Labor's bipartisan agreement with the Opposition on the Aged Care Bill may have neutralised aged care as a political issue to some extent in the lead up to the Federal Election, but negative media coverage, particularly on talkback radio, could keep the issue on voters' minds.
On ABC Hobart radio last week, the Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler was asked about older people waiting 15 months for a Level 4 Home Care Package.
"It's not acceptable" the wait is so long, the Minister was forced to admit of the issue under his watch.
The same day, on talkback radio on Triple M Hobart, a caller who cared for her elderly parents told the Minister, "I just want you to know that the services for our elderly population do not work", and "pleaded" for him to fix the system.
A few days later, the Minister was in Darwin, and on ABC Darwin a caller told the Minister her elderly father, who has dementia, had received a Home Care Package but there aren't enough staff to deliver the services he needs.
"I don't pretend we don't need to do more [about recruiting more aged care workers], we do," Butler conceded of the issue.
High profile media personalities have also been speaking out about their distressing experiences of the residential aged care sector the Labor government promised to fix. On Nine, comedian Jean Kittson shared the story of her parents' "awful" deaths in residential aged care a month apart.
Tracey Spicer has shared with The SOURCE her concerns that gaps in aged care services are placing a particularly heavy burden on women, who are the biggest users of the services and also carry the heaviest unpaid carer burden. She's concerned the proposed 10% cap on care management fees may mean providers are "not be able to continue to give older people, who are overwhelmingly women, the level of care they need".
The Federal Election must be held no later than 17 May 2025.
