Australia’s “fundamentally broken” aged care system – and its impact on grandparents, parents and children – will be highlighted in a new campaign federal Labor will launch on Monday.
The campaign consists of a series of short videos and amounts to a pre-emptive strike against the Morrison government on the eve of the Aged Care Royal Commission’s final report.
Screenshots from a forthcoming Labor ad campaign that will target the Morrison government over its handling of the Aged Care sector. The final report of the Royal Commission will be handed to government this Friday.
The commission’s interim report, Neglect, was released in October 2019 and found major issues in the system included residents being malnourished, left in soiled incontinence pads, incidence of assaults by staff on residents and widespread over-prescribing of drugs to sedate residents, including 41 per cent of residents on anti-depressants. It also found that pay and conditions for hard-working staff were “poor”.
The Morrison government responded by announcing an initial boost to sector funding worth $537 million, which paid for 10,000 extra home care packages, extra training and better medication management. In total, the government says it has invested an additional $5.5 billion for more than 83,000 additional packages since the 2018-19 budget.
