Nurses get historic pay rise, but critical hospital staff shortage remain, said NSWNMA St George Hospital Branch Secretary, Emma Kingi, pictured with her son at a recent rally. Picture supplied

For Jannali nurse Emma Kingi, the state government's "historic" pay announcement is a bittersweet milestone that fails to bridge the gap between a record-breaking raise and the reality of surviving on the front lines at St George Hospital.

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As the NSWNMA St George Hospital Branch Secretary, Ms Kingi has spent years watching colleagues exit the profession, and while she acknowledges the Industrial Relations Commission's decision to award a pay rise of between 16 and 28 per cent, she remains wary of the future.

"We acknowledge IRC's decision in awarding us and appreciate it because we have been undervalued," Ms Kingi said. "It's nice to hear and it's long overdue. But at St George Hospital, it's not enough to fix the systemic issues we have. So while this is a historic rise and the highest wage increase we'd had for over two decades, it's not going to solve all the problems we face."

The ruling, backdated to July 2025, provides a significant reset for the state's 70,000 nurses and midwives, but Ms Kingi warns that the lack of pay parity with other states continues to drive a mass exodus.

"Retaining staff-we often lose staff across state lines where they get a better pay," she said, adding that the shortage of midwives is currently even more "disheartening" than the nursing crisis.

For Ms Kingi, who is balancing the demands of a young family with the pressures of a stressed health system, the financial relief is immediate but basic.

"I have a young son and my backpay will now cover the shortfall of what I'm behind in daycare and mortgage expenses, but we are also asking for a liveable wage-to be able to buy groceries and not have to decide if I buy nappies or fruit one week. We're not asking for money to travel overseas. It's for basics. Our nurses are being haemorrhaged."

The Minns government has championed the ruling as a victory for fairness, with Treasurer Daniel Mookhey describing nurses as the "beating heart" of the workforce and Health Minister Ryan Park labeling it a "fair outcome" made possible by scrapping the previous wages cap.

However, at the ward level, the "mixed emotions" cited by the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) are palpable. Ms Kingi highlighted a thinning "middle class" of experience at St George Hospital, where senior staff are left to mentor a large cohort of juniors because mid-career professionals are simply not staying.

"What ends up happening is you end up with a cohort of very experienced midwives who are the seniors on the floor, with very junior, newly-graduated midwives, and what you lose and not retain are the ones who will stay," she said. "Those in-between staff with great experience... that puts a lot of pressure on senior staff."

The burden is further compounded by a "hangover" from the pandemic, where nurses continue to perform domestic cleaning and administrative tasks originally picked up during COVID-19 staffing shortages.

These non-nursing duties, combined with a wage that has struggled to keep pace with inflation, have left even multi-generational nursing families questioning the path.

"I come from a family of nurses. My mum is a midwife. She's been a nurse for 50 years and been stuck on the same pay for eight years," Ms Kingi said.

Despite the record increase, she remains hesitant to encourage her own relatives to follow in her footsteps. "I think the government is relying on the fact that we are caring people in a caring profession who will still do our job even though the pay is not very great. But we need to encourage the future generation. I wouldn't recommend this profession to my young relatives. It will be a struggle, and it shouldn't be. Gone are the days where nursing is an attractive profession."

Emma Kingi said a pay rise, while long overdue, doesn't solve the hospital crisis. Behind the pay deal, the St George Hospital nurse says it's been a fight for a liveable wage. Picture supplied