Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, I also thank the member for Bass for bringing this motion this evening and for bringing this to our attention. Thank you, also, for sharing your personal story and making this very real for us. Sometimes it is easy for us to be separate in here and lose touch with what is happening, and it is very real to hear the stories from people here today. Thank you for that.
I want to begin by saying that the Greens will also be supporting this motion. Having a baby and the whole prenatal, postnatal journey is this critical time of massive transition and change on a personal level, in someone’s life, in a woman’s life, and also in terms of the whole family and the change that it goes through. Midwives are critical to that and the care that they provide is essential in helping provide for safety, helping smooth that transition, and helping families to adjust to the changes.
We have long known that there are issues within maternity services in our state. The union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) in particular, have been speaking about this for a long time and raising concerns. They have had concerns around staffing and safety within our hospitals and have called for action.
I acknowledge what was shared by the minister earlier, and the encouraging developments, programs and services and funding that she announced. It was particularly exciting to hear that midwifery training will be available in Tasmania again soon, as we know that can make a big difference to the availability of midwives within our state.
On the one hand, we have the things that the minister shared that were great, and on the other hand we have the stories from people in the community and the unions that highlight the problems we have. It is important that we do not lose focus on those problems. We know that the Health Department at the moment and the health system is undergoing budget efficiencies, hiring freezes, cuts. It is a very difficult time, from a budgetary point of view, within the Health Department. That puts pressure on everyone, and that includes within our maternity services.
I was looking at some of the media releases that the ANMF put out over the last six months, and there were frequent calls for more effort to be made and for more action to be taken on staffing ‑ not just staffing of midwives, but also staffing of ward aides and admin staff. They also are an important part of service provision within our health services. We need midwives. We need midwives being trained, retained, attracted to the state. However, we also need support staff who are there enabling midwives to do their job, freeing them up from admin so they are not having to answer hundreds of phone calls a shift, as is sometimes happening, not having to do lots of paperwork and admin that takes them away from being there for mothers and their babies.
I wanted to note that there is definitely a lot happening in this space. We had the investigation of the Royal Hobart Hospital that happened last year. That was handed down in December with its 38 recommendations. That report highlighted that there was a discrepancy between the FTE allocation for wards in the maternity unit and the actual number of staff who were available. The Greens will continue to call for actions to be taken to address that discrepancy.
The unions have ideas for doing that, and we would call on the government to continue to listen to the unions. They are the ones who are connected with the midwives working on the ground. They know what the issues are and they have good ideas for things to be done there, including making sure that we are using agency midwives to fill vacancies in the short term, and that we are undertaking that recruitment work.
I understand that the government have committed to implementing all of the 38 recommendations of that report, and that there is an implementation review committee in place. I have heard some concerns about whether that committee will be able to genuinely address the recommendations. The Greens would call on the government to ensure that there is good faith, genuine action being taken, and real listening to midwives and to the report and to unions in this space.
We have the closure of St Helen’s Private Hospital that has been announced coming up in August, and we know the extra pressure that is going to place on our maternity services in Hobart. That highlights the importance of us ensuring that public services are resourced and funded and adequate to meet the needs of Tasmanians.
We know that private hospitals provide a great service and that they provide choice for Tasmanians, but we cannot rely on them. Otherwise, we end up in a situation like we have here, with St Helen’s Private Hospital closing their maternity services and putting pressure on. We continue to call on the government to ensure that public services are funded to the level needed to meet the needs of all Tasmanians.
In terms of the specifics of the motion – as I said, the Greens will be supporting this ‑ I was interested in clause 4, which says the House:
Commits to making maternal health a political priority in 2025, ensuring every Tasmanian mother and baby, regardless of location, receives safe, high‑quality care.
I would like to expand that beyond just being a political priority, because I believe when we make things a political issue, it can become a back and forth between parties. The Greens would like to see this being something that is a priority financially, structurally and for the community. It needs to go beyond being a political priority to something that is prioritised broadly across services and across the community. We all need to recognise the importance of maternal health and have that commitment to ensuring safe, high-quality care.
Thank you again to the member for Bass for this motion. As I have said, we will be supporting it.
