With the federal election confirmed for May 21, the aged care crisis will be a vital issue for Central Coast voters as they head to the polls.
Labor candidate for Robertson, Dr Gordon Reid, recently announced the party’s plan to improve aged care on the Central Coast if it wins government, after widespread criticism of the Government’s failure to properly address the issue in the recent federal Budget.
“As a local emergency department doctor, I believe we owe it to our older Australians to provide the best care possible to them in their frailer years,” Reid said. “They have worked hard for our country, paid their taxes, and built our communities.
“Earlier this year I sat down with aged care workers and various stakeholders to discuss the crisis facing our aged care system.”
Accusing the Government of ignoring older citizens, Reid said Labor’s plan would improve the lives of aged care residents on the Central Coast.
Labor has pledged to make it a requirement that every aged care facility must have a registered, qualified nurse on site at all times.
It also promises more aged care workers, and to ensure every Australian in aged care receives an average of 215 minutes of care per day. And it will support a real pay rise for aged care workers with a call to the Fair Work Commission.
The plan would also include better food for residents at aged care facilities and improved transparency, with residential aged care providers having to report what they are spending money on.
“Labor will also give the Aged Care Safety Commissioner new powers to ensure there is accountability and integrity,” Reid said.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese – who was on the Coast to talk to aged care workers with Reid and Member for Dobell, Emma McBride – said more Australians are living long enough to need extra care in their later years.
“But currently that thought fills a generation of Australians and their families with dread,” he said.
“Australians fear the final chapter of their life … will be in an aged care facility that can barely meet their needs, let alone afford them real dignity.”
The United Workers Union (UWU) said the Budget’s “cash splash” did little to help the elderly trapped in the aged care crisis.
National President, Jo Schofield, said it showed “complete lack of compassion for working Australians at the beginning and end of their life”.
“Why is it so hard to recognise investments in secure, well-paid jobs in areas including aged care?” Schofield said.
“(The budget) failed to make real change in aged care, alongside the Government’s consistent failure to make any meaningful improvements in (that) area.”
UWU Aged Care Director, Carolyn Smith, said more than 900 deaths in aged care due to COVID-19 this year exposed the Government’s “litany of failures” in the sector.
She said the announced $49.5M aged care training fund over two years wouldn’t even paper over the cracks in a sector where 75 per cent of aged care workers say they want to leave the sector within five years.
“In home care and residential aged care, the Budget has no announcements that address low pay rates that leave workers with barely enough to live on, working multiple jobs to feed themselves and their families,” she said.
“In residential aged care the Budget fails to address the widespread understaffing that leaves aged care workers rushing to provide even the most basic levels of care to older Australians who deserve much better.”
Australia’s not-for-profit Catholic aged care providers also expressed disappointment in the Budget. Peak advisory body Catholic Health Australia said the failure to address workforce remuneration was a blow to the sector and its workforce, which it said was struggling with fatigue, spiralling living costs, low morale, and a shortage of carers and nurses.
Terry Collins