The Morrison Government did not support the Aged Care Royal Commission’s recommendation for a tax-based levy to bolster funding, yet more than 80% of people surveyed by Australian National University support such action.
In April, the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods conducted a poll of more than 3,200 people on the aged care system.
"We also asked people's attitudes about future funding for the aged care system, and specifically if they supported a levy to improve to aged care support," Professor Nicholas Biddle said.
"Our findings suggest a massive majority, 85.4%, of Australians saying they'd support a proposed one per cent 'aged care improvement levy' paid via tax.
"And a third of those in favour, 33.5%, said this levy should be paid by all taxpayers.”
The findings follow the announcement of almost $18 billion in the Federal Budget for aged care reform following the Aged Care Royal Commission’s final report.
The thorny issue of working in the aged care sector also was broached – few respondents said they would recommend a job in aged care .
“It is very troubling that only five per cent of Australians said they would definitely recommend a young person work in the industry, and only 10.1% saying they would definitely recommend an unemployed person working in the industry," said Professor Biddle.
"The one positive finding in our study was that the current workforce is much more positive about the industry than those who have never worked in aged care," he added.
