Labor’s aged-care visa scheme flops as only 418 granted in first year

Fewer than 500 visas have been granted in the first year of a Labor scheme designed to fast-track ­foreign workers into the aged-care sector, prompting calls for the government to review the program’s viability.

Figures obtained by The Australian showed that as of June 14, 26 of the 418 visas granted were for nursing support workers, 92 were for aged or disabled carers and 300 were for personal care assistants.

Fewer than 500 visas have been granted in the first year of a Labor scheme designed to fast-track ­foreign workers into the aged-care sector, prompting calls for the government to review the program’s viability.

The information come as the aged-care sector continues to wait on crucial reforms to ensure the industry’s financial sustainability, with industry leaders declaring the chance to pass long-awaited legislation before the next election is “slipping through our fingers”.

Despite hopes that the government’s Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement would help address one of the sector’s key challenges in filling critical shortages, only 418 workers have so far been granted visas under the union-backed scheme.

Figures obtained by The Australian showed that as of June 14, 26 of the 418 visas granted were for nursing support workers, 92 were for aged or disabled carers and 300 were for personal care assistants.

Only 84 were granted to offshore applicants, with the rest already being in Australia.

The slow uptake of visas was blasted by business groups as “insufficient” and a demonstration of the scheme’s failure, 13 months after the five-year labour agreement was signed.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said without other policies, workforce shortages in aged care would get worse. “Unless there is a change in course, the shortages are only going to become more critical as our workforce shrinks and our demographic profile ages,” he said.

“We are at a point where the scheme’s viability needs to be ­reviewed.”

Employer groups and aged-care providers expressed concern early in the launch of the scheme over a requirement that providers must enter into a memorandum of understanding with unions to tap into the pool of workers.

Mr Willox said the figures showed such a condition was a “turn off” to employees and employers using the scheme.

The Australian reported in January that just 155 workers had been issued permits – representing less than 2 per cent of the 14,000 available visas being granted eight months into the scheme being launched.

Aged and Community Care Providers Association chief executive Tom Symondson said the scheme needed to be improved, and his organisation would work with the government in “finding ways for providers to better utilise the ACILA to help ease the workforce crisis in aged care”.

According to figures from the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, the workforce shortage in aged care is predicted to reach 110,000 by 2030.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The opposition immigration spokesman, Dan Tehan, said the government had “got its priorities wrong” in its management of the migration system.

“Australians with a loved one in aged care know the sector is desperate for more carers and support workers, but this Labor government is putting sweetheart deals for its union mates ahead of results for aged-care residents,” he said.

“The Albanese Labor government has got its priorities wrong. Labor is running a Big Australia migration program that will see one million migrants arrive over two years as Australians endure a housing crisis; meanwhile, businesses are screaming out for skilled workers.”

Immigration Minister Tony Burke was contacted.

The challenge to address labour shortages is one of many issues facing the sector, with Labor’s Aged Care Taskforce in December handing a report to government with a suite of recommendations on how to turn around years of fin­ancial losses incurred by providers across the country.

In the hopes of getting the ­sector back on to a financially sustainable footing, the taskforce urged for changes that would see wealthier elderly Australians make larger co-contributions to their daily ­living and accommo­dation costs.