Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Ciccone for his question, online from Victoria. The government is actually in the process of implementing the workforce strategy that was developed by the work of Professor Pollaers. In May last year we funded and established, or industry funded and established, the Aged Care Workforce Industry Council. That is industry led, which is quite appropriate. And we continue to implement other reforms out of the work of the Pollaers report.

That includes the research institute that Professor Pollaers recommended, and the workforce industry council appointed its first CEO in June this year. So we continue to apply the work that was recommended by Professor Pollaers. I have had a number of conversations with him recently about that process and in fact how we might speed up the process, because that's a concern that both he and I share. So not only do we continue to work and consult with the sector with respect to the implementation of the Pollaers report but I continue to consult with Professor Pollaers. He put considerable work into that report and we have had discussions only in recent times with respect to the process, that we may be able to speed up the work that was recommended by him. That's given that industry, quite rightly, leads the workforce industry council, as they are the employers and trainers of their workforce.

But there is some work that I think we can do together to increase the pace of that work—