It’s shaping up as one of the most hot-button issues of next week’s Federal Election: voters are clamouring for action on aged care.
That’s according to recent surveys from ABC Vote Compass and Australian National University, as well as a YouGov poll commissioned by Not For Profit aged care provider BaptistCare.
In the BaptistCare survey, 83 per cent of voters ranked aged care as an “important” issue when casting their vote this year, with 29 per cent listing it as “very important”; in addition, 96 per cent agreed that the new Government post-election should take action on a number of issues including increasing Government funding (24 per cent), increasing staff-to-resident ratios (21 per cent), and increasing provider accountability (20 per cent).
According to BaptistCare CEO Charles Moore, systemic problems like these have been ignored by successive Governments – problems which were only worsened by COVID-19.
“Our sector is underfunded and it’s impacting both aged care workers and the most vulnerable in our society, and voters are seeing this too. Growing public interest in these issues means it is not the time for empty promises. Australian voters want real action on aged care after two decades of independent reviews.
“The recommendations of the Royal Commission have not yet been implemented and every day without action is another day that Australians lose confidence in their ability to access timely, affordable, and quality care,” he said.
The Australian people are speaking loud and clear – but despite their lofty promises, will politicians listen once the polls are closed?
