Govt should meet aged care industry for discussion and dialogue, not ‘spin’
The national president of the Aged Care Association Australia, Bryan Dorman, has called for an end to Government ‘spin’ in his opening address at the organisation’s national congress in Hobart.
According to an online conference report, Mr Dorman told delegates that the Government needed to meet the industry’s requests for discussion and dialogue.
“It’s time to end the spin and the rhetoric,” he said, “and we have heard a fair bit of that coming out of Canberra in recent times.”
Mr Dorman said that restrictions on the industry’s income streams were limiting consumer choice and making it difficult for providers to raise high care capital.
He referred to the recent Grant Thornton report, conducted with the assistance of Professor Warren Hogan, which found providers have a return on investment of just 1.1%.
“That report was clear, decisive and damning in its findings,” Mr Dorman said.
“It was a lucid indicator of the troubled times ahead.”
The Association’s president concluded with an open invitation to the Rudd Government to work with the industry.
“ACAA offers its resources, commitment and people to work with the Government, at any time and in any place of [its] choice, to work through these problems,” he said.
