AS IMPORTANT as such issues as action on climate change, energy transition, the war in the Middle East, the invasion of Ukraine and the influence of China are, they tend to distract the Australian Government and other authorities from making progress on the basics including education, housing, health and aged care and the cost of living.
Which is why, it was pleasing in the past week to see the government make a statement about “historic aged care reforms to ensure the viability and quality of aged care”.
It’s a huge issue.
As the Aged Care Taskforce Report made clear, by 2050 the residential aged care sector will need $56 billion in capital funding to upgrade existing aged care rooms and build the additional rooms that growing numbers of older Australians will need.
They also said that in the next 40 years, the number of Australians aged over 65 is expected to more than double, with those aged over 85 to more than triple.
A focus of the new initiatives will be a new ‘Support at Home’ program, starting with a $4.3 billion investment to come into effect on July 1, 2025, assisting upwards of 1.4 people by 2035.
It stands to reason that Support at Home would be emphasised. The Productivity Commission says that 70 per cent of Australians would prefer to die in the comfort of their own home, but fewer than 10 per cent actually do.
But there will also be a new means-tested cost structure for those entering residential aged care, with the aim being that providers will be better placed to raise the funds they need to upgrade and expand.
The need is already significant now, but the current funding arrangements are not sufficient for residential aged care providers to look at developing their facilities, given that in 2022-23, 46 per cent of providers made a loss from accommodation.
We’re seeing those constraints locally.
As much as the staff at Woorayl Lodge in Leongatha, for example, do a fantastic job looking after their residents, the place has long since passed its use-by date. The community of Leongatha and district, frankly, deserve better. There are plenty of other examples.
The organisation has had the development of a new facility on its agenda for a long time now, but they haven’t been able to attract enough grant money, nor see their way clear to borrowing the significant funds they would need to go ahead with the works.
Hopefully, these changes introduced by the government will give the private sector the encouragement it needs to expand residential aged care capacity.
And some leadership from local government and the health sector would be welcome.
Aged care is one of the biggest pressures on the Federal Budget and, without action, spending is expected to more than double as a share of GDP over the next 40 years. With the proposed changes, however, the government expects to have the growth in aged care costs under control by 2034-35.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is the projected shortage of more than 4000 secondary teachers by 2025 and the mass exodus from the profession by existing teachers. Some of the problem will be relative rates of pay but the stacked curriculum, lack of funding for public schools, and social pressures on schools and teachers are equally pressing.
It’s high time all levels of government gave proportional weight to issues affecting minorities and issues affecting the broader spread of the community.
