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

Today Minister Hunt and I announced a number of measures to support the aged-care sector to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. One of those measures was to support a negotiated agreement between the aged-care sector and the unions in Victoria to ensure that one worker could work at one site. That agreement is not inclusive of the entire aged-care sector. Of course, there are some workers who we do require to work across more than one site. It includes our ADF nurses who go into a number of facilities to provide assistance to the aged-care sector when a facility is under stress. It includes our AUSMAT teams that go in to provide assistance to aged-care facilities when they are under stress. It also includes the sonic and aspen testing teams that are required to go in to do the testing for providers. It doesn't include, as a part of that program, agency nurses who are required for surge workforce capacity across the aged-care sector in Victoria.

It supports workers who are employed normally by aged-care providers to work in one facility. The point of the program and the support that we're providing is to ensure that workers aren't worse off by the fact that they are asked to work across one site. This is a continuation of that process. The announcement that I made with Minister Hunt this morning extends the period of that program from eight weeks to 12 weeks, acknowledging the ongoing circumstances of the pandemic in Victoria.