Community Care Tas CEO says they need promised cash now

The CEO of a Tasmanian home care provider which needs 50 more workers and is building a new training and respite centre says it needs promised federal funding now, not after the budget. THE LATEST >>>

The chief executive of a massive Tasmanian home care provider which needs 50 more workers and is building a new training and respite centre says it needs promised federal funding now, not after the budget.

Speaking before a Launceston roundtable in advance of the federal government’s two-day Jobs and Skills Summit, which kicks off on Thursday, Community Care Tasmania chief executive Wendy Mitchell said her organisation has a worker shortfall of about 50.

CCT, which has about 220 staff and provides home care packages for about 2000 clients, is in the process of constructing a $3.7m training and respite centre at Kings Meadows to help address the shortfall.

It could train up to 50 new care workers per annum, working with TasTAFE and other care providers, while providing respite services to the community, Ms Mitchell said.

In an ideal world it would open in June next year; however, Ms Mitchell expressed fears that unless the federal government’s promised $2.8m towards the project is provided shortly, it could lead to lengthy delays, as the builders are on-site currently and have completed the groundwork and foundations.

Ms Mitchell’s comment came in response to Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley saying the promise would be fulfilled as part of the October budget.

Ms Mitchell said CCT could not wait that long, but stressed she wasn’t out to sink the boot into the federal government, with whom she has had a productive working relationship.

The training centre has also been supported by the state government to the tune of nearly $1m, conditional upon the federal government also stumping up cash, and also received philanthropic funds.

Ms Mitchell said she was supportive of a push by unions to introduce multi-enterprise bargaining in a bid to revive the enterprise bargaining system, which has been derided as no longer fit for purpose.

She noted the latest changes to the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award changes took eight CCT workers dozens of hours to implement.

“It was a big cost, really complex,” she said.

“An EBA would be a way to make it as easy as possible for a lot of organisations who want to pay workers better, pay them what they’re worth.”

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese deputised him to Tasmania as “not everyone can get to Canberra”.

“We can feed these messages directly to the summit,” he said.

He said the summit would aim to find both short-term and long-term solutions to Australia’s skills crisis.

Northern Tasmania’s economy would grow by increasing the participation rate, converting casual employees into permanent roles, upskilling existing workers with training and credentialling, attracting workers from the mainland and increasing international migration, Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones said Coalition criticism of the summit as a gabfest a la ex-PM Kevin Rudd’s ‘2020 Summit’ was wide of the mark.

“One of the great achievements of the last Labor government was the NDIS. That idea came from the 2020 Summit,” Mr Jones said.