RILEY WALTER
BARKER is among Australia’s 10 “oldest” federal electorates, with nearly half of all voters aged 55 and over.
New statistics released by the Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC) show Barker – which includes the Riverland – is the 10th-oldest electorate in the country and the second-oldest in South Australia, with 49.7 per cent of voters aged 55 or over.
Following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s final report – released last week – the AACC is looking to ageing electorates for support in pushing for reform in the aged care sector.
The It’s Time to Care About Aged Care campaign, launched by the AACC in conjunction with a report highlighting the shortcomings of the aged care sector in previous years, will be a key tool in the alliance’s push for reform.
Although the campaign focuses specifically on marginal electorates, AACC spokesperson Patricia Sparrow says the co-operation of all constituencies named in the report will be crucial to making inroads.
“What we’re hoping is that the community, generally, but also the MPs are actually going to stand up and take our message to Canberra that we actually need to make sure that we undertake fundamental reform of the aged care system,” Ms Sparrow said.
“And we think that by getting local politicians and communities to tell their local politicians that it’s an important matter to them that we will make sure we take the opportunity that the Royal Commission is presenting to actually do that, rather than what we’ve done in the past.”
Ms Sparrow believes action must be taken now to rectify previous reviews of aged care which have gone unanswered.
“The last 20 years we’ve had over 20 reports…” she said.
“This is now about saying ‘it’s actually time to care about aged care and it’s time for us to do a fundamental reform not just tinkering around the edges.”
The Royal Commission’s final report is available at agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au.