00:02Aged care worker Rose Bowen left her young family in the Philippines to work in Australia.
00:08I came to Australia to study and wish for a better future, build a better future for my family.
00:16She works at this aged care home in regional New South Wales where more than 60 of her colleagues are
00:22on a range of temporary visas.
00:25From cooks to carers, many are essential frontline workers ineligible for most skilled migration paths.
00:33Without those migrant workers we would be really struggling to fill our requirements.
00:38Escalating political debate over migration has raised concerns for the aged care sector's viability, particularly if skilled migration is prioritised.
00:47Labor plans to bring net overseas migration down to 225,000 a year.
00:53The coalition wants to temporarily cut that by more than half, while One Nation is proposing three years of net
01:00negative migration, meaning more people would leave Australia than arrive.
01:05Which one is the best for you?
01:06Providers say dependable pathways are needed, particularly for entry level workers in caring roles as Australia's population ages.
01:15We need about 110,000 additional care workers by the end of this decade alone, just to keep up with
01:22the demand we're currently dealing with and the demand that's coming.
01:26One policy solution put forward by the aged care sector is a dedicated essential skills visa for overseas workers in
01:33occupations facing chronic shortages.
01:35We're sort of opportunistically relying on that supply, and we think there's an opportunity to actually build a stream that
01:42responds to the demand for care workers that's transparent, predictable.
01:47OK, let's go for lunch.
01:49For these workers the policy debate is personal, building a life in Australia while helping care for the country's oldest
01:57citizens.
01:58To be continued.
01:58To be continued.
01:59To be continued.
02:00You
