I recognise the nurses and midwives in my electorate of the Blue Mountains. I have many wonderful hardworking nurses and midwives who work in many different facilities in the Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital and Springwood Hospital or who travel out west to Lithgow or down the hill and across the river to the Nepean Hospital. They are extraordinary men and women. I recently had a meeting with some of them so that they could talk to me about their experiences over the past number of years. I heard with great sadness that many of them feel burnt out. Many talked about feeling demoralised, having to work extremely long hours in difficult circumstances and struggling to make ends meet.

I will share with the House, as I did with the nurses and midwives in my electorate, that our Minister for Health has stated that nothing is more important to him as the Minister than investing in our essential health workers and that, working in partnership with the Nurses and Midwives' Association and NSW Health, there are steps being taken to make sure nurse retention levels are dealt with. We on this side have improved the retention rates since coming to government. We invested heavily in the nursing workforce, including putting in $572 million to save the jobs of over 1,000 nurses whose positions were unfunded from 1 July this year. We are rolling out the safe staffing levels, otherwise known as ratios, across the State; dealing with those gaps in emergency departments across metropolitan and regional New South Wales; and achieving nurse numbers at record levels, so increasing the workforce. Upon coming to government, the Minns Labor team removed the wages cap and delivered some much‑needed wage increases.

I will share with the Chamber some of the comments of my constituents who are nurses and midwives. They are aware that, after years of lack of investment under the previous Government, there is much work to be done to repair our healthcare system. They acknowledge the actions that have already been taken. One of my nurses thanked me for my ongoing support. Long before I was elected as a member I was working alongside our nurses and midwives. Another one said,

"I am both a Registered and a Nurse and a Registered Midwife, balancing shift work with caring for my two children as a single mother. The wage I currently earn means that we can only afford to live in a very small and old house on a busy road. My beautiful children are either up while it's still dark so that I can drop them off on my way to work, or staying with family while I work late or overnight shifts."

I acknowledged that that is a very tough situation, and I committed to taking these stories to our health Minister. That same nurse says:

"During COVID, while we worked on the front line, the government chose to freeze our wages. My colleagues and I felt so unappreciated and demoralised as we worked in very difficult and stressful conditions.

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For more than a decade, we've felt the impact of neglect under conservative governments. Our public health system has struggled from under-resourcing and lagging pay rates."

I acknowledge some of those tough stories that I heard from our nurses and midwives. I assure them that I will continue to raise those stories with our health Minister, our Treasurer and our Premier to acknowledge their work. I say to each and every one of them: We need to do more, and we will. There is a lot to recover in addressing those conditions. I value you.