2022 Election Statement: It’s Time to Care About Aged Care

Everyone deserves quality care as they get older but Australians don’t yet have the aged care system they deserve. All of us should be able to get quality care, with dignity, when we need it.

Publicly released on Wednesday 23 March 2023, our 2022 Election Statement outlines the challenges of the aged care system such as the staffing and funding crises, and what we’re calling on all parties to commit to so the older Australians get the care they deserve, once and for all. 

Priced out: Aged care wages and living costs 

Australia’s aged care workforce is under pressure. Low pay is forcing workers to make tough decisions. Many workers are leaving aged care altogether. 

Priced out looks at how wages for aged care workers are stacking up against living costs. It does this by comparing average wages for workers in the residential and home care sectors against key cost of living indicators – average rents, childcare expenses, grocery costs, and petrol.

We find that aged care workers are being priced out of their own communities. This helps explain why so many workers are leaving the sector. Without action many more will follow, worsening the workforce crisis facing the sector. 

Aged Care: A Way Forward

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is a watershed moment in Australia’s history, highlighting the reality of how we as a nation care for our older citizens.

Publicly released on Monday 1 March 2021, the 2,500 page Royal Commission Final Report documents confronting personal stories that highlight the broken state of Australia’s aged care system, including examples of neglect, abuse, under-resourcing and staff shortages in Australia’s residential aged care homes.

This document is the AACC response: The Way Forward.

Report: It’s time to care about aged care

As a nation, we have spent more than two decades looking at how to fix aged care for the benefit of older Australians. In fact, there have been more than 20 reports on how to fix the system over the past 20 years, but successive governments have responded with piecemeal solutions, which have not been enough to create the change required.

The It’s time to care about aged care report shows, for the first time, which Australian communities will be most vulnerable if we don’t fix the aged care system – along with the 30 members of the 151-member Federal Parliament who have the power to change things for the better.