PM Transcripts

I 76
PRIME MINISTER
E. O. E. -PROOF ONLY
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE WITH LOCAL MEDIA,
LAUNCESTON 23 OCTOBER 1983
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is it Federal Government policy
that the responsibility for nurs~ s education be transferred
from universities to colleges of advanced education by 1990?
PM: It's not from universities.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, put in control
PM: As it exists now, nurses training is hospital based essenitially.
We have responded to requests from the Nurses Federations themselves
and a number of State Governments, that the system of nurse
education should be shifted from a hospital based approach to the
colleges of advanced education. This has been pressed upon us by
the nurses organisations of Australia and, as I say, by some States,
and we have responded to it. And the decision that was taken to
it as a Cabinet is that this transformation would take place with
the last change-over taking place in 1990, so that by 1993 it will
be completely based on CAEs. Now this has met with the approval,
as I say, of the nurses organisations and all other States. Here,
apparently, there has been a suggestion by this State Government
or State Minister that you should have something different, that
you should go into the universities. You can't possibly have a
differential situation like that where the rest of Australia is
willingly through their governments, the Territories and the
Ministers organisations, basing it on the CAE system and here in
this State have a two stream situation of the CAE and the
university. I assunxe that good sense will prevail here and that
the CAEs will be abl'e to negotiate with -the State Government
as will happen in every other State.