Mrs AAGAARD - 2002-11-28
Mrs AAGAARD (Health and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I have some further information regarding a question raised by the member for Port Darwin yesterday. The member for Port Darwin asked yesterday about the numbers of assaults on nurses this year.
First, the member cited a figure of 213 assaults on nurses while at work for last year. I am unsure of where this figure came. If she is drawing on the Estimates Committee information, the number provided was 223 in 2001-02, not 213.
There is also a question of what is meant by assault. The figure provided for the Estimates Committee is for aggressive incidents. This includes verbal aggression, physical threat and sexual assault. Sadly, there were 133 incidents of verbal aggression; 89 physical threats and one case of sexual assault last year. These data are for all employees in the department, not only for nurses.
Since July this year, there have been 33 incidents of physical assault against nurses that involved biting, scratching, hitting and more serious assault, and this compares with 82 incidents last financial year. Obviously, any assault is unacceptable, and in this context statistics are not useful.
Unfortunately, across Australia and indeed overseas, workplace violence is increasing. Considerable effort is now being invested by large and small organisations to respond to this disturbing trend. Yesterday, I also outlined measures being taken by my department and across portfolios in this regard, and the minister for education mentioned some of those today.
Madam Speaker, every employee has a right to feel safe, and this will be the focus of the attention of myself and my colleagues.
First, the member cited a figure of 213 assaults on nurses while at work for last year. I am unsure of where this figure came. If she is drawing on the Estimates Committee information, the number provided was 223 in 2001-02, not 213.
There is also a question of what is meant by assault. The figure provided for the Estimates Committee is for aggressive incidents. This includes verbal aggression, physical threat and sexual assault. Sadly, there were 133 incidents of verbal aggression; 89 physical threats and one case of sexual assault last year. These data are for all employees in the department, not only for nurses.
Since July this year, there have been 33 incidents of physical assault against nurses that involved biting, scratching, hitting and more serious assault, and this compares with 82 incidents last financial year. Obviously, any assault is unacceptable, and in this context statistics are not useful.
Unfortunately, across Australia and indeed overseas, workplace violence is increasing. Considerable effort is now being invested by large and small organisations to respond to this disturbing trend. Yesterday, I also outlined measures being taken by my department and across portfolios in this regard, and the minister for education mentioned some of those today.
Madam Speaker, every employee has a right to feel safe, and this will be the focus of the attention of myself and my colleagues.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016