Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Aged Care. Aged-care workers have long been underpaid for work that they do in support of our most vulnerable people. How important is the Fair Work Commission's decision to award these dedicated workers a pay rise?

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for her question. This pay rise is vitally important because it will help us recruit and retain the staff we need to reform a sector left in ruins by those opposite. A wage rise for aged-care workers isn't just the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do because the National Skills Commission's own analysis tells us that with a pay rise of 10 per cent going to aged-care workers, we will halve the staff shortages we have in aged care by 2052. It's not just the right thing to do but the smart thing to do.

It was a crippling problem, there's a deserving solution, and still the Morrison government did nothing. They did nothing for years and years and years. Aged-care workers were left to languish, earning less than they would have earned stacking shelves at the supermarket. They were left to languish without hope of a pay rise. They were left to languish without any kind of respect. They were left on the front line of COVID without adequate protection. Like the PM says, they don't just deserve our thanks; they deserve a pay rise. Now, for some aged-care workers after literally decades in the job they love, they are about to crack the $30 an hour barrier for the very first time.

It's not just those on this side of the House who are applauding the Fair Work Commission's decision. Aged and Community Care Providers Association CEO Tom Symondson said this substantial move was a step forward towards long-lasting reform that provides a higher quality of care for older Australians, enabling them to live their best lives. StewartBrown partner Grant Corderoy said the pay rise would encourage people to join the aged-care sector, while Bupa Villages and Aged Care Managing Director Andrew Kinkade said the decision was an important first step towards recognition of the critical role our aged-care workforce plays in caring for our elderly

Those opposite, despite their newfound concern for the state of the aged-care sector, are so concerned that they looked inside and discovered it within themselves on or around 22 May, by my observation. But they do not think that workers deserve a pay rise. They do not want workers to earn more. Mathias Cormann belled the cat on that years ago, and the shadow Treasurer was good enough to reconfirm this recently when he said the quiet part out loud. Those opposite, when they were in government, refused to make a submission to the Fair Work Commission to support a pay rise for aged-care workers and they rushed through changes that scrapped the aged-care workforce compact that would have seen a pay rise for aged-care workers. It was one of the very first things that they did. They suspended standing orders, such was their giddy rush to cut pay rises for aged-care workers. It was foolhardy, it was cruel and it was short-sighted. Aged-care workers judged them for their actions then, not what they mumble now. I want to thank those staff, the union members in the sector, who fought against them for this interim pay rise that they so thoroughly deserve.