While established in 2013, the Aged Care Guild got serious four weeks ago when it formally launched with Cameron O’Reilly as the new CEO (pictured).

This is a separate peak body to ACSA (Aged & Community Services Australia) and LASA (Leading Aged Services Australia), who each have many hundreds of aged care operator members.

The Aged Care Guild has just nine. They are:

• Allity
• Arcare Aged Care
• Blue Cross
• Bupa Aged Care
• Estia Health
• Japara Healthcare
• McKenzie Aged Care
• Opal Aged Care
• Regis Healthcare

These nine deliver 34,000 residential aged care beds or around 18% of older people in residential care.

Collectively the members of the Guild hold $3.8bn of the $15bn bond pool and have been the largest builders and acquirers of beds in the industry over the last six years.

Five of the nine state they want 10,000 beds each within five years. To fund this they need a stable government policy environment which will generate a stable capital environment.

The chairman is Ross Johnston, CEO of Regis Healthcare. He says “Political and policy decisions have a huge impact on investment in the sector and a bipartisan consensus on aged care is essential if we are to meet the needs and expectations of older Australians in the future. In the short term there needs to be better understanding among policy makers and wider stakeholders about where the sector is currently, in terms of structure and gaps in provision, and where it needs to get to in the future. That is a real priority for the Guild in the short term”.

Cameron O’Reilly comes from the position of CEO of Energy Retailers Association of Australia (ERAA) for nine years. It too had a very small, focused membership – 13 of the largest energy retailers in the country like Origin, Energy Australia, AGL, Alinta and Ergon. Previously he has served as a policy adviser to Federal ministers such as Laurie Brereton.