My question is directed to the Minister for Health. Staff at Northern Beaches Hospital were promised that entitlements would transfer across from Healthscope to NSW Health with the hospital becoming public. Under current proposed transition arrangements, part-time nurses and midwives face losing one week's annual leave and all nurses and midwives face negative tax implications of leave accruals being transferred between employers. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that nurses and midwives at Northern Beaches Hospital keep hard-earned leave entitlements and are not unfairly financially penalised during the transition to employment by NSW Health?

Mr RYAN PARK (Keira—Minister for Health, Minister for Regional Health, and Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast): I thank the member for Wakehurst and the member for Pittwater, and the Nurses and Midwives' Association alongside the Health Services Union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation and the local community. I also thank the Massa family for their incredible advocacy. In uncertain times, what we need is strong leadership and a government willing to make the tough decisions to ensure that what we do today is beneficial for the community tomorrow. Arguably one of the toughest decisions that the Premier, Treasurer and I have made is to bring Northern Beaches Hospital back into the public fold. That was a disastrous example of privatisation, which I will talk about in a moment. I again thank everyone for their advocacy, particularly the nurses and midwives, who are in the public gallery today and who the local members and I met with.

Let me be very clear. The Government is getting to a stage where we are about six weeks off bringing that hospital back into public hands. That is an incredible achievement that the community should be extremely proud of. Around 96 per cent of staff have accepted our offer to come back in. There are some challenges around leave and tax. In relation to leave entitlements, Healthscope has agreed that those leave entitlements, particularly annual leave, will come across. For part-time employees, there are some challenges around their leave balances. I say to those part-time employees that they will have another four or five significant benefits from NSW Health. That will be salary packaging; ratios in hospitals, which are very important; no night shift on the day before they start their annual leave; two consecutive days off as part of their roster; and parental leave. That is very important.

In relation to taxation, Healthscope has sought some advice from the tax commissioner, but I wanted to go beyond that. I explored NSW Health doing a private tax ruling. People will understand that a government entity has to comply with taxation law, as everyone does. We sought a separate ruling. We cannot do that at the moment because we are not the employer. Healthscope is engaged with the tax commissioner. 

I have taken the opportunity to advocate on behalf of workers and write to the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to see what we might do in this space. I will keep the member for Wakehurst, the community and, importantly, nurses, midwives and the other staff informed as to what is happening on that. This debacle highlights a stark difference in the plan for health care in New South Wales. What we had previously was a government that was not just wanting to settle Northern Beaches Hospital and make it a private hospital, but also five other hospitals. Those opposite came into this Parliament and wanted to make five other hospitals run like the Northern Beaches Hospital would have done. The irony is that we have local members out there now saying, "Oh no, bring the hospital back. Bring the hospital back." They were the lot who wanted to privatise not just Northern Beaches Hospital but five others. Ours is an example of a government with a clear plan versus an Opposition that is two-faced. They say one thing in Macquarie Street and Manly, and another thing in Moree. This is an Opposition that is two-faced. It says one thing to the people of Macquarie Street and Manly; it says another thing to the people of Moree. That is why it gets caught out.

18 March 2026, 11:25.