From The Melbourne Age - Milestones June 6, 2008

Author: Rose Scott and Rosealie Vallance
Publisher: Fairfax
Publication: The Age, Page 18 (Fri 6 Jun 2008)
Edition: First
Section: Metro

A way with words and a knack for healing industrial and other wounds

PAULINE SCOTT

HEALTH PROFESSIONAL

24-8-1960 - 14-5-2008

PAULINE Scott, whose innate talent for resolving industrial disputes saw her play key roles as a leader of the nursing union and then on the other side of the fence as a human resources manager, has died of cancer at home in Alphington. She was 47.

Pauline was five months into her job as HR manager at the Mercy Hospital for Women, overseeing its move from East Melbourne to Heidelberg, when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer four years ago.

Earlier, in November 1987, at just 27 years of age, she was elected president of the Victorian branch of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation after leading her comrades on the picket line the previous year in a defining moment for Victorian nurses.

The union had struggled to win better wages and conditions and eventually took on the state Labor government - and won significant changes for the profession and, in the process, politicised a generation of nurses.

Pauline was a job representative at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in October 1986 when she led nurses out on to the picket line, where they stayed for 50 days and 50 nights. She linked arms with her nursing comrades to stop trucks entering the hospital grounds, and dodged linen bags and garbage that were thrown at them. The good fight that she spearheaded led to her election as president in 1987-88.

Pauline was born into an Irish Catholic family in Essendon: her father, Michael, was a manager in the Post Master General's Department; mother, Celine, snapped up Gough Whitlam's invitation to adult education, gaining her matriculation and then an arts degree. 

From her family she inherited a sense of humour, a way with words, a passion for social justice, and a genius for friendship. Her greatest friendship was with high school sweetheart Greg Loats. They were together for their entire adult lives: they nursed together, worked in the union movement together, travelled the world together and had two children together.

Pauline started her nurse's training at PANCH in August 1979, and went on to study psychiatric nursing at Plenty Hospital, and for an arts degree at Melbourne University. She joined Royal Melbourne Hospital, and was later appointed charge nurse of 1 North, despite also having a well-earned reputation as a diehard unionist.

After her stint as president, she worked as an organiser, first with the nurses' union, and later with the Finance Sector Union. Her desk famously sported a framed photo of indigenous St Kilda footballer Nicky Winmar baring his skin to a taunting football crowd. Next, she took her industrial relations skills and her keen sense of humanity to work in human resources for hospitals.

In recent years it was a mistake to complain to her about the awfulness of ageing. "There is nothing I want more than to be old and decrepit," she'd respond.

Pauline was good at dispute resolution because she was a keen observer of the human condition. She loved the intrigue, suspense, friction and romance intrinsic to hospital industrial relations. She always talked of weaving the characters she met into a novel, and often beguiled her friends with her "strange tales from the dark side". These stories were made more exquisite by her ability to impersonate all the characters. She is survived by Greg, who nursed her selflessly, daughter Bridget and son Danny, and her siblings Greg, Rose and Maryanne.

Louise Ajani assisted in preparing this tribute.