<span style="color: #222222;">In Australia, thousands of nurses have gone on strike in Country's most populous state of New South Wales.<br />'' <br />'' Nurses said that they wanted better pay for their jobs and a better balance between their numbers and patients requiring their services.<br />'' <br />'' According to media reports their demands include mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and a pay rise of higher than 2.5%.<br />'' Thousands of nurses and midwives protested at the parliament building in Sydney in solidarity.<br />''<br />''It is the first industrial action taken by nurses in almost a decade and it comes despite an order by the state's industrial relations commission to call off the strike.</span>