Posts about the psychiatry industrial disputes in New South Wales are actively being removed from r/australia.
I found it odd that such a significant event—a mass resignation of a large percentage of the state’s psychiatrists—hadn’t been mentioned at all on r/australia.
This morning, I summarized the situation and posted my summary there. Within two hours, it was the top post on r/australia with over 1,500 upvotes and nearly 300 comments, most of which strongly supported the psychiatrists’ industrial action. Shortly afterward, the post was removed for having an “altered headline.” I assumed I must have violated a rule about URL content, so I reposted with citations for every claim I made. Nonetheless, I was subsequently banned from r/australia for making a “failed politics” post—even though I didn’t mention any political party or specific politicians.
Interestingly, the original posts are still up, so you can follow the discussion here:
The public mental health system in New South Wales is facing a significant crisis as a 198 of the state's 295 of staff specialist psychiatrists have resigned over concerns about inadequate pay, understaffing, and deteriorating patient care conditions. The psychiatrists are demanding a 20-25% pay increase to achieve parity with counterparts in other states, such as Victoria and Queensland, where remuneration is approximately 30% higher. NSW health offered a 0% pay rise offer as part of their discussions with any increments dependent on "efficiency gains.". In contrast, NSW police officers have recently secured a substantial pay increase. Non-commissioned officers are set to receive pay rises between 22.3% and 39.4% over four years, marking the highest increase in three decades.
The NSW government has accused the Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation (ASMOF), the union representing these psychiatrists, of coordinating the mass resignations. ASMOF has denied these allegations, stating that while they support their members, they did not orchestrate the resignations. NSW Industrial Relations Commission has since issued a court order prohibiting ASMOF from discussing resignations. Many psychiatrists are likening this order to forced labor and trainee psychiatrists have expressed concerns about patient safety and untenable workloads, fearing that the mass resignations will exacerbate these issues and limit there ability to progress in training due to a lack of supervision.
Solution will likely be a combination of paying locums up to $3,050 a day and replacing domestic workforce with immigrant psychiatrists. This occurs in the context several recent changes implemented by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. From 20th of December AHPRA provided a new "fast-track" pathway — not endorsed by any australian specialist medical college — for foreign psychiatrists to enter the workforce in Australia by bypassing college specialist registration and assessment which will enable them to practice without specialist college standard setting and oversight. While this is pathways is currently only open to general practitioners, anesthetists and psychiatrists, from 2025 this pathway will be expanded to general medicine, paediatrics, and diagnostic radiology—moves many fear will suppress further wage negotiations and erode standards of care.
Further changes come in April 2025, when AHPRA will lower English proficiency requirements for overseas doctors. This all occurs as 2023–24 saw the largest influx of foreign doctors in Australian history, almost outnumbering the number of new domestic graduates 2:1.
I’m curious why they seem so intent on preventing discussion of this topic.