Nurses to take industrial action over Queensland Premier David Crisafulli’s pay offer

Queensland nurses and midwives have voted to launch strike action against the government after pay talks broke down.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli. Picture: Evan Morgan

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Queensland nurses and midwives have voted in favour of industrial action after failing to come to a pay agreement with the Crisafulli government, claiming the promised “nation-leading wages” never eventuated.

It is the first time in 23 years the state’s nurses have moved to take protected industrial action against the government, with 96.5 per cent of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union’s members voting to strike.

The Crisafulli Liberal National Party government is in the midst of enterprise bargaining negotiations with the state’s 260,000-strong public service, which overwhelming rejected the initial offer of a 3 per cent pay rise in 2025, followed by 2.5 per cent annually in the next two years.

Ahead of the October state election, now-Premier David Crisafulli pledged nation-leading wages for the state’s nurses. The poll delayed the start of nurses’ enterprise bargaining negoti­ations and the agreement expired in April.

QNMU secretary Sarah Beaman said the robust support indicates a level of anger felt throughout the profession. “They are angry at a commitment that they see as not being fulfilled, on top of the fact of a government that is trying to erode conditions and entitlements,” she said.

“It’s a red flag to a bull, and it needs to be fixed. Whether they’ll be out walking out on the grass, some of our members would love that as a first step. The reality is we want to make sure patient safety is a priority … this is about shifting the government’s response to get a better outcome.”

Any industrial action requires 72-hours’ notice.

After their Victorian counterparts negotiated a pay rise of 7.1 per cent annually, Queensland nurses and midwives were offered a sweetener of a 3 per cent increase from December 1, 2027, to keep them the nation’s highest paid for four months until the next negotiations.

However, Queensland Health threatened to strip nurses and midwives of eight weeks’ back pay if they moved to take industrial action.

Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union secretary Sarah Beaman. Picture: Richard Walker

Despite the government saying negotiations were over, the union received an eleventh-hour offer on Friday. It removed the back-pay clause and proposed increased overtime rates for continuous shift workers, the intro­duction of permanent night shift and a plan to provide greater support for nurse and midwife unit managers while protecting their ratios.

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the offer was competitive and the government will continue to negotiate ­“respectfully”.

“It will see an 11 per cent increase in nurses and midwives’ wages over the three-year length of the term,” he said. “The 3 per cent uplift in the wages (in the final months of the agreement) will ensure we remain with or lead against the nearest comparable jurisdiction which, we understand, is Victoria.”

Ms Beaman said the revised offer still fell short of the pre-election commitment to give the state’s health workforce “nation-leading wages” against a backdrop of worker shortages and new state hospital plan.