Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on older Australians, their families, their carers and the aged care workforce;

(b) the valuable contributions made by the more than 360,000 aged care workers who have continued to deliver care and support to older Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic;

(c) all aged care workers play a valuable role to deliver care and support to older Australians in residential and home care;

(d) many aged care workers are low paid and around 87 per cent of them are women;

(e) the Government's decision to exclude a large proportion of aged care workers from receiving the retention bonus;

(f) excluded aged care workers who will not receive the retention bonus include those delivering services under the Commonwealth Home Support Program as well as in-direct care workers in residential aged care facilities including lifestyle and leisure therapists, cleaners, hospitality workers and gardeners;

(g) the exclusion of any aged care worker from receiving the retention bonus is unwarranted and unfair;

(h) on 20 March 2020 the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians issued a media release that stated the retention bonus payment would be 'after tax'; and

(i) on 5 June 2020 the Department of Health's retention bonus guidelines stated the payment would be 'subject to income tax';

(2) conveys its disappointment that the Government made:

(a) a decision to exclude about 40 per cent of aged care workers from receiving the retention bonus; and

(b) a late decision to switch the retention bonus from being after tax to being before tax that will see aged care workers lose hundreds of dollars they were previously promised;

(3) calls on the Government, as a matter of urgency, to reconsider its decision and pay the retention bonus to all aged care workers irrespective of their role or where they work and to explain why it changed the rules around the payment being after tax to the payment now being subject to income tax; and

(4) acknowledges the work all aged care workers undertake each and every day and thanks them for their continued dedication to care and support older Australians in residential and home care.

What we've heard from this government around the retention bonus for aged-care workers is what a great job the government is doing, but it's really about what a great job the aged-care workers have done during this global pandemic. When you look at what has happened here in Australia compared to what has happened overseas in care homes, we have done a tremendous job, and that job has primarily been done by some of the lowest paid, most hardworking workers in the country. Everybody knows that there aren't enough aged-care workers and that we don't pay them enough in Australia. It's something that we need to fix.

There is no doubt that the 360,000 aged-care workers in Australia today deserve the retention bonus that they were due to be paid in June and in September. But what we've since learnt from this government is: (1) the first payment is going to be late—apparently it can't be made until July now, instead of in June; and, importantly, (2) over 125,000 workers will be excluded from this retention bonus. These are workers that work in residential aged-care facilities—81,000-odd of them. Then the rest of them, 40,000-odd, work in home care and are not eligible for this payment. These are workers who have been working every day on the front line. When there was a question asked in the parliament today, we had the health minister stand up and say, 'Oh, yes, but they weren't on the front line.' Those cleaners in those residential aged-care facilities that the minister was asked about today are absolutely on the front line. They are part of the infection control measures in these facilities. They are working incredibly hard. They are not paid very well.

The retention bonus was intended to ensure that we had enough aged-care workers turn up to work every day during the pandemic, because they were frightened. They were frightened for themselves and frightened for their families and loved ones, because they didn't want to bring COVID-19 home. Frankly, they were not really paid well enough for the type of work that they were having to do during this COVID pandemic. When you talk to some of the workers that were in some of those facilities about what it actually entailed when there was an outbreak, nobody in this place could possibly want to deny these workers this payment. What is supposed to have been a unifying recognition payment for aged-care workers throughout Australia has become divisive to the point where some aged-care providers are actually considering paying the payment themselves—when they can't afford it, when they've got viability issues—to try to equal out the workforce, because they know how divisive this government payment has become.

Not only that, but to make it worse, when it was announced by the minister we had this wonderful media release where he says the payments are going to be 'up to $800 after tax per quarter—paid for two quarters' and then 'Two payments of up to $600 after tax per quarter—for two quarters'. The first payment was for residential aged-care workers, and the second payment of $600 was for home-care workers. Of course, on the Friday before the long weekend, what did we see? Just a couple of weeks ago, the minister leaks out and puts on the webpage quietly how this retention bonus is going to actually work. What do we find out? We find out the truth of the payment: that it's actually not after tax; it's before tax. For some of those workers who are currently trying to extend their qualifications, who may have a HECS or VET FEE-HELP debt and are having to pay their tax, this could actually mean a significant loss of this retention bonus fund. Some of these workers who thought they were getting $800 are now getting just over $600, and some of them are getting zero.

Where is the equity in recognising all of the aged-care workers from this government? Why not acknowledge what a tremendous job they've done? Why not give them all access to this retention bonus, as was intended to be the case in the first place? Why not even stick to your word in black and white in your own media release where it says 'after tax'? Why has it suddenly become 'before tax'? Where is the explanation from the government about how something that was supposed to be a bonus to keep workers turning up during the pandemic turned into such a divisive payment that some of the workers are now saying, 'It isn't even worth it'?

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