The Labor leader had slammed the Morrison Government’s Federal Budget for failing to do enough to help older Australians – but his party’s own plans for the aged care sector appear to be light on.
Aged care was only mentioned in passing during the Thursday night speech with Mr Albanese promising to “fix our aged care system so that it’s driven by dignity and care, not profit” – a clear dig at ‘private’ operators’ – but announcing no concrete aged care policies.
Instead, the centrepiece of the speech was a $6.2 billion package to support working mothers as well as measures to rebuild the National Energy Grid and overhaul Australian manufacturing.
The only announcement that related to the sector was for an Australian Centre for Disease Control to help prepare the country for future pandemics.
As we reported here, Mr Albanese did lay out a plan for the aged care sector back in August – including minimum staffing levels, reducing the home care waiting list and improved transparency and accountability of funding – during an appearance at the National Press Club.
But there has been no discussion of how these measures would be achieved.
HSU pushes for $20 billion funding over four years for 60,000 aged care jobs
Yesterday, Health Services Union (HSU) Secretary Gerard Hayes warned the Opposition leader not to ignore aged care in favour of childcare, calling Labor the “night watchman on aged care”.
“We need commitments now. A four-year, $20 billion spending commitment would lift standards in aged care to an acceptable level and create 60,000 jobs. This would give aged care residents more than 90 minutes of extra care each day,” he told The Australian.
“Labor made the mistake of choosing childcare over aged care at the last election when it should have chosen both. We sincerely hope this isn’t a case of history repeating itself.”
The HSU wants Labor to join with the Government in a bipartisan approach to fix the system by increasing the Medicare levy.
The Morrison Government has already said it intends to wait for the findings of the Royal Commission’s Final Report in February to make any major funding and policy announcements.
Either way, a bipartisan approach will be needed to ensure any changes are successfully taken up.
