With the prime minister calling a federal election for 3 May, it’s a good time to take stock of the Albanese government’s achievements for nurses and midwives over the past three years. Did his government deliver what they promised?
Aged care
Anthony Albanese and Labor made aged care an election issue in 2022 – the first time in 25 years – and since being elected they have implemented all four of ANMF’s key claims for aged care:
- legislated a minimum number of nurses in private aged care including a registered nurse on site 24 hours per day
- legislated a minimum mandated care hours and improved skills mix
- introduced greater transparency – ensuring funding is tied to care
- funded once-in-a-generation wage increases awarded by the Fair work Commission for nurses and personal carers.
Additionally, by committing to and funding the pay rises for aged care nurses won through ANMF’s aged care work value case in the Fair Work Commission, the Albanese Government indirectly provided a lever for the Branch to use in bargaining for Victoria’s 60,000 general public sector nurses and midwives. This lever enabled us to secure a historic 28.4% (compounded) wage increase – well above the state government’s wages policy of 3 per cent – for all public sector nurses and midwives, and now for public sector mental health nurses and others as well.
Education
In 2024, the Albanese Government legislated a payment for undergraduate nursing and midwifery students and diploma of nursing students of $319.50 a week during mandatory clinical and professional training periods. This is the first time any Australian government has legislated financial support to help alleviate nursing and midwifery students’ placement poverty. The amount is something the ANMF will continue to lobby government to increase over time.
The Albanese Government also funded thousands of scholarships to enable registered nurses and midwives to undertake postgraduate study towards becoming a nurse practitioner or an endorsed midwife.
More generally, the Albanese Government partnered with the states to deliver 180,000 free TAFE places in 2023 (131,000 of those in care work, including aged care), and a further 300,000 places over three years from 2024. The 2025 Budget commits the government to introduce legislation to establish permanent fee-free TAFE.
In 2024, the Albanese Government legislated to wipe $3 billion off student debt, backdated to 1 June 2023, by fixing the way HECS indexation is calculated. In the 2025 Budget, they also committed to cutting a further 20 per cent cut off all student HECS debts by June 2026.
Medicare and healthcare
In 2024, the Albanese Government passed historic legislation to remove outdated and restrictive barriers that prevented nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives from working to their full scope of practice. The new law means that nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives are now able to prescribe certain medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and provide a range of services under Medicare without a ‘collaborative arrangement’ with a medical practitioner.
In 2022, the Albanese Government first legislated cheaper PBS medications, with the maximum general co-payment dropping to $30 (from $42.50) from 1 June 2023. In the 2025 Budget, the government committed to reducing this further, to $25, from 1 January 2026.
Elsewhere, the Albanese Government’s investment in Medicare has included increasing the rebate for nurse practitioners by 30 per cent, tripling the rebate for bulk-billed GP visits to encourage more primary care bulk billing and introducing a new bulk billing practice incentive program to further increase bulk bill rates.
The Albanese Labor Government’s first Budget allocated $358.5 million to establish 58 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with a further 29 budgeted in 2024 and another 50 announced in 2025. These clinics are designed to take the pressure of hospital emergency departments by delivering bulk billed care for urgent but not life-threatening conditions, seven days a week, for extended hours, with no appointment required.
The Albanese Government has also budgeted for a groundbreaking $792.9 million women’s health package, with a focus on reproductive, endometriosis and perimenopause and menopause care, including funding for 150% larger Medicare rebates and more bulk billing for the insertion and removal of long‑acting reversible contraceptives, including by nurse practitioners.
Tax cuts
In 2024, the Albanese Government overhauled the Morrison Government’s Stage 3 tax cuts to ensure that most Australians received larger cuts. For some – such as a public sector EN level 2 year 5 – the new tax cuts were double what the previous government had planned.
Other improvements of interest to nurses, midwives and carers
Ahead of the 2022 election, ANMF sought a commitment from the then opposition leader to support a national extension of the successful Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria (NMHPV). In November that year, Albanese announced a $25.2 million investment to establish and run the national program, which launched in April 2024.
In February, the Albanese Government introduced legislation to guarantee three days of subsidised early childhood education and care for families earning up to $533,280pa.
In 2024, the Albanese Government legislated to ensure that superannuation will be paid on government-funded parental leave.
Industrial relations reform legislated by the Albanese Government has included:
- making it easier for workers to request flexible working arrangements
- making it easier for worker to seek multi-employer EBAs to strengthen their bargaining power
- introducing a fairer definition of casual workers allowing more causal to access job security
- criminalising wage theft
- introducing a right to disconnect
- protecting penalty rates.
Based on evidence the Albanese Government have kept their promises and over the past three years have made a strong and positive difference to nurses, midwives and carers. However, there is much more to be done. ANMF welcomes prioritised funding in the government’s Federal Budget for 2025/2026 for, among other things, for public hospitals, Medicare, women’s healthcare, nursing and midwifery scholarships and wage rises for aged care nurses, as well as tax cuts for all Australian and slashing HECS debts.
