The NSW Government has reached agreement with the Health Services Union (HSU) on a record pay increase for paramedics.

When this agreement is confirmed in the Award by the Industrial Relations Commission, almost 5,000 paramedics will receive an average wage increase of 25 per cent over four years – with increases ranging from 11 to 29 per cent.

It delivers professional recognition and remuneration to reflect the move towards university qualification of paramedics and registration requirements with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

The landmark agreement will:

·         Create a new salary structure for paramedics to remove barriers to clinical innovation; deliver a professional salary framework and create an expanded salary range for new paramedicine practice; and

·         Enable opportunities to expand the scope of paramedic practice through a new workforce structure fit for the future.

From the very beginning, this government wanted to deliver professional pay and recognition for paramedics, recognising their special case.

This follows 12 years of wage suppression and a difficult fiscal position left over by the former Liberal National government.

The half a billion-dollar four-year agreement will be partially funded from the Essential Services Fund and savings from the Health portfolio including through savings associated with recruitment challenges.

A decade of failure to invest in front line workers cannot be fixed overnight.

However, due to the Minns Labor Government’s careful and responsible approach to repair the budget and reprioritise spending – which we have done without privatisation or imposing an unfair wage cap on our essential workers – we are able to provide this record pay increase to paramedics in NSW.

We are a government with a clear focus – managing our finances responsibly so we can provide support when you need it most and improve the essential services that we all rely on, now and into the future.

In delivering professional rates, our first priority is to retain our existing paramedics while still delivering critical increases in paramedic numbers where they are needed most.

Under the Coalition, paramedics were left to be the lowest paid in the country. Under Labor, they will now be among the highest paid.

We thank Gerard Hayes and the membership of the HSU for their work in helping reach a resolution.