Page 471 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 13 March 2007
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their eighties: how do you ensure that they have their independence and preserve their lifestyle, but also ensure that they are not putting themselves and others at risk?
There is a degree of mythology around the issue of older motorists. As I have said in interviews today, the fact of the matter is that, up to the age of 75, seniors have a lower risk of being in an accident or causing injury or fatality than do those within the age range of 20 to 24 years.
Things start to change from the age 75, and the figures become somewhat more disturbing when you reach the age of 80. But I do not think that the knee-jerk reaction of putting in arbitrary bans and set ages is providing a solution; it is simply compounding a difficulty, with the loneliness many people experience in our society. I would love to see a government at some level in Australia have enough creativity and imagination to say, “We are going to tackle this problem.” It will be far worse for our society otherwise. We have to ensure that people have their dignity, but we also have to ensure that we protect the lives of people in our community. This is a challenge in terms of aged care policy as well as road safety policy.
It has to be recognised at all levels of government—federal and state—that consumers and the non-government sector have a role in funding, administering or providing services for older people. In 2005-06, the Australian government’s total expenditure on ageing and aged care was $7.1 billion. In 2006-07 this investment to support older Australians, both in aged care homes and in their own communities, is forecast to increase to $7.8 billion. In 2005-06, this investment included funding for residential care subsidies, community aged care packages and extended aged care at home packages—something that I think was overlooked when the Chief Minister spoke of the respective parties’ commitment to the issue of aged care.
The Australian government is also providing almost $900 million over four years to help strengthen the long-term viability of residential care services and build a more skilled work force. The leadership shown by the new minister, Senator Santoro, in dealing with aged care issues is nothing short of outstanding.
The financial investment the Australian government has made is designed to strengthen the care and financial services infrastructure to ensure that it is capable of meeting the demands of an ageing population. Under the Australian government’s commitment to aged care, almost 30,000 new aged care places will be made available over the next three years.
The Australian government’s ageing policy is underpinned by three key principles. The first is choice—focusing on individual needs, providing the care where and when it is needed, and giving residents, families, friends and carers a greater voice in the system. The second is quality, which includes the national system of accreditation that has been introduced, legislating for standards and ensuring compliance with those standards. The third key principle is financial sustainability, which recognises the importance of making the system affordable to taxpayers, to service users and to providers. Improving efficiency also improves the quality of service.
There is no doubt that the provision of quality aged services to fulfil the particular needs of the elderly is a vital issue and that, in light of the ageing population—both in
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