Release date: 20 Nov 2019

The peak body for non-profit aged care providers Aged and Community Services (ACSA) has welcomed the Treasurer’s acknowledgement of the economic and societal challenges posed by our ageing nation, and says the key to addressing them will be to harness opportunities rather than continuing the current approach of band aid solutions.

“Australia can kick the can down the road and face the consequences – or we can reimagine our economy to include older people and help them live better and longer in the process,” ACSA CEO Patricia Sparrow said.

“As we live longer and better than ever before, our ageing population is actually a huge opportunity. To harness that we need to end discrimination, level the playing field in health care and make sure that everyone plays a role in planning for their own ageing.

“The Royal Commission has exposed failings in the system that we can address, but many others that we need a total re-imagination of the economy to start to fix.

“It’s good that the Treasurer is acknowledging these issues but more funding band aids won’t fix them – we need big picture thinking that is lacking in the current debate,” Ms Sparrow said.

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