mrs gaunty is an operating theatre nurse manager and runs 4 suites flat out all day.
She too is driven by a higher calling, is already getting more than that BUT she is also in the middle of negotiating even more moolah than that to better reflect the scope of her responsibilities. And to compensate for the stress and the grinding hours.
A couple of her nursing friends are married to RFDS pilots having met them on the job, they are all earning more than their husbands
I'm with
amos, it is a mystery of the universe why RFDS pilots salaries are not pegged to at least the nurses.
I understand the history and the why of it but it's certainly high time they were recognised for their skills and abilities.
Australian RFDS pilots are a unique and highly skilled brand who routinely operate under and in conditions that would have most pilots calling for the doctor and airline pilots simply refusing point blank.
When in the depths of a cold dark and stormy night and from the comfort of my warm bed, I hear one of their aircraft moaning off into the north to pick up a casualty or emergency, probably with a black hole approach at the other end, my thoughts go with them and with thanks that it's not me. Except on those glorious full moon, gin clear nights
The days of running on donations and willing hands are long gone, the operational costs are picked up by Govt and that includes the doctors and nurses, why not the pilots.
Maybe they would even be seen as a legitimate full on career prospect, instead of the way to somewhere else which is why I suspect it has been difficult to keep the pilots together in any form of action.
The Australia outside the big cities would not work without them.
Now if our Dick were to get behind this wholly Australian exercise and fight for the RFDS pilots in Canberra and the States and Territories, I might even be persuaded as to his Australian bona fides.
But I guess at the end of the day whilst there are many many more pilots than jobs and there are many many more jobs than nurses, it will be a difficult call.
And I would be an absolute fool to believe that were they to go out, there wouldn't be a long queue of their "fellow" pilots lined up for their jobs.
plus ca change!