Fined for Staying With a Suicidal Client: NPAA Takes Frankston Staff Safety to WorkSafe

Frankston health and community service workers are being yelled at, followed, threatened and assaulted on the walk between their cars and their workplaces. Some are walking up to a kilometre in winter darkness. Others are paying $20 a shift to park. And some are being fined for staying in the room with a client in crisis instead of running out to move their vehicle.

The Nurses Professional Association of Australia has taken it to WorkSafe Victoria.

On 5 August 2026, NPAA President Kara Thomas wrote jointly to Bayside Health Peninsula Chief Executive Jana Gazarek, Wellways Australia CEO Laura Collister, Frankston City Council CEO Tennille Bradley and Mayor Cr Sue Baker, copied to the Victorian Health Minister, Shadow Minister for Health Georgie Crozier and Member for Frankston Paul Edbrooke.

READ OUR LETTER HERE

The letter was written jointly for a reason. This crisis sits across a health service, a community services provider, a local council and a state government. Not one of them can fix it alone — and every one of them has been able to point at the others while nothing changes.

What our members told us

NPAA surveyed staff across Peninsula University Hospital, the Tarnbuk Centre, the Frankston Mental Health and Wellbeing Local consortium, Wellways Frankston, Windana, FaMDAS, Rosebud Hospital and community mental health services across the Frankston CBD and Nepean Highway precinct. Registered nurses, allied health clinicians, lived experience and peer workers, administrative staff and managers all responded.

They described the same streets, the same car parks, the same fear and the same absence of action.

"I was unfortunately assaulted at work on shift in our intake space by a local homeless man who didn't have adequate access to support and services such as food and amenities. I had to take 2 weeks of stress leave as he would remain in the community and continued attacking staff for approx. 1 week." — Frankston Mental Health and Wellbeing Local

"I've been yelled at, stared at and warned to not come any closer... and sworn at/threatened simply from walking past someone. All of this is happening just from the car park and on the short and isolated walk by Kananook creek to my work building." — Staff member, Frankston Local / Wellways

"There are some moments that I've felt uneasy walking the 1km to my car from Tarnbuk. I've bought myself a 'Kepler' alarm (it lights up and makes a tremendous sound) as I was feeling much less safe returning to my car after work." — Clinician, Tarnbuk Centre

"I have now resigned and so happy to never go back. Worry about my colleagues still there." — Registered nurse, Frankston Public Surgical Centre

One member has accumulated roughly $400 in parking fines this year, including on days she did not feel safe leaving the building to move her car. Another has lodged five appeals on the grounds that she was with a vulnerable client at the time. Every appeal was refused.

"It is not appropriate or safe for me to interrupt a session, particularly when supporting a suicidal client, in order to move my vehicle." — Clinician, Frankston CBD

A manager put a number on the operational cost: clinicians lose 10 to 15 minutes every time they move a vehicle, which across an eight-hour shift adds up to 45 minutes of lost clinical time per clinician, per day. As she said, it "directly impacts consumer care."

This is not a parking inconvenience. It is an occupational health and safety failure, and it is costing patient care.

What NPAA has asked for

The letter set out what each party can reasonably deliver, and asked them to respond to one another rather than in isolation.

Frankston City Council — designate a health and community service worker parking area in the CBD and Nepean Highway precinct, introduce a Frankston Health and Community Worker Parking Permit or reinstate four-hour parking on streets recently cut to two hours, and review the fines issued to clinicians who were caring for people in crisis.

Bayside Health Peninsula — fund a staff shuttle service, as Barwon Health has been asked to do in Geelong and as Ipswich and Cairns hospitals have already done in Queensland. Increase security across afternoon, evening and shift-change periods. Review how safety-related operational changes are risk-assessed with frontline staff. Provide real post-incident support instead of simply withdrawing staff from contact.

Wellways Australia — stand alongside NPAA so Council and Government receive one unified position from the sector, support Frankston staff to escalate fines issued while delivering clinical care, and confirm support for designated parking, a shuttle and a permanent onsite security presence.

The Victorian Government — restore adequate pharmacotherapy capacity in Frankston after the January 2024 closure of the Young Street clinic that delivered more than ten per cent of Victoria's pharmacotherapy services, fund extended-hours mental health, alcohol and other drug and homelessness outreach, and apply to Frankston the same expectation of measurable action recently delivered at University Hospital Geelong.

Where it stands

WorkSafe Victoria has opened a case. On 10 August, WorkSafe confirmed a case has been created.

The story went national. On 11 August, the Herald Sun ran an exclusive on our members' accounts and the WorkSafe complaint, including the Frankston worker who was yelled at and threatened simply for walking past someone, and the clinician who bought an emergency alarm to walk to her car.

Read the story here

Frankston City Council responded on 19 August. CEO Tennille Bradley confirmed Council is investigating four-hour parking on the southern side of O'Grady Avenue, between Horne Street and Nepean Highway. Community consultation closes on 8 September 2026, with implementation expected by the end of September. Council says this could deliver around 30 additional longer-duration spaces.

Read their response here

That is movement, and we acknowledge it. But it is not yet the answer.

Council has declined to introduce a dedicated worker permit. It will not open its Council-managed car park near the Frankston Local, citing existing lease agreements. It does not propose to change restrictions in Gould Street, Ebdale Street or Nepean Highway. It has not addressed the request to restore four-hour parking at the Kananook Creek end of Playne Street, a specific, straightforward change that would directly help the staff we are fighting for. And on fines, workers have been pointed back to the same internal review process that has already refused every appeal our members have lodged.

We also want clarity on who the O'Grady Avenue parking is actually for. That area directly services the Police Station, the Magistrates' Court and the Frankston Justice Service Centre. We understand the Justice Service Centre was granted its planning permit with fewer parking spaces than would normally be required, on the assumption that people attending would largely use public transport. If pressure from those services is now being pushed onto surrounding public parking, then 30 four-hour spaces may never reach a mental health clinician at all.

Still outstanding: substantive responses from Bayside Health Peninsula, Wellways Australia and the Victorian Government.

Geelong proved this is solvable

In June and July, after an attack on two nurses walking to their cars following a night shift, NPAA surveyed our members at University Hospital Geelong. Within weeks: 21 new lights installed to ISO standard, CCTV upgraded to 24/7 active monitoring of staff car parks with four new Victoria Police-monitored cameras funded, increased security across afternoon, evening and overnight shift changes, a trial of dedicated PM shift parking, a new Security and Emergency Management Coordinator, and a commitment from the City of Greater Geelong to explore a council parking partnership.

Read more about Geelong here

That is what happens when a health service, a council and a government stop deferring to one another.

There is no reason Frankston should receive less. Our members work in the precinct with the highest demand for alcohol and drug services in metropolitan Melbourne and the highest rate of rough sleeping of any local government area in Victoria.

What members can do right now

Make a submission on the O'Grady Avenue consultation before it closes on 8 September 2026. Council decisions are shaped by the objections and submissions they receive. If you work in the precinct, tell them what four-hour parking would actually mean for you, and what it wouldn't fix.

Keep reporting. Every incident report, every WorkCover claim, every fine appeal is evidence.

Talk to us. If you have received a parking fine while providing clinical care, been assaulted or threatened at work, or had an incident dismissed as part of the job, contact NPAA on 1300 263 374 or hotline@npaa.asn.au.

Our members are not asking for sympathy. They are not asking for a parking concession as a convenience.

They are asking to walk to their cars without an alarm in their hand or a spouse on the phone. They are asking not to be fined for staying with a suicidal client. They are asking that the violence they absorb every day stop being treated as an ordinary feature of the job.

NPAA will keep pushing.