Fix Private Health Insurance for Older Australians – Add your voice and SIGN PETITION HERE
Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia hopes that throughout the election campaign the voices of Australia’s older people will be heard – both through political action and through media coverage.
We welcome the opportunity to submit this submission in advance of the 2022/23 Federal Budget.
Aged Care Reform was the centrepiece of this year’s Federal Budget, both in policy and financial terms. Apart from aged care there are not huge gains in this Budget.
Older Australians will benefit from measures aimed at increasing workforce participation and fixing retirement incomes, COTA Australia says, but support for vulnerable groups like renters is still missing and long-term solutions are needed to ensure vulnerable Australians are adequately supported.
COTA Australia welcomed the establishment of the Senate Select Committee on Job Security and appreciates the opportunity to present this submission, with a specific focus on mature age and older workers
Older Australians need a comprehensive plan from the Australian Government, demonstrating that all areas of Government are thinking and acting in a coordinated fashion to improve the lives of mature age and older Australians.
COTA Australia commends the delivery of stimulus measures designed to incentivise employment. COTA Australia does wish to express a number of concerns. No older workers should be displaced due to JobMaker. Wait times and the rate of JobMaker eligibility should be reconsidered.
Australia’s peak body of older Australians, Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia, has welcomed a number of significant Federal Budget initiatives in pensions and aged care, but expressed concern about the plight of mature age and older workers who received no targeted support.
In the COVID-19 response Budget in October, we urge the Federal Government to prioritise the following areas:
Pensions and Income Support
Future Retirement Income Policy
Aged Care Reform
Employment of older Australians
Housing
A whole-of-Government approach to an Ageing Australia
The extension of the JobKeeper scheme and the continued additional support for people on JobSeeker have been welcomed by Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia as essential support for mature age workers thrown into unemployment or at risk of it due to COVID-19.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s commitment to delivering a national strategy to support older Australians has been welcomed by COTA Australia, as a crucial bipartisan step towards building a better, fairer nation putting the needs of older people above politics
Australia’s leading advocate for older people, Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia, is calling for greater choice, simplicity and more meaningful support for older people in its 2020 Pre-Budget Submission to the Federal Government ahead of a formative year for the future of older Australians.