Professor John Pollaers OAM (pictured above), the Chair of the Government’s Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce, has said her has had no response from the Government or the previous Ageing Minister , Ken Wyatt, on his aged care workforce strategy action points.
Commissioner Tony Pagone was clearly stunned at the lack of response.
“Professor when you say that you haven’t had a response to your letter, do you mean by that that there’s even been an acknowledgement of receipt of your letter?” he asked.
“So, I got an email response that was all of the past programs of Government and I went back and said ‘look, that isn’t sufficient. I’m asking for a step-by-step response,” Professor Pollaers replied. “I didn’t get a response to that email.”
“At all?” clarified the Commissioner.
“At all,” the Professor said.
Professor Pollaers noted that in his experience, aged care is a portfolio that lacks resources and experience – and he was surprised by how often he needed to actually speak to the Minister in order for him to receive a full briefing.
“Whenever I spoke to the Secretary of the Department, it was always in such a way that, you know, the number of people around that was almost impossible to give as frank a point of view as you would,” he said.
