Senator and union argue over aged care awards

The independent South Australian senator, Nick Xenophon, has accused the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) of misrepresenting his comments on delaying new awards for aged care.

He had supported South Australian aged care sector representatives who had claimed that award modernisation would cost $6,000 to $8,000 per bed. In contrast, they said the pension increase would only deliver an increase of $1,100 per bed.

“Clearly, the impact of Award Modernisation has not been properly thought through and the Federal Government’s central role in funding aged care, places the onus on the Deputy Prime Minister to sort this out,” said Senator Xenophon.

The ANF’s federal secretary, Ged Kearney, said Mr Xenophon’s comments demonstrated a poor understanding of the award modernisation process.

“The employer costings he cites have been around for a number of months now and no one accepts them because upon closer examination they are obviously flawed and misleading,” Ms Kearney said.

“It is disappointing that Xenophon appears to have accepted the modelling without question”.

The ANF said that on average, nurses working in aged care earn $300 less per week than nurses in other health sectors.

“Why should nursing staff working in aged care be denied a decent award and fair pay because the sector is under funded?” she asked. 

But Senator Xenophon responded, saying the aged care sector has reached crisis point and  further jobs would be lost without a funding boost.

“The South Australian aged care sector has made it crystal clear to me that it wants to improve the wages and conditions of its nurses, but it needs adequate Federal funding to do so,” he said.