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Amanda Stoker says religious schools have right to exercise beliefs ‘even if it might offend some others’; Novak Djokovic thanks Serbian president for support; deputy prime minister defends Morrison and renews calls for the mystery minister allegedly behind text messages to put their hand up – follow the day’s news
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Albanese also called for the federal minister who sent the “psycho” texts to just come forward already. (He would love that, wouldn’t he!)
Well, it’s time for someone just to come forward and fess up as to who sent that text message. We know that one-half of the exchanges was Gladys Berejiklian.
And, for me, it wasn’t the personal abuse that is there and the character assessments. The most damning indictment of the prime minister was the premier of New South Wales at the time who was doing a job each and every day on the bushfire crisis, saying that the prime minister was more concerned about politics than he was about people at that time.
I’ve been asked this and I give the same answer I gave yesterday. The government should put in a submission supporting a wage increase. That’s what we did when we were in government for social and community service workers. And that led to a substantial pay increase, which has led to retention in that workforce. If we don’t deal with the issue of wages, then we won’t be able to retain a workforce in the aged care sector. The other thing we need, of course, is we need more workers and more carers, but we need a nurse in every nursing home, 24/7. We used to call them nursing homes for a reason – because nurses were there. It’s extraordinary that we have these aged care facilities that can go for considerable periods of time without having a nurse right there when they’re needed.
But not putting a figure on a proposed wage increase – isn’t the prime minister right when he says nobody knows how much it will cost the government, and therefore taxpayers?
No, the prime minister is not right. The prime minister is wrong. The prime minister is wrong by not supporting a nurse being in every nursing home.
The prime minister is wrong by not saying to the Fair Work Commission that he supports a wage increase for the aged care workforce.
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