Australia has spoken

OUR COMMITMENT TO KEEP AGED CARE ON THE NATIONAL AGENDA

Australia has spoken—Anthony Albanese is our 31st Prime Minister and the Labor Party has formed our next government. At the time of writing, while it isn’t yet clear whether Labor will form a majority government and what the exact make-up of the parliament will be, it is absolutely clear that Australia has voted for change and a large crossbench of Greens and independents will be a significant force.

Your support has kept aged care at the top of the agenda. Together, we’ve made it impossible for the incoming parliament to ignore this key issue, which will affect not just our parents and grandparents, but each one of us as we age. We can be proud of the influence we have had in maintaining a strong voice. To those who showed their support in any way—by signing the petition, speaking to your friends, families and colleagues about the campaign, sharing your story, emailing your local candidates, attending our town hall, distributing our scorecard, and everything else in between—we couldn’t have done it without you.

Our aged care scorecard was a valuable tool that identified some positive movements on the aged care policies of the major parties, but also made very clear that there’s a lot of room for improvement during this term of government.

Labor made nurses and care minutes in residential aged care a prominent part of its election platform, and pledged to back the aged care workers’ case for a 25 per cent pay rise in the Fair Work Commission. They also promised to fund the outcome of the case.

These are significant steps forward but we also need an immediate injection of funds to avoid further deepening of the current crisis.

It’s no coincidence that aged care has topped the list of concerns for Australian voters this election. We have a oncein-a-generation opportunity to reform Australia’s aged care system into one that consistently delivers the best possible outcomes to meet the needs of older people and the staff who look after them, and keep our aged care system running.

We’ll continue to call on the incoming Labor government and the large crossbench to deliver on the promise of political change by nominating aged care reform as a priority for the first 100 days that ensures it features in any crossbench negotiations in the coming days and weeks.

We look forward to what the Labor government will bring to the table for aged care, and we will continue working hard to keep them accountable on these policies beyond the election.

We’ve achieved some amazing wins throughout the election campaign period, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Let’s see this through together.

Australian Aged Care Collaboration. The Australian Aged Care Collaboration is a group of six aged care peak bodies: Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA), Anglicare Australia, Baptist Care Australia, Catholic Health Australia, and UnitingCare Australia.

The aged care scorecard was produced by the AACC to help Australians vote in the 2022 federal election, by providing information about the aged care commitments made by the major parties.