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Only 583 overseas workers granted visas under Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements

1 min read

There have been 2,649 visas issued under the Albanese Government's Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements (ACILAs), which were introduced in 2023 to help aged care providers recruit more qualified migrant workers into Australia's aged care sector badly in need of staff.

Byron Cannon
CEO LDK Seniors' Living

Of those visas, 2,066 were granted to applicants already in Australia, with most already working in aged care, and 583 were from overseas. The visas were issued under 113 ACILAs put in place across Australia.

Last year, the then-Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles, who was moved to the Training and Skills portfolio last July, told Parliament there is the potential to sponsor up to 22,000 workers over five years under ACILAs.

The current rate of approvals would not achieve even half that goal.

Last week, Byron Cannon, CEO of innovative private aged care operator LDK Seniors' Living, told The Weekly SOURCE the uptake of ACILAs has been "minimal, largely because of the requirement for heavy union involvement and cost making it prohibitive for many operators.

Tom McConnell, General Manager
Clinical Care and Services, Curtin Heritage

"It has done very little to address the undersupply of the thousands of workers needed," he said.

ACILAs require aged care operators to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with a union - either the United Workers Union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, or the Health Services Union - and allow sponsored care workers to speak to their union if they wish.

Tom McConnell, General Manager Clinical Care and Services with Curtin Heritage, which was the first aged care provider to sign an ACILA, said each application takes about 5.5 hours to complete and costs up to $5,000, as well as additional administrative work.

2023 Department of Health and Aged Care estimates put the workforce gap at more than 17,000. Our efforts to obtain an updated figure from the Department had not been responded to at the time of publishing.


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