A NURSE allegedly raped as she slept in her quarters on a remote Torres Strait island is considering returning to work, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says.
The 27-year-old nurse had been working on Mabuiag Island only a few months when she was assaulted in the early hours of February 5.
After experiencing difficulties leaving the island and returning to her home in Sydney, the nurse then had her wages cut through what Ms Bligh last week described as a bureaucratic "stuff-up".
Nurses in Queensland's far north have been angered by the attack and delivered an ultimatum to Queensland Health to fix basic security such as locks and screens in Torres Strait facilities or they will leave the region.
As health officials today met community leaders on Mabuiag, Ms Bligh said the nurse was considering returning to work for Queensland Health.
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The situation is outrageous. The calls for city folk to care for the sick in remote communities cannot be met if the government is to be so careless of its workers.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Healthy Defiance, Raped Nurse to Work Again
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'Raped' nurse may return to work
By Drew Cratchley and Gabrielle Dunlevy
A NURSE allegedly raped as she slept in her quarters on a remote Torres Strait island is considering returning to work, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says.
The 27-year-old nurse had been working on Mabuiag Island only a few months when she was assaulted in the early hours of February 5.
After experiencing difficulties leaving the island and returning to her home in Sydney, the nurse then had her wages cut through what Ms Bligh last week described as a bureaucratic "stuff-up".
Nurses in Queensland's far north have been angered by the attack and delivered an ultimatum to Queensland Health to fix basic security such as locks and screens in Torres Strait facilities or they will leave the region.
As health officials today met community leaders on Mabuiag, Ms Bligh said the nurse was considering returning to work for Queensland Health.
"I understand that there are some discussions about her coming back into the employment of Queensland Health, whether it's in that community or another one, but that's obviously a matter, ultimately, for her to decide," Ms Bligh said in Brisbane.
The Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) welcomed today's meeting on Mabuiag, which it is hoped will help resolve a number of issues relating to the safety of public servants on the island.
"We're pleased that they are going there to look at it themselves," QNU assistant secretary Beth Mohle said.
However, Ms Mohle said the union had received reports nothing had been done to improve nurses' accommodation on the island since the alleged rape.
"Apparently there was an issue last week with a midwife going over there to do a clinic and was supposed to be staying in the facility overnight, and the locks still haven't been fixed," she said.
As a result the nurse was flown out of Mabuiag that night to avoid staying on the island.
The Premier acknowledged Mabuiag could be left without a dedicated health worker for some time.
"Mabuiag is a very small island with a very small population," Ms Bligh said.
"A number of their health needs for many years have been met by having visiting health workers and that is continuing.
"We are very confident that we will be able to provide another nurse into that community.
"But it might take a little time, as it does in remote communities.
"It is absolutely imperative that every one of our staff feels safe, and where their accommodation can be upgraded to ensure that, we're in the process of doing that."
The QNU will conduct a phone hook-up with its members in the far north tomorrow to monitor the progress of security improvements and to discuss the March 28 deadline for their proposed industrial action.
The answer is not out bush
Andrew Bolt
Tony Koch reports on the disgraceful treatment of a nurse raped on a Torres Strait island community and adds:
Mabuiag, like the majority of indigenous communities in Queensland, treats visiting police, teachers, nurses, health workers and other public servants like unwanted and unnecessary filth. They are not welcomed on the island and usually not the slightest effort is made to make them safe or comfortable.
For instance, when the nurse arrived on Mabuiag, the clinic and quarters were filthy. There was no running water, no gas to run the stove, no air-conditioning working, intermittent power and no security on her building.
Her report on arrival to her superiors set out that the flat was “filthy with mould and fungus growing everywhere; chewing gum in blinds, used ear-sticks in blinds and cupboards, stove covered with grease, bed bugs, no television, no water to wash with or flush toilets, security screen door at the front hanging off its hinges, no air-conditioning and no blinds or curtains in bedroom or bathroom”.
Government plans - like this one - that think Aboriginal dysfunction can be fixed by finding more white professionals like this nurse and sending them to serve in such dangerous, harsh and contemptuous communities are destined to fail.
The solution, hard though it sounds, is more likely to look this this one, proposed by Steve Etherington, who has taught for decades in Aboriginal communities:
Put money into boarding schools and urban school needs. Fund Boarding Schools, including creating new ones as needed, and tighten the conditions to keep kids in school - for example, disallowing so-called cultural absences… There is already clear evidence that in many remote communities parents are willing to send children away to boarding school… In the longer term, plan to divert money from any programmes that presently support outstations or remote communiity infrastructure and use it to fund urban Aboriginal housing and school attendance.
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