LIVE UPDATES: Nurses rally at Parliament House in Australian Nursing Federation union strike amid pay dispute

It would cost “billions extra” to give-in to the nurses union’s demand for a 5 per cent pay rise as the entire public sector workforce would expect the same increase, Mark McGowan said.

“The reason it costs billions is there’s flow-ons across the workforce as well,” he said.

“We want to make sure we protect the State from the recession that’s coming next year. The way to protect the State is to pay our workforce well but keep financial capacity so if we need to spend next year to keep people employed, we can.

“We’re just trying to pay our workforce well, pay our nurses better than the other States are offering, put in place nurse-to-patient ratios.

“But retain some capacity to ensure that if we need to spend to keep people employed, to put in place capital works, to keep a low interest bill down -- particularly with a recession coming -- we can.”

The Premier said the 5 per cent ask from the Australian Nursing Federation was “not reasonable” and “the State can’t do it”, despite the Government’s record $6 billion surplus last financial year.

Accused the ANF leadership of acting “erraticly” and “not in a rational way” after last week giving an in-principle agreement to an offer only to reneg after an outcry from some members.

Mark McGowan wasn’t in Perth office to witness the strike outside his office, he was 180km away in Collie, where he spoke to the media earlier in the morning.

“I just urge nurses to stay at work today,” the Premier said.

“The offer that was made by the State Government last week was accepted by the nurses union and was a terrific arrangement that provided generous pay increases, plus nurse-to-patient ratios, plus enhanced allowances -- most of what the nurses union was after for decades.

“So, I don’t understand why this industrial election is taking place against the orders of the Industrial Relations Commission. The Industrial Relations Commission has issued orders and they are completely independent of government -- completely independent.

“They are a judicial body, we have no control, they are an independent umpire that’s been around for 120 years to resolve these sorts of issues and the nurses union is ignoring their orders.

“That’s actually against the law, that is unlawful activity that the nurses union is engaged in.

“I just urge them to pull back, accept the very good offer put by the Government, which is better than wha the vast majority of States are offering, and will ensure our nurses are well paid, get nurse-patient-ratios, increased allowances and we can move on.”

He said his Government had “tried everything to try and resolve these issues” and condemned the ANF for today’s “unlawful activity”, which ignored IRC orders to cease strikes that risked patient safety.

“It’s against the law what the union is doing,” Mr McGowan added.

“They seem to be flouting the law with impunity and seem to be ignoring it. I don’t understand this behavior because last week they agreed to the offer we put.

“We negotiated in good faith for weeks and weeks and weeks ... the union got what they asked for, agreed to it and then backflipped. It’s very hard to deal with people who do that.”

Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam labelled the dispute an “absolute mess” and a “shambles” that Mark McGowan “could have fixed months ago”.

The Opposition has repeatedly said it does not does support the strike action and urged the ANF leadership to obey the workplace umpire’s orders.

“It’s distressing to see scenes like this today,” Ms Mettam, who on Thursday described the union’s push for a 5 per cent wage increase as “reasonable”, said.

“The McGowan Government need to step up, the nurses federation need to step up as well and negotiate in good faith on behalf of WA health workers and patients.”

WA Health have scrambled to cover shifts and ensure patient safety isn’t compromised by the industrial action.

A spokesman for the health provider said the safety of patients in State hospitals was the “top priority” across all services.

“On any given day there are around 650 surgeries performed across the WA Health system,” she told The West Australian.

“Most – around 400 – are Category 2 and 3 surgeries many of which have had to be rescheduled.

“Some Category 1 surgeries may also be impacted by the ANF strike.

“In addition, WA Health typically has around 14,000 appointments a day scheduled across the health system.

“Some of these – including outpatient appointments, mental health services and community health services – such as child health appointments – will be impacted.”

Australian Nurses Union boss Janet Reah has wrapped up the mass rally following a march to Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson’s office at Dumas house.

While at the front of the government building, roughly 3000 nurses and midwives chanted “Amber-Jade give us a raise”.

Ms Reah warned the State Government to listen to their demands or action would continue.

Nurses have since been directed to their buses to return to State-run and private facilities.

From Peter Law:

The 3000-strong rally has now made its way up the hill to Dumas House, the State Government’s HQ.

Ms Reah returns to the microphone, turns to the office tower behind her and asks, “Has anyone seen the Health Minister?”

The nurses and midwives responded with a deafening wall of noise.

ANF WA boss Janet Reah has concluded the rally at Parliament House by urging union members to continue their campaign for better pay and conditions.

“In 2017 when this Government came to power we had the highest paid nurses and midwives in Australia and there was no problem attracting staff. Now we have the second lowest paid nurses in the country and massive problems recruiting staff,” she said.

“This Government has not enabled a safe environment for nurses and midwives and their patients for over two years. We have record levels of ambulance ranking and elective surgery lists have blown out from 15,000 to 33,000 in the time that this government has been in power.

“This campaign is about respect, retention and giving our patients the care and attention that they don’t only deserve but they can have a rights to -- they have a right for this care.

“This pay rise that we want is about future proofing our health system with a competitive wage that can attract nurses and midwives from other jurisdictions. The Government has given us ratios, but but without a competitive salary we won’t be able to implement in the ratios easily.”

Thounds of nurses and midwives are now marching the 500 metres to Dumas House, the State Government’s headquarters in West Perth.

Goldfields nurse Janet Walder was a finalist in the community health category of the WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards.

The awards were set to be held on Friday night but were cancelled at the last minute by the WA Health Department executive due to the strike.

“(The awards were) a time to pat us all on the back and with one foul swoop they turned around went: ‘Yeah, you’re excellent enough - but you’re not excellent enough to get a pay rise and good ratios’.

“I love the fact that we are standing up and we are making a noise.”