Unions attended the second meeting since bargaining recommenced on 20 August with a clear message for Ahpra: our members need a pay rise, and they need it now.
While we would have liked to undertake some truth-telling about the earlier negotiations and document our expectations in a bargaining charter, it had become clear that doing so would be taking time away from pushing Ahpra to deliver an outcome.
Staff made it clear why they rejected the last offer through both Ahpra’s survey and the unions’ survey. Ahpra knows exactly what it needs to change for its position to be acceptable to a majority of staff. It just needs to make those changes.
We cleared the remaining issues from the agenda so Ahpra can come to the next meeting on 2 September and tell us its bargaining position. We can then seek your views and provide our feedback.
Ahpra refuses to confirm backdating
We want members to have more money in their pockets now. If that cannot be achieved, the next best outcome would be for Ahpra to guarantee that, whenever the new EA is finalised, the 2026 wage increase will be backdated to 1 July 2026.
It is worth remembering that these negotiations began in December 2025, after Ahpra had already delayed bargaining for 12 months. Ahpra staff have not received a wage increase since July 2025, while inflation has remained high.
At the previous meeting, we asked Ahpra to provide this commitment on 20 August. Its response was that it was not repared to make that commitment at this stage. This is disappointing.
A quarter of staff told us their predominant reason for rejecting the last offer was that the way bargaining had been onducted highlighted Ahpra management’s ongoing disrespect for staff. This refusal does not give us confidence that Ahpra has listened or intends to change its approach.
Authorised by Stewart Little (CPSU-SPSF Group), 160 Clarence Street, Sydney NSW 2000; Annie Butler (ANMF), 1/365 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000; and Alex Scott (Together Queensland), Level 4, 43 Peel Street, South Brisbane QLD 4101.