Media Release | 19 August 2026
Libby Mettam
Shadow Health Minister
Health Minister Meredith Hammat must explain why all 10 offers to conduct WA Health’s major workforce survey have been rejected, leaving thousands of healthcare workers without an opportunity to have their voices heard.
The Your Voice in Health survey was established to hear directly from employees across the WA health system, attracting more than 71,000 responses across surveys conducted in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.
The last survey, conducted in 2023, painted a grim picture, with just 28 per cent of health workers felt valued and respected; only 25 per cent believed their organisation cared about their health and wellbeing; and just 23 per cent did not believe those leading their organisation were honest.
The Department of Health last year went to tender for a provider to deliver a new series of workforce surveys, with the first expected this year and further surveys planned for 2028 and 2030.
The tender closed in September last year with 10 offers received. Every one of those offers has now been declined.
Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said Minister Hammat must explain why every offer was rejected and when WA’s healthcare workers would finally be given another opportunity to have their say.
“This survey gives tens of thousands of health workers a direct opportunity to tell the Government what is happening on the frontline, the pressures they face and what needs to change,” Ms Mettam said.
“Our doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and other healthcare workers are under enormous pressure every day, yet the Government has now gone three years without conducting its major workforce survey.
“July recorded almost 6000 hours of ambulance ramping, one in 10 patients are spending more than 12 hours in emergency departments and the number of nurses leaving the public health system has almost doubled in five years.
“These are exactly the circumstances in which a government should be listening more closely to its workforce, not leaving its principal staff survey in limbo.”
Last year, the Health Services Union WA was forced to conduct its own workforce survey because the Government had failed to run Your Voice in Health since 2023.
Ms Mettam said the Government then said the survey was coming back but since then it has gone to tender, received 10 offers and has rejected every single one.
“When Roger Cook was Health Minister, he called health workers ‘our most precious asset’ and thanked them for providing constructive feedback through this very survey,” she said.
“If the Premier still believes that, his Health Minister should be doing everything possible to hear directly from the people keeping our hospitals and health services running.
“But she has rejected every offer to conduct the survey and now needs to explain why she appears so reluctant to hear what her own workforce has to say.”
Media contact: Graham Mason 0419 194 792
