New data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has underlined the size and scale of the sector. Yet, operators are rarely afforded a say in Government policy about their future. Is it time for the sector to make its own destiny?

Poring over the embargoed spreadsheet of thousands of employers provided by the WGEA, there was one fact that struck me about the hundreds of aged care providers that submitted their data – and it wasn’t the gender pay gap, which is close to 0%.

It wasn’t even the wages – though we also discuss the difference between remuneration for smaller and larger operators in this issue.

It is the sheer size and scale of the sector.