Source: Aged Care Association
The Aged Care Association says the Government’s latest immigration changes highlight a much bigger issue facing New Zealand – the absence of a transparent long-term workforce plan for aged residential care.
The Government has confirmed expanded English language requirements for additional Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) roles from June 2026. Aged Care Association Chief Executive Tracey Martin said while many healthcare assistant and care workforce roles already operated under English language requirements, the latest changes continue a pattern of piecemeal workforce policy decisions being made without any visible national strategy for staffing aged care services into the future.
“The issue is bigger than one immigration setting,” Martin said. “The real issue is that New Zealand still has no publicly visible long-term workforce plan for aged residential care despite repeated warnings about workforce shortages, population ageing, and growing demand for care.”
Martin said aged care providers support safe care, quality standards, and effective communication requirements.
“But policy changes affecting workforce supply cannot keep happening in isolation from the demographic reality facing this country.”
New Zealand’s population aged over 85 is expected to grow significantly over coming decades, while the proportion of working-age New Zealanders available to support the health and care system continues to decline.
“At the same time demand is increasing, the domestic labour pool is shrinking. That is the central challenge facing aged care,” Martin said. “The question New Zealanders should be asking is simple: who is going to care for us as we age?”
Martin said governments of all political stripes had previously acknowledged chronic shortages in care roles through immigration and sector agreement settings introduced in 2022 to support recruitment into essential healthcare occupations.
“The sector has consistently said migrant workers are not replacing New Zealand workers, they are filling workforce gaps that already exist.”
“If those positions cannot be filled, providers reduce capacity, beds close, and pressure flows directly back onto hospitals, families, and vulnerable older people.”
“Aged care is healthcare and if aged care fails, the health system fails.”
Martin said the Association is increasingly concerned that workforce decisions affecting aged care are being made reactively rather than through coordinated long-term planning across health, immigration, education, and population policy.
“We are unaware of any comprehensive workforce modelling that shows how New Zealand intends to meet future aged care staffing demand over the next 10 to 20 years. “That should concern every family with older parents or grandparents.”
The Aged Care Association is calling on the Government to join with the sector to develop a national aged care workforce strategy that includes:
– transparent modelling of future workforce demand;
– projected domestic workforce supply;
– realistic immigration workforce assumptions;
– training, pay and retention strategies; and
– coordinated long-term planning across the health and care system.
“We need a shared national plan for how New Zealand will staff and sustain aged care services into the future,” Martin said. “This is not simply a sector issue – it is a national health infrastructure issue that affects every New Zealand family.”