United Voice News
93% of Australians Believe the Federal Government Must Increase Funding for Aged Care
93% of Australians think the Government needs to give the aged care sector a significant funding boost, according to a recent Auspoll poll.
The poll was commissioned by United Voice, the aged care union, in the week prior to the release of the Productivity Commission’s report Caring for Older Australians and speaks volumes in advance of Minister Butler’s National Conversation on Healthy and Positive Ageing.
Louise Tarrant, National Secretary of United Voice, said the results proved that the public is deeply concerned about the quality of aged care in the future.
“Aged care is a concern for all, young and old. Everyone is worried about the quality of care and wants to rest assured knowing they and their loved ones will be taken care of when they get older.”
Ms Tarrant said that even with the reforms suggested by the Productivity Commission, it will be necessary for the government to increase funding for aged care, in order to give older Australians the quality of care they deserve.
“It’s important that we invest in our future, and in order to do this, we must also invest in the carers who will take care of us when we get older.”
“This means investing in professional wages to maintain the high quality of carers. Currently, 1 in 4 carers is forced to leave the sector every year because of the unliveable wages.”
“It’s vital that the Federal Government take a stand for quality of care. This must include ensuring that those who work so hard to take care of us in our older years are taken care of themselves.”
The poll found that increased aged care funding is unanimously supported across all genders and age groups. The results discovered that 98% of 60+ years old, 98% of 50-59 years old, 94% of 40-49 years old, 93% of 30-39 years old and 84% of 18-29 years old believe that increasing funding for aged care is a very or quite important issue.
Auspoll results are available by direct request to Sarah Hoque at 0425 242 691.
