Our Position: Hospital exit block: a care economy challenge requiring coordinated transition reform

Australia’s care economy, spanning health, aged care, and disability, depends on a skilled and sufficient workforce to deliver essential services. Yet growing demand, driven by an ageing population and rising care needs, is outpacing the supply of workers, undermining the sustainability and effectiveness of the sector. Without coordinated national action, these shortages are projected to reach approximately 285,000 workers by 2049–50, particularly among aged and disability carers, nursing support, and personal care workers. The abolition of Health Workforce Australia in 2014 left a critical gap in national oversight and strategic planning, and while some data is now collected, it remains fragmented and underutilised — limiting the sector’s ability to respond to current and future needs.

This paper sets out the structural barriers constraining workforce attraction and retention,  including housing affordability, cost of living, pay and conditions, and competition from adjacent sectors and international markets, and calls for a cohesive, system-wide approach to investing in the care workforce. CHA urges the Government to fund innovation that enables sector investment in new workforce models, align reform agendas across health, aged care, and disability, and design funding and incentive structures that address these barriers. By connecting reform efforts across the care economy rather than pursuing them piecemeal, Australia can build a sustainable, skilled, and satisfied workforce capable of meeting the needs of a fragmented care landscape, consistent with our broader commitment to the principle of the common good.