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".

A spokesperson for Robert said the government was "utilising the study in policy development, particularly in the context of the broader workforce in Australia".

The Health Services Union secretary, Gerard Hayes, called for the report to be made public saying "the government can't keep hiding its negligence on wages and training".

"This government has no intention to invest in the skills and training of our care workforce. It has ignored repeated warnings, including from the royal commission," he said.

"The Covid crisis has shown just how important training and skill development is, but the government is stubborn and lazy. "Fully funded and supported training opportunities, linked to improved wages, are critical to addressing the current and longer-term workforce pressures for aged care."The HSU is understood to have made a submission to the National Skills Commission inquiry, arguing that wage increases were needed to reflect the arduous nature of the work in the sector. It also called for workers to have more secure employment arrangements, and better opportunities for career progression.

Carolyn Smith, United Workers Union national aged care director, said that the government needed to prioritise change for the workforce.

"The government has done 22 inquiries into the problems in aged care since 2013 when they came into government, and this particular workforce inquiry the prime minister commissioned two months after receiving the royal commission report which gave very clear recommendations about what needs to happen in terms of workforce," Smith said.

"Workers are sick of inquiries - they want to see some action to change aged care."

According to the study's terms of reference, the skills commissioner would have regard to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, and evidence given to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

It would assess the likely future growth in demand for workers in the care sector and the "extent to which it can be met over the near and longer term".

"This should include consideration of current strategies to meet that need including workforce planning, migration settings and linkages to the education and training sectors and employment programs and services [and] draw on domestic and international policies and experience, where appropriate."

The report would also develop a framework to monitor and assess pressures in the care and support sector workforce over the short, medium and long term.

The criticism from unions comes after the federal government announced on Monday that it would send Australian Defence Force personnel into aged care homes, with up to 1,700 people being deployed to "help stabilise outbreaks and support staff shortages".Nurses from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation joined protesters in Canberra on Tuesday, with the federal secretary, Annie Butler, saying workers were "fed up with this government for abandoning aged care workers and residents".

In question time on Tuesday, Morrison came under fire from Labor for the government's handling of the aged care crisis, with the opposition leader accusing the prime minister of "always taking action which is too little too late and after a problem becomes a crisis".