12/7/2023 0 Comments Radia national![]() ![]() Look, that 24/7 aged care nurse deadline will be missed. That will address the workforce shortages but I think discussing particular numbers in and out at this point really isn't as helpful as making sure that we have done everything we can and then allow that to allow that to work. We do need to allow time for that to wash through. We, I think, have put a huge amount of reform to the sector. That's also an extension of the exemption for student visa settings. That's not just the pay rise and the labour agreements which are the big two that we're talking about today that came out of the budget, but it's also fee-free TAFE places. Well, as you've heard me say before, we have been pulling all the levers as quickly as humanly possible, since coming to government, to try and address these workforce shortages. How quickly can the shortage be addressed? That blows out to almost 40,000 shortage in 2024/25. The sector is short more than 25,000 nurses and care workers in the next financial year. Aged care sits as one of the three essential elements of the health portfolio, acute care, primary care, aged care and when you consider it as three tranches of important work, it makes complete sense that someone like me tackles aged care in a dedicated fashion whilst Mark sits across the cabinet.Īll right. He had the aged care portfolio himself back in the Rudd, Gillard, government. Mark Butler sits as an excellent Senior Minister, he has been extraordinarily kind and helpful to me as a new Minister. You mentioned being a Junior Minister, it sounds like you've just made a pretty strong case for being elevated to Cabinet or having at least the role elevated to Cabinet. It's taken a huge team effort to get the kind of progress that we've seen in aged care so far, and I think that speaks to the fact that this is a priority of the Government and the Government seeks to be collaborative first. Minister O'Connor for some of the skills and training elements. Minister Burke for some of the industrial relations elements. What I've relied upon is being able to work really well with a number of different Cabinet colleagues to get these big reforms through the budget.įor example, the Treasurer supporting me for the pay rise for aged care workers, Minister Giles and Minister O'Neil for these migration elements. I know I've found as the Aged Care Minister, super important portfolio, but this is a junior ministry. And it's taken collaboration not just across, I guess, the providers, the unions and the workers who seek to address workforce shortages in aged care but across different portfolios of Government. We just know this is the number one thing that providers should be asking us to do. So, I think we're really hopeful this is going to be a huge step forward, but it's far too early for us to try and predict how many workers it will yield. They need to talk to the relevant union first and then come to us with their agreement.” I spoke to Minister Giles last night to see how we were tracking, he said, “We've got people queuing up with interest”. Like you said, 570 across five years, just for this one provider in Perth that signed the first with Minister Giles. Okay, when you say lots, you won't be surprised that that won’t satisfy me. This is a huge step forward for us tackling the workforce shortages not just in aged care, but hopefully in the broader care economy, but aged care first, because we know this sector has been in crisis for some time.Īnd as we try to lift the standard of care with all of our reforms, that will deliver a better standard of care for residents, it was important that we did aged care first. How many workers will this policy bring to Australia? Minister, an aged care facility is the first to sign an agreement to get up to 570 workers over the next five years. MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SPORT, ANIKA WELLS ![]() Federal Education Minister Anika Wells joins me this morning.Īnika Wells, welcome back to the program. The Government is moving to increase the number of aged care workers from overseas and expedite the visa applications to deal with the shortages. But the cracks, like low wages, poor working conditions have really been deepening for a much longer time. The problems, as we know, were accelerated during the COVID 19 crisis. For years, the aged care industry has been crying out for more workers. ![]()
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