The Federal Government is looking to ease the workforce shortages in the aged care sector by allowing thousands of Pacific migrants into the nation.
Earlier this month, the Federal Government allowed student visa holders working in aged care to work more hours.
Now it is seeking to attract an additional 12,500 aged care, agriculture, accommodation and hospitality workers to Australia by March next year through improvements to Australia’s labour mobility programs – the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) and the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP).
The Federal Government has created the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) website (palmscheme.gov.au) for employers to apply to join the PLS and SWP through a single application which it claims make the programs easier to access, protect worker welfare, and better meet the workforce needs of regional Australia.
The regulation changes included the removal of the upper age limit of 45 years for PLS workers, aligning with the age criteria for the SWP, to allow all workers over the age of 21 to participate.
Employers with good records will have SWP recruitment caps doubled, while the age limit of 45 will be scrapped across both programs.
There are 27,000 Pacific workers ready to be deployed in Australia, with about 7,000 of those fully vaccinated.
RSL Lifecare CEO Graham Millett said international border restrictions are beginning to hurt the sector’s ability to find staff. Mr Millett predicts that, without change, workforce will become the major issue facing the sector in the next year.