The Department of Home Affairs has told The SOURCE 11 Aged Care Labour Agreements are now in place with residential aged care providers, and another one is close to completion.
The 10 Agreements cover 2,000 temporary visa places and 4,000 permanent places over five years.
Only around 20 visas have been approved under the Labour Agreements, thought it's up to the recipients of the Agreements if they use them.
Aged Care Labour Agreements were introduced in May to streamline the recruitment of qualified migrant workers in the aged care sector, providing them with the opportunity of a faster pathway to permanent residency and fast-tracked visa processing.
The providers that have signed the Agreements are:
- TLC Healthcare, Victoria’s largest family-owned aged care provider,
- Panaghia Myrtidiotissa, which operates PM Aged Care, a 51-bed aged care home in the northern Brisbane suburb of Bald Hills,
- Fremantle Italian Aged Persons Services Association Inc, which operates the 100-bed Italian Village in White Gum Valley, a suburb of Fremantle, Western Australia,
- Wongaburra Society, which operates Wongaburra aged care facility in Beaudesert, about 60km south of Brisbane, Queensland,
- Warrigal Care Albion Park Rail residential aged care facility in Albion Park, a suburb of Wollongong south of Sydney,
- Uniting NSW.ACT, which operates 74 residential aged care homes across NSW and the ACT,
- Bentley Wood Pty Ltd, which operates two aged care homes in Victoria,
- Curtin Heritage Inc, which operates two aged care homes and home care services in Western Australia,
- Royal Freemasons’ Benevolent Institution, which operates residential aged care and home care services in NSW and the ACT,
- Lyndoch Living Limited, which operates two residential aged care facilities in southwest Victoria, and
- Ochre Support Services, which offers medical aged care services.
The SOURCE: The fact that only 11 of the more than 800 residential aged care providers in Australia have signed up for Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements suggests the vast majority of providers don’t find the scheme useful.
