2016 Election Scorecard

How the political parties are responding to Older Australians

COTA Australia has assessed the policies of the main political parties contesting the 2016 Federal Election to see how they shape up against the ‘asks’ we made of them in our Election Statement.

• Health Care and Healthy Ageing
• Aged Care Reform – finish what’s started
• Adequate and Fair Retirement Incomes
• Mature Age Employment – open the doors
• Affordable, Appropriate and Secure Housing
• Other Priorities

COTA Australia media releases

Older People Don’t Rate – Major Parties Ignore One Third Of The Electorate

Its Healthcare, Retirement Incomes, Aged Care And The Economy Say Older Australians

2 calls met 6 calls partially met	4 calls met 6 calls partially met	6 calls met 9 calls partially met

Legend

Positive	Partial	Negative	Absence of policy/unclear

Health Care and Healthy Ageing

Strengthen the integrity of our universal health care system – Medicare.
Increase access to mental health services targeted to meet the needs of older Australians, supported by an Older Australians Mental Health Strategy. (1)
Expand the National Oral Health Plan to include a linked, funded Older Australians Oral Health Strategy.
Strengthen Palliative and End of Life Care.
Upgrade the National Framework for Action on Dementia 2015-2019 to a National Health Strategy and progress action as a priority.

1. COTA welcomed the recent mental health reforms but they fail to address systemic neglect of the issues faced by older Australians, including depression and the high prevalence of suicide, especially among older men. Additional, targeted attention to the mental health needs of older people is urgently required.

Aged Care Reform – finished what’s started

Implement the National Aged Care Alliance’s “Agewell – End the Aged Care Lottery” Election Position Statement claims; and the recommendations of the Government’s Aged Care Sector Committee’s Aged Care Roadmap.
Place residential aged care funding in the hands of consumers and families.
Remove the cap on subsidised aged care funding.
Fund and implement an Aged Care Consumer and Carer Support Platform.
Develop a fair and sustainable pricing framework for aged care.
Strengthen My Aged Care to become fully functional and consumer enabling.

Adequate and Fair Retirement Incomes

Establish an integrated, stable, fair and sustainable Retirement Incomes System, based on a long-term vision and a comprehensive plan to achieve the vision.
Commit to no further tightening of the Age Pension (including increases in the eligibility age) outside of the adoption of a comprehensive, integrated Retirement Incomes System.
At a minimum, implement the package of 2016 Budget measures on superannuation, or similar reforms, addressing: better targeting of tax concessions support for women, low income earners and those with broken work patterns lifting restrictions on people over 65 making contributions to their superannuation removing tax barriers to innovation in the creation of annuity based retirement income products.
Implement a range of additional measures to address gender inequity in retirement incomes including adopting the recommendations of the Report of the Senate Economics References Committee into the Economic Security of Women in Retirement.

Mature Age Employment – open the doors

Encourage an increase in the employment of older Australians through a National Mature Age Workforce Participation Strategy, drawing on the recommendations of the Report of the Australian Human Rights Commission Willing to Work Inquiry.
Increase the rate of government income support allowances, especially Newstart, by $53 per week for single recipients; and index allowance payments to wage movements.
Remove direct age discrimination against workers 65 years and over in taxation legislation in regard to tax concessions associated with redundancy payments.

Affordable, Appropriate and Secure Housing

Create a bi-partisan agreement to a plan to end the housing crisis by 2025, with the establishment of a coherent federal strategy to tackle housing affordability and homelessness, including a plan to reverse the trend to increased levels of homelessness amongst older people, especially women.
Increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 30%.
Establish a national mechanism to incorporate Universal Housing Design into all new home construction.

Other Priorities

Establish a comprehensive national approach to eradicating elder abuse.
Ban unsolicited selling through telephone cold calling and door knocking.
Remove the exemption of aged care from ASIC’s regulation of financial products.
Commit to ensuring all initiatives to move government service delivery and interaction with citizens online follow the principles of: offering properly supported, quality non-digital alternatives gradual transitions acceptance that some consumers will need to be exempt from digital-based interactions for a variety of reasons.
Establish a comprehensive, co-ordinated, plan of action on Climate Change: reduce carbon emissions mitigate the effects of climate change support all Australians – particularly people with vulnerabilities – to prepare for and adjust to a changing climate and economy.

Relevant commitments made other than those called for in COTA Australia’s Election Statement

Along with our scorecard here is additional information provided by the ALP to COTA and The Greens Statement on Older Australians. We have not received a specific response at this time from the Coalition to our Election Statement.

ALP response to the COTA Election Scorecard

The Greens statement supporting older Australians