Media Release: Labor Breaks Headline Aged Care Promise on the Eve of Christmas

This holiday season, the only present that the Labor Government is giving the aged care sector is another broken promise.

During the election campaign, Labor said it would put ‘the care back into aged care’, but instead they have delayed the delivery of the Fair Work Commission’s 15% pay raise for Australia’s hard-working and dedicated aged care staff.

This is another shocking broken promise from the Labor Government.

After repeatedly committing to fully fund the outcome of the pay rise case, the Labor Government has now announced that they will only deliver a 10% rise next year for the sector, with the remaining 5% delayed an entire year.

When the FWC delivered its determination in November, Labor was quick to claim credit for the decision, with the Prime Minister even stating that aged care workers “deserve a wage rise because the sector needs it, if it's going to be able to survive.”

But now, when the Government must actually deliver on their promise, they have stumbled at the first hurdle.

Labor is prioritising their budget bottom line over delivering an important pay rise to our loyal aged care staff, who work day-in-day-out to care for our older Australians.  

As the sector faces the increasing pressures of a workforce crisis, the Labor Government heralded the pay rise as a driving force in addressing this serious issue, with the Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells even stating in June that “there is not a day to waste on this matter; good people are leaving the sector when we need tens of thousands more to come into it.”              

Well, it turns out the Labor Government believes there are 365 days to waste. 

The Coalition has always been clear that we support a pay rise for aged care workers and we would honour the decision of the Fair Work Commission.

Labor talked big game ahead of the last election, but now that they are in Government, they are proving time and time again that their words were all for the headlines.

The Labor Government must deliver the full pay rise to aged care workers, as they promised.