Why skilled migration remains critical to Australia’s aged care sector
Labour shortages continue to shape Australia’s aged care sector, with migration policy remaining a critical workforce lever for providers across the industry.
The latest Federal Budget reinforces the government’s view of aged care as essential national infrastructure, with significant funding support aimed at expanding services, increasing capacity and addressing workforce pressures.
For employers, providers and migrants, the policy direction is increasingly clear: skilled migration is expected to remain critical to the delivery of aged care services, even as the broader migration system becomes more selective and compliance driven.
Key takeaways
- Skilled migration is expected to remain critical to addressing labour shortages across the sector.
- The Budget signals ongoing government support for aged care as a long-term national workforce and infrastructure priority.
- While key visa pathways for aged care workers are likely to remain available, employers should continue planning for processing delays and increasing compliance requirements.
What this means for Australia’s migration program
The aged care sector remains heavily reliant on overseas workers to address persistent labour shortages. Employers routinely engage international candidates across a range of roles, including:
- personal care assistants,
- nursing support workers,
- enrolled nurses, and
- registered nurses.
With a significant proportion of the workforce coming from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, factors such as availability of visa pathways, housing affordability, transport access, infrastructure, and settlement support are no longer marginal policy considerations. They directly determine:
- where essential workers can live,
- whether they remain in the sector, and
- whether aged care services can be delivered sustainably.
When housing pressures, transport gaps and insecure migration pathways displace workers, the impact is immediate – particularly for providers in regional and outer-metropolitan areas. In practical terms, this is where housing policy, aged care workforce planning and migration settings intersect.
Unlike the NDIS, aged care is being funded as essential national infrastructure, rather than discretionary social expenditure. This distinction is important because it suggests that visa pathways linked to aged care roles are likely to remain available, even as the broader migration system becomes more selective and compliance driven.
What the Budget signals for aged care
The Budget allocates an additional $3.7 billion over four years to aged care, including funding for up to 5000 new residential aged care beds, expansion of the Support at Home program, dementia care initiatives and provider support measures.
Further measures include investment in accommodation support, provider expansion, dementia care programs and improves to assessment and end-of-life care pathways. The government will also invest $1 billion to make personal care services under the Support at Home program, such as showing assistance, free of charge.
The measures also reflect continuing structural pressures across the sector, including more than 200,000 older Australian’s remaining on waitlists, increasingly complex home care needs and ongoing workforce shortages.
Housing and infrastructure constraints are placing further pressure on the workforce, highlighting the need for targeted investment to support housing stability for essential workers, particularly in regional and outer metropolitan areas.
For a detailed overview of the aged care measures announced in the Budget, read our Federal Budget 2026-2027: health, aged care, disability and life sciences snapshot.
Looking ahead
Workforce shortages are expected to remain a long-term challenge for the aged care sector, reinforcing the importance of migration settings in supporting service delivery and workforce sustainability.
This reflects broader policy recognition that:
- Australia’s population is ageing;
- demand for aged care services will continue to rise; and
- increased wages following the Fair Work Commission’s Aged Care Work Value decision (impacting approximately 400,000 workers) require sustained fiscal support.
Within this environment, migration policy remains a critical lever in Australia.
The 2026–2027 permanent Migration Program will be set at 185,000 places, with more than 70 per cent allocated to skilled migrants. At the same time, the government is increasingly prioritising applicants who are higher-skilled, younger and more highly educated.
For aged care providers, the government’s continued investment in the sector as set out in the Budget provides greater certainty around long-term workforce and infrastructure planning.
Based on current settings and industry feedback:
- there is unlikely to be a material impact on the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement (ACILA) framework;
- processing delays across temporary Skills in Demand visas and Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) applications are expected to persist, as the Budget acknowledges visa backlogs without outlining a clear resolution strategy (such as increased resourcing).
For migrants, international students and employers, the policy direction is increasingly clear:
Australia continues to value and rely on essential workers in aged care, but access to migration pathways is becoming more targeted, regulated and economically calibrated.
In this environment, workforce planning and visa strategy is more important than ever.
To discuss how these developments may affect your organisation’s workforce planning or migration strategy, please contact our team.
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