Please

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Speaker 1: keep in contact as well. When it does come to

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Speaker 1: that possible industrial action, we'll talk to you again very soon.

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Speaker 2: You're welcome to also, Katie down in Alice Springs on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: We're having a big rally down in the civic center

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Speaker 2: path there, so exactly the same as Darwin, so everyone

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Speaker 2: is in Darwin and Alice Springs. Please go along between

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Speaker 2: nine and five point thirty on Thursday and put your

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Speaker 2: support in for the no wage freeze.

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Speaker 1: Kat very quickly, how many nurses do you reckon you're

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Speaker 1: going to have at the day of action. Those rallies

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Speaker 1: on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: Really hard to predict, Katie, because we know that we're

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Speaker 2: already working very understaffed, so I doubt that we would

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Speaker 2: get huge amounts. But they know that they're there in

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Speaker 2: spirit because they will be doing their current work or

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Speaker 2: they'll be working over time.

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Speaker 1: Well, kas, once again, I appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for speaking with me.

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Speaker 2: You're very welcome, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you