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News Release Nurses Midwives aboriginal and torres strait islander NAIDOC Week 2026 The 2026 national theme, 50 Years of Deadly, marking five decades of NAIDOC Week is dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures. For fifty years, NAIDOC themes have spoken to survival, resistance, culture and pride. 50 Years of Deadly is both a reflection and a declaration.

The ANMF has urged federal MPs to strengthen the National Employment Standards (NES), arguing that current provisions fail to meet the needs of a highly feminised workforce and fall short of the Fair Work Act's objectives of job security and gender equality.

In 2024, the ANMF’s landmark Aged Care Work Value Case delivered significant wage increases for nurses and AINs across aged care. That win was only the beginning. The ANMF is now pursuing a second Work Value Case, seeking a 35% increase to minimum award wages under the Nurses Award 2020 for all RNs, midwives, ENs and AINs working outside aged care. Here’s why it’s important for you.

Join us online for the South Pacific Nurses Forum (SPNF) conference Strengthening National Nursing Associations to Support Our Members: Amplifying Pacific Voices, on 3 July 2026. The 2026 SPNF one-day forum will feature keynote presentations and sessions hosted by national nursing association leaders from across the South Pacific.

Cultural safety is an outcome of nursing and midwifery education that enables safe service to be defined by those that receive the service and is a way of providing care that is holistic, free of bias and racism, challenges belief based upon assumption and is done in a respectful manner.

The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2026 is All In, a call for all Australians to commit wholeheartedly to reconciliation every single day. The dates for NRW remain the same each year: 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey – the successful 1967 referendum, and theHigh Court Mabo decision respectively.

Join the ANMF as we lead a panel discussion featuring the Climate and Health Alliance and Emma Bacon, Executive Director of Sweltering Cities, exploring how climate change and our continued reliance on fossil fuels is driving up everyday costs of communities across the country.

The ANMF has told a federal inquiry examining whether the National Employment Standards (NES) are fit for purpose that the current criteria employees must meet to be considered a shift worker is too narrow. Many nurses working irregular hours, such as night shifts, are missing out on an extra week of paid annual leave.

The ANMF has a new Federal Assistant Secretary. Registered nurse Catelyn Richards has stepped into the national leadership role with a background that spans paediatric nursing, union organising and climate advocacy. From the bedside at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital to campaigning for stronger action on climate and health, she brings a broad perspective on the challenges facing nurses and midwives today.

Two Australian war nurses have been permanently commemorated in their local Victorian shire ahead of ANZAC Day, with the unveiling of bronze busts honouring their service and sacrifice during World War II. Bronze busts of Oxley Shire nurses Sister Dorothy ‘Bud’ Elmes and Sister Caroline ‘Carrie’ Ennis were officially unveiled on 28 March 2026 at Oxley Memorial Park, creating a lasting memorial to two women whose lives were lost during the war.