Coalition ‘hiding negligence’ by refusing to release findings of 2021 study into care workforce, union says

The Coalition has been sitting on a major report into the state of the care workforce in Australia since September last year, and is refusing to make the report public.

The National Skills Commissioner Adam Boyton was tasked by prime minister Scott Morrison in March 2021 to undertake an "in-depth study on the factors affecting the supply and demand of care workers".

The report set out to examine the needs of the care and support workforce for aged, disability, veteran and mental health care looking at "near term" and longer-term needs to 2050.

Submissions closed in the middle of last year and the report was delivered to the employment minister, Stuart Robert, in September.

The government is yet to formally respond, however Morrison told the National Press Club last week that the government was developing an aged care workforce strategy that would "address our plans to support the aged care workforce".

"We'll have more to say about that, and I can assure you our plans will be costed, our plans will be funded and we'll know how they work," he said.

A spokesperson for the National Skills Commission confirmed the report had been delivered to the minister and was "currently under consideration by government".