Queensland Premier Anna Bligh will ditch her high heels for sensible work shoes when she pulls a night shift as an orderly at one of Brisbane's busiest hospitals.
Ms Bligh on Monday said she'd work the shift in an attempt to better understand the lot of the state's health workers.
It's part of her government's new program that will see MPs trying out the jobs of ordinary Queenslanders.
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Ms Bligh said she'd be moving linen and cleaning up after patients during the eight-hour shift at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
She said it would give her an opportunity to talk to other night workers and "get down and get my hands dirty doing the sort of jobs that orderlies do, keeping our hospitals running".
Ms Bligh said she wouldn't shirk any of the responsibilities of the job, no matter how messy.
She said she wasn't nervous about the issues workers might raise with her, including ongoing Queensland Health pay woes.
'I'm there to listen'
"I expect people will talk to me about all of the issues that they experience working in one of our big hospitals," she said.
"And I don't care what issues they want to raise with me, I'm there to listen."
Ms Bligh said her shift, some time over the next 10 days, would be followed by a mass work experience day on September 20, during which most of her MPs would try out their new jobs.
But one person who won't be seeing the inside of a hospital from an ordinary worker's perspective is Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas - he'll be taking a job as a waiter.
Climate Change Minister Kate Jones will pull out weeds at a Boonah farm and Treasurer Andrew Fraser will do manual labour on a building project.
"I expect to see every one of my team, whether they're a minister or not, out in their own areas working and walking in the shoes of another Queenslander," Ms Bligh said.
She said she would undertake several jobs before Christmas, one of which would be selected in a radio competition.
Critics line up
As news sites carried word of her orderly's gig, Queenslanders were not short of suggestions.
"I wonder if the Qld Health payroll system will get her pay right," one reader quipped on The Courier-Mail's website.
"Just what we need - another burden on our healthcare system," wrote another.
Another told the premier: "If you wanted to get as far away from your day job as possible you should have been premier for the day and ran the state properly!!"
