Roger Pallant, Secretary of the NSW Retirement Village Residents Association, said he is aware residents have been speaking to the taxpayer-funded broadcaster about life inside a village.
On Friday, he was in a retirement village in Port Macquarie on a "charm offensive". He said the ABC had put a call out to any disgruntled retirement village residents and naturally there had been a response.
"There are always a few bad eggs but the lifestyle in retirement living is fantastic. Anyone who came in did so willingly, and with legal advice. Contracts have become more transparent and the overwhelming majority love their lives. Any broadcast of this nature will impact all of us and I am telling everyone what is going on," Roger said.
In July, the ABC's 7.30 program broadcast “How an idyllic retirement resort became a 'financial prison'”. It was centred on Victorian land lease community operator Lifestyle Communities, which had to inform the ASX it withdrew all forward-looking financial guidance previously provided because of the broadcast. Lifestyle Communities' share price this morning is $7.60. When the 7.30 report broadcast was aired, Lifestyle Communities' shares were trading at $12.16. A claim by 80 residents from its Wollert community, 26km north of Melbourne's CBD, is still before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The business founded 21 years ago rejects all claims.
The ABC, together with the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, brought the sector to its knees in June 2017, with a broadcast. In April 2023, the claims were declared unfounded but the damage was done.
Retirement Villages Acts have been updated in most states and territories in favour of residents. With 250,000 people calling a retirement village home, occupancy at record highs and lengthy waiting lists at most villages, the sector is turning over $14 billion a year.
