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

As I said, it does relate specifically to the question, because the inference is that the surge workforce should fill all shifts that aren't being filled and that is not what the surge workforce was designed to fill. In the advice to the sector provided early in the pandemic, providers themselves were required to have capacity to fill a certain proportion of shifts themselves. We have said where that capacity became overwhelmed we would come in and support them with the surge workforce, and that's what we've done. That's what we have done, and we've continued to build the surge workforce to assist the sector to manage COVID-19 and their workforce shortages.