Nationals Member for Northern Tablelands, Brendan Moylan, has blasted the NSW Labor Government and NSW Health for ripping away financial incentives from some of the region's most essential frontline health workers.
Numerous nurses across the Northern Tablelands, including those in critical hospital roles, have been told they will lose their existing Rural Health Workforce Incentive payments after NSW Health reclassified their positions.
The NSW Rural Health Workforce Incentive Scheme, introduced by the former Nationals Government in July 2022, was designed to attract and keep doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals in rural and remote hospitals (Modified Monash Model areas MM3-MM7).
Under Labor, Hunter New England Health has now downgraded or removed incentive status from several key positions including several nurses in Moree, delivering a direct pay cut to dedicated local staff.
"Our nurses are the backbone of country healthcare, and this decision makes absolutely no sense," Mr Moylan said.
"This scheme was working. It was keeping staff in rural hospitals and helping to hold our health system together. Now Labor's slashing it, cutting take-home pay for hardworking nurses and driving them out of the bush. It's not just short-sighted, it's reckless."
Mr Moylan said the decision will force hospitals to rely even more heavily on expensive fly-in, fly-out agency nurses, driving up costs for taxpayers while eroding continuity of care for patients.
"This is policy vandalism," he said.
"It punishes the very people holding our health system together. Our regional nurses are already overworked and underpaid, now Labor's taking away the one thing that was helping keep them here."
Mr Moylan said he will take the fight to Parliament this week to demand the Government reverse the decision and reinstate the incentive scheme in full.
"Labor says rural health workers are worth less. My message is just as clear: fix this mess."
