Aged care workers left at the station in government gravy train

Aged care is one of the main losers from the 2022-23 budget, with the sector one of the few to miss out on the government’s largesse of tens of billions. In particular, the government has failed to provide any funding for increased remuneration for aged care workers, despite both unions and employers pleading for a substantial increase.

Even after a myriad of announcements over the past 12 months in relation to aged care, the government’s total forecast spending on aged care services has only increased by less than 1% compared to the 2021-22 budget — though spending on aged care quality does rise by $300 million in 2022-23 before returning to forecast levels beyond that. Total spending on aged care services from 2021-25 in last year’s budget totaled $112.7 billion; for the same period, this year’s budget projects spending of $113.9 billion.

The only initiative of note is just $50 million over two years for 15,000 low-free and free training places in aged care courses using the JobTrainer Fund — which assumes that in a tight labour market, people will be attracted to training for and working in a sector so demonstrably underpaid and one that has suffered a net loss of workers over the last two years.

For those hoping that the funding may yet appear as an election commitment, there’s no sufficiently large unannounced amount in the budget papers — though that doesn’t prevent either side from announcing it as an election commitment after the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook is released by Treasury and Finance once the election is called.

But Australia’s aged care sector has once again been left behind, with the quiet toll of misery and lives lost steadily mounting. It is Australia’s shame.