Topic - Opinion

200,000 village residents in assisted living and private aged care within 5 years? Yes

Grant Corderoy tells our private aged care breakfasts that the DMF is likely on the way out and up front membership is the only way to be able to deliver the staff and services this new customer will demand. There will 200,000 of these customers swamping village ‘beds’ in the next 60 months.

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Chris Baynes

08 Sep 2025

Opinion

Between a rock and a hard place: more Packages won’t fix home care

Aged Care and Seniors Minister Sam Rae and Health Minister Mark Butler have bowed to political pressure, announcing 20,000 additional Home Care Packages will be released before 1 November, with another 20,000 to follow by 2026. It makes for a powerful headline but the truth is uncomfortable.

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Lauren Broomham

04 Sep 2025

Opinion

Retirement villages have Canberra’s attention – now the sector must prove its value

Three years after Daniel Gannon took the reins of the Retirement Living Council (RLC), the sector has achieved something his predecessor Ben Myers was never able to: national recognition in Canberra. This is just the fist step. Retirement villages now need to capitalise on this moment. Here’s how.

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Ian Horswill

02 Sep 2025

Opinion

Aged care isn’t “investable” until the numbers stack up

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has been talking up aged care. In back-to-back ABC interviews last week, he dropped the word “investable” more times than a real estate agent at a Saturday auction. According to Butler, the Government has done...

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Lauren Broomham

28 Aug 2025

Opinion

The guru of aged care: retirement living’s future is private aged care

The retirement sector is going to have to move into assisted living and ultimately private aged care. Baby Boomers, now aged 61-79 now, will demand it. With the funnelling of older Australians into residential aged care already hitting full...

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Ian Horswill

26 Aug 2025

Opinion

Plan T or bust: care costs are drowning Australia

The Productivity Commission delivered a blunt warning in its fifth and final interim report ‘Delivering quality care efficiently: care costs are going to swamp Government budgets. Plan T – Transformation – must be seized as the system’s lifesaver: cut through regulation, rebuild efficiency.

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Lauren Broomham

20 Aug 2025

Opinion

The gnarly problem of dementia in retirement villages

Dementia is no longer hidden in retirement villages. It is in plain sight for residents and Village Managers alike and the question now is: will operators open their eyes, or continue to bury their heads in the sand? The latest edition of SATURDAY laid out the scale of the challenge.

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Lauren Broomham

18 Aug 2025

Opinion

Sink or swim: aged care can’t wait for productivity reform

Hospitals are already flooded with elderly Australians lying in beds when they should be in aged care. The tide is rising. In 2022, then-Aged Care Minister Anika Wells warned the system was not ready for the incoming wave of Baby Boomers. The reality? She may have been five years too late.

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Lauren Broomham

14 Aug 2025

Opinion

Retirement villages overcome loneliness – good news in Loneliness Awareness Week but more to do

Newly published research from the Bolton Clarke Research Institute and Monash University reveals moving to a retirement village halves loneliness within 12 months. As the average stay in retirement living is now nine years, this appears to be great...

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Ian Horswill

12 Aug 2025

Opinion

Aged care beds are running out. What’s the plan?

The numbers don’t lie: we are headed for a shortfall of aged care and hospital beds unlike anything we’ve seen before. As we report in this issue, in Western Australia alone, around 200 hospital beds a day are being occupied by older people who...

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Lauren Broomham

06 Aug 2025

Opinion

It’s time for retirement village operators to provide guidance on Voluntary Assisted Dying

Over the past fortnight, the DCM Institute has been holding Professional Development Days across the country. One of the topics we have been discussing, at the request of a handful of retirement village operators, has been VAD

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James Wiltshire

05 Aug 2025

Opinion

Productivity is sinking – Plan T is the lifeline

Productivity is Canberra’s buzzword of the year and for good reason. Government spending is at its highest level since WWII, care waitlists are ballooning, and the economy is leaning heavily on sectors that aren’t delivering a strong return on...

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Lauren Broomham

31 Jul 2025

Opinion

Why the retirement living sector should embrace RetireAustralia’s Care Hub

RetireAustralia’s The Care Hub will be in every new RetireAustralia village going forward, so why has the retirement living sector been so reluctant to follow? It is a magnet for residents, who hate the thought of entering residential aged care or languishing in a hospital bed awaiting aged care.

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Ian Horswill

29 Jul 2025