Queensland hospitals are in crisis — not just from underfunding or overcrowding, but from violence.
Real, escalating, often brutal violence.
In the past year alone, more than 16,000 violent incidents were recorded against healthcare workers in Queensland hospitals. That’s more than 45 assaults every single day — and those are just the ones reported.
The Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland (NPAQ) is launching Campaign CODE BLACKOUT to expose the systemic failures behind this crisis and demand urgent, structural solutions. This is a campaign built by nurses and midwives, for nurses and midwives. Because silence is complicity — and we refuse to stand by.
A System Failing Its Frontline
Our members are reporting being kicked, stalked, harassed, and bashed — in corridors, in car parks, even just metres from emergency department doors. The most shocking part? Security guards are often told not to intervene.
At Ipswich Hospital, a nurse was assaulted metres from the ED. Two colleagues rushed to help — one broke their wrist. Meanwhile, hospital security stood by and watched.
Tragically, this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s happening across the state — in Cairns, Logan, Caboolture, Redcliffe and beyond. And it’s not just the violence inside hospital walls. It’s the unsafe streets, the car parks without lighting or CCTV, the lack of duress alarms, inadequate parking, and non-existent or unreliable shuttle services.
It is, bluntly, an occupational safety collapse.
CODE BLACKOUT: What You Can Do Right Now
We’re launching Operation CODE BLACKOUT and we need you to take action.
📣 Share this link: https://npaq.redunion.com.au/occupational-violence-campaign
🔁 Post it to your social media and in your nursing groups
📲 Drop it into your ward or professional chat
🗣 Ask just one colleague to take the 2-minute survey
Your stories are our greatest weapon. Every response helps us push for hospital police officers, real safety policy, and a health system that protects its own.
Our Demands: Hospital-Based Police and Local Power
CODE BLACKOUT is not just another awareness campaign. It’s a demand for action — backed by frontline stories, public outrage, and proven global solutions.
We’re calling for:
🛡 Hospital-Based Police Officers (HBPOs)
- Police officers embedded in hospitals
- Security authority to intervene inside and outside hospital grounds
- Trained in trauma response and de-escalation
- Already successful in hospitals in the UK, US, and Canada
🏥 Locally Elected Hospital Boards
Top-down bureaucracy has failed. It’s time for community-led governance — with real accountability and faster, more responsive solutions.
🚨 A Statewide Violence Register and Mandatory Reporting Reform
No act of violence should be ignored, downplayed, or hidden from view.
🚗 Safe, Secure and Affordable Car Parking for All Staff
Because nurses shouldn’t fear walking to or from work.
Our Wins: Proof That We Can Win When We Fight
Already, your voices are working. At Cairns Hospital, thanks to relentless pressure from NPAQ members through our Car Parking Campaign, management has committed to:
- 100 new staff car parks
- A larger, more reliable shuttle service
- A long-term plan for a multi-storey car park
- Increased security patrols and a review of staff safety systems
This is a real win — and it proves what we already know: when nurses and midwives fight together, change follows.
How You Can Help
This campaign is just beginning. We need every voice. Every shift. Every story.
📣 Take the 2-minute survey and share it with your colleagues:
👉 https://npaq.redunion.com.au/occupational-violence-campaign
📢 Share on social media with #CodeBlackout and tag @NPAQ
📨 Email your MP and tell them to support HBPOs and local hospital governance
This Is Our Line in the Sand
For too long, violence has been treated like just another part of the job. But we are drawing a line.
- It is not normal to be assaulted at work.
- It is not legal for a nurse to be left undefended.
- It is not moral for a system to do nothing while its carers bleed.
We are nurses. We are midwives. We are proud.
And we are in CODE BLACKOUT until Queensland takes our safety seriously.
Kara Thomas
President – Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland
📞 1300 263 374
🌐 npaq.redunion.com.au
