ACSA national CEO, John Kelly AM, has come out in praise of the new Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews and Assistant Minister Mitch Fifield for the scrapping Labor’s Workforce Supplement which would have delivered significant pay increases to aged care workers, but only if they had joined an enterprise bargaining agreement, negotiated in association with unions. Just 12 providers had entered such agreements out of approximately 1100 providers.
Kelly says that tying the funding to an industrial process was clumsy policy. ACSA had advocated this prior to the election and applauded the ministers for listening and moving quickly. ACSA argues that aged care funding should be quarantined and has put up 14 ways for money to be saved from aged care by reducing regulatory burden without affecting quality. ACSA supports increased wages for workers, Kelly says.