Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

the workforce supplement, which had been accessed to the tune of about $100 million by aged care providers. The supplement was for consultation and negotiation in dealing with aged care sector to make sure that we had the workforce of the future with adequate remuneration for nurses, carers, IT professionals and administrators of the aged care sector. Minister, one of the first things I would like you to do is explain how you will address the growing pressures in the aged care workforce. We assume you know about the 2010 intergenerational report which showed we need a 300 per cent increase in workers to care for our ageing population by 2050. There are low wages, a lack of career pathways and a lack of professional development being experienced by the sector.

I am eager to know how your government intends to ensure the workforce is there. We see a 25 per cent turnover in this sector; about 96 per cent of the people working in the sector are 45 years of age and older; and about 75 per cent are from migrant backgrounds with 35 per cent having lived in Australia for only five years or less. Minister, would you please explain how giving the workface supplement to aged-care providers with no conditionalities on salaries, professional development, career paths or training will have anything to do with addressing these alarming workforce concerns? Ian Yates, from the Council of the Ageing, stated:

Giving aged-care providers back the aged care workforce supplement over five years will do nothing for the development of the aged care workforce.

Minister, in February this year you met with stakeholders in what was the forerunner to the aged care sector committee. You said you would undertake a stock take of workforce development projects. I ask the minister to provide details of that stock take and outline which projects have been cut in the budget, which you intend to propose to cut and which will remain. How will you address these specific concerns and additional pressures the sector is experiencing in regional and rural areas?

I would also like the minister to outline what alternatives to removing all conditionality were considered by the government. What recommendations did the aged care sector committee make to you? Further, Minister, you answered none of my questions on modelling concerning the aged care payroll tax supplement and addressed none of the issues I raised previously except to say that payroll tax was a matter for the states. In fact, your government has breached the long-held bipartisan approach to the issue of competitive neutrality in the aged-care sector in an unsurprising move, I would say, because your government has had no regard for the aged-care sector since it has been elected.

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