Parliamentary Friends of Nursing

The COVID-19 pandemic turned the spotlight on the health care system and highlighted just how important the nursing profession is. More than half of all health care workers are nurses and play a crucial role in Australia’s health care system.

These issues created an urgent need for our profession to engage with parliamentarians and vice versa. In June 2021 the ACN launched the Parliamentary Friends of Nursing as a forum open to all parliamentarians to meet to discuss a range of issues facing the nursing profession and how the nursing profession can provide solutions to the issues facing Australia’s health system.

In 2022, the Parliamentary Friends of Nursing group was re-established for the 47th parliament and the following three Members of Parliament are currently co-convenors:

Strategic importance of “Parliamentary Friends of” groups

These multi-partisan groups enable organisations to advocate directly to influential government and opposition members of parliament. They also enable an organisation to promote the work they are doing and to strengthen brand awareness across the parliament and the media. These groups are open to all Senators and Members of Parliament.

The objectives of Parliamentary Friends of Nursing

The objective of Parliamentary Friends of Nursing is to increase awareness of a range of issues facing the nursing profession, including but not limited to:

  • The role of nurses in supporting positive health and social outcomes.
  • The workforce and occupational safety issues facing nurses in Australia.
  • The need for nurses to be able to work to their full scope of practice.
  • The requirement to support further education for emerging nurse leaders.
  • Gender equity issues that directly and indirectly affect nurses.

Upcoming events

We are pleased to confirm the following two Parliamentary Friends of Nursing events will be held at Parliament House later this year:

Nurses and climate change

Date: Wednesday 15 November 2023
Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Room: Reps Committee Room 1R1, Parliament House
Invitation only

Past events

We were pleased to host our first Parliamentary Friends of Nursing event at Parliament House on 17 June 2021.