Federal Government: 1.7% increase compared 2.9% CPI

The federal government has announced its CPI indexation at a 1.7% increase, with ACSA CEO, Greg Mundy, “incredulous”. He says it is not possible to understand how the government could take pride in it when the CPI increase alone was 2.9% for the March quarter. In particular he said the 1.7% will do nothing to stop the erosion of community care hours or help pay competitive wages for valued staff, with competition for staff only getting worse in aged care. He said “far from a funding boost, 1.2% is a funding blow”. (See end story for one outcome).