Australians value aged care
A survey commissioned by aged care union United Voice shows that the vast majority of Australians want aged care to get a bigger slice of the budget pie.
Above: United Voice assistant national secretary, Sue Lines.
By Stephen Easton
The Australian public overwhelmingly agrees that aged care is woefully underfunded, according to a recent poll commissioned by aged care union, United Voice.
On the union’s behalf, the independent polling company Auspoll asked 1,504 Australians, ‘How important do you think it is for the federal government to increase funding to the following sectors?’, with 93 per cent of those surveyed responding that it was either “quite important” or “very important” for the federal government to increase funding to aged care.
This put the sector at the top of the list in the eyes of the survey respondents, ahead of other areas traditionally considered important national priorities like defence, public transport and renewable energy.
Unsurprisingly, when split into age groups the results show that aged care becomes a bigger funding priority for people as they grow older, but even the youngest category surveyed decided it was a major concern – with 38 per cent of those aged 18-29 years agreeing aged care was “very important” and 46 per cent indicating it was “quite important” to them.
United Voice assistant national secretary, Sue Lines, expressed surprise at the results of the survey, which the union commissioned to coincide with the release of the Productivity Commission’s (PC) report, Caring for Older Australians.
“I certainly thought people would be concerned about aged care and thought they would support carers getting additional wages, but I was overwhelmed and pleased with such a positive response,” Ms Lines said. “It’s interesting because what’s often in the media isn’t what ordinary folks like you and I are talking about; it shows that aged care is certainly high on the [public] agenda.”
The union’s second-in-charge added that she believed the poll results reinforced the federal government’s mandate to commence the industry restructuring recommended by the PC, and stated the union’s position that “without professional wages in the sector, we will not get the quality reforms that are long overdue”.
“We’ve got the baby boomers coming up and we need half a million additional workers that aren’t there now,” she said. “We’ve already got a turnover problem and unless we move wages to professional levels, we won’t have the quality workforce that is the heartbeat of professional care. Who would choose aged care as a career if the most they can get paid is only $18.66 an hour?”
The union strongly believes that behind the results of the survey, which indicate the public wants to see more of their tax dollars going into the aged care sector, is the implication that the public also expects aged care workers to be more highly paid than they currently are.
“People assume it’s a well paid job but it isn’t. I think we all make assumptions about how much people make and I think the response indicates aged care is high on the public agenda; people think [aged care workers] should be highly paid.
“People expect that they are well paid and when they find out they’re not, they’re shocked by that – if you’re putting your mum, your grandma or your aunt in a facility, or you’ve got a carer coming into their home, you want to be able to trust them; number one. And number two; you expect them to be treating your relative with respect and dignity and we would expect a decent rate of pay goes with that.”
Ms Lines said United Voice, like other aged care unions, is keen to work together with the government and aged care providers to “make the workforce the centrepiece of reform” and added that for statements made by employers about delivering high quality care to have any meaning, workers must be paid more.
“I sometimes get angry when I see service providers talking about quality care but not recognising that it comes off the back of workers who can’t afford to put meat on their tables, or are only half filling their cars with petrol. The quality care is there but the reality is it’s being delivered by a workforce that’s living in poverty and working on their own time to provide it.”
your last paragraph sums up the dedicatiopn of Personal Carers. As a manager I value the staff who are the backbone of the facility.
It is disapointing that Mark butler’s maiden speech heralded his championing for such staff but he has become politised in the future, never realised promises.
HSE staff need the improved wages now, not in 3 years or so when the responses to the PC are implemented
It is great that Unions are doing this work – because we need to decide how much as a society we are prepared to pay for aged care – the personal carers could be paid more but we have to decide as a society that we can pay more – just as it seems we have with the National Disability Insurance Scheme – we have to help people understand that we cannot avoid old age – and that simply ‘burying our heads in the sand’ will mean that we get the aged care we deserve!
Ralph Hampson
Aged Care Consultant