Above: Catholic Health Australia CEO, Martin Laverty.

By Stephen Easton

Key figures in the aged care sector welcomed this week’s announcement of the government’s draft Ten Year Roadmap for Mental Health Reform, and used the opportunity to call for a similar action plan on aged care reform.

As each day passes with no specific commitment from the government in response to last year’s Productivity Commission (PC) report, Caring for Older Australians, the sense of urgency in the sector grows.

Martin Laverty, CEO of Catholic Health Australia (CHA), said the aged care sector was “eagerly anticipating” its own equivalent long-term plan, in a statement released on Tuesday to coincide with the announcement.

“The mental health roadmap is welcomed and is important, but I think its release will have people in the aged care sector wondering ‘Where’s ours?’,” Mr Laverty said.

This year’s federal budget has emerged as a rallying point for aged care reform advocates, who worry that the impetus from the PC's report could be lost, if aged care is left on the back burner as federal politics heads into an election year in 2013.

According to the CHA chief, it is strongly anticipated that the government’s “lengthy and necessary consultation” around aged care reform will bear fruit come May. 

Yesterday, Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) released a similar statement saying it was “buoyed” by the release of the mental health roadmap, its chief executive Rob Hankins adding that the sector “would now like to see parallel and immediate progression for aged care reform”.

“To take nothing away from the critical area that is mental health and the importance the government is rightly placing on it, the time has very much come for the government and parliament to manifestly lead the way with aged care reform,” Mr Hankins said.

“Extensive consultation was essential and has been undertaken across the wider aged care sector, but the time for action has arrived. The expectation of our sector is that the government will evidence its firm commitment to aged care reform in this year’s budget.”

Rod Young, CEO of the industry’s third major peak body, Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA), concurred with the statements.

“I think the industry has taken the assurances of the Prime Minister that aged care would be a second term issue very much to heart,” Mr Young said yesterday.

“That has translated into a strong belief that the Government must start the process for reform in the 2012-13 budget.

“There is real concern that if this very significant reform agenda is left till an election year it might all become too difficult and then be left as a problem for the next government. If that happens it would be most unfortunate as it would probably mean no reform until 2015-16.”

The Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, said the government had received “a most extensive guide to aged care reform” in the Productivity Commission’s report, “on top of the many other reviews and inquiries since 2007”.

“There has been no government response to the Productivity Commission report and no indication of when there will be a response,” Ms Fierravanti-Wells said this morning. “The government should at least make public its response before anyone can decide whether a “roadmap” is appropriate.”

The Senator added that the Coalition’s alternative aged care reform policy, the proposed 4-year Aged Care Provider Agreement, had been “very well received”.

“The Coalition believes there should be reform, but that it needs to be in partnership with the sector,” she said.

The government is seeking feedback on the draft of the Mental Health Reform Roadmap, via an online survey.