5 years ago
LIBERALS MUST RESPOND TO AGED CARE WORKFORCE STRATEGY
THE HON JULIE COLLINS MP
More than two months after the Minister for Aged Care received the Aged Care Workforce Taskforce’s A Matter of Care strategy the Liberal Government is yet to publically release or respond to the strategy.
Despite saying aged care would be a focus of his new government, Scott Morrison’s deafening silence on this strategy shows his commitment to his policy area will be little better than his Liberals predecessors.
The Liberals are too busy fighting amongst themselves instead of focusing on what matters.
The lack of response fits a disturbing pattern of cover ups and inaction on aged care from successive Liberal governments.
Just last month the Minister for Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, finally released the latest data on the number of older Australians waiting for home care which he deliberately delayed for three months.
When the data was finally released it was immediately clear why it was delayed: it revealed more than 108,000 older Australians were languishing waiting for the care they needed.
Labor has previously called on the Liberals to support and respond to the Workforce Taskforce’s strategy without delay.
It is deeply disappointing that this strategy is collecting dust like the dozens of reviews and reports on aged care that have been ignored by the Liberals.
Equally concerning is that the Government has yet to commit any funding to this strategy.
The aged care workforce is expected to increase by 300 per cent in the next 30 years, underscoring the challenges and opportunities of getting this right.
Disappointingly, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Governments have shown a complete lack of commitment to Australia’s aged care workforce, cutting billions from the aged care system.
It’s been five years of little action on workforce development – with the exception of the scrapping of Labor’s $1.5 billion Workforce Compact.
Under Scott Morrison’s watch as Treasurer the aged care budget has been used as an ATM to try and prop up the Budget - in just his first year as Treasurer he tried to rip almost $2 billion from the care of older Australians.
It’s time the Liberals started doing better on this critical area of policy.