Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) has welcomed the focus by the Prime Minister on the impact of ageing on the Australian economy and our capacity to meet future social, aged and health needs of the Australian community.
ACAA CEO, Rod Young, said ‘the Association had for many years been highlighting to Government the need to recognize the enormous impact our ageing population will have on the future well being of our whole society.
"ACAA is delighted therefore that the first major issue the Prime Minister has raised in 2010 is the need to consider the long term strategies that will be required to ensure future governments are able to support and maintain the level of services the Australian community has come to expect," said Mr Young.
"Failure to plan now for the future impact of ageing will almost certainly mean reductions in health services, aged care services and social welfare," Mr Young said.
"After spending a century developing and evolving our health, aged and social welfare services, it would be a social catastrophe to see these diminish or decline due to lack of strategic policy reform to address the impending social impact of an ageing population," said Rod Young.
"The first real impact of the greying of the population starts next year when the first of the baby boomer generation turns 65 years of age thus commencing the very rapid rise in the proportion of persons aged 65; 13% of population today rising to 18% in 2022 and over 20% by 2031," Mr Young said.
"ACAA is therefore very pleased the Prime Minister has recognised this as a time bomb and announced the need to develop new policy frameworks to address the impact of ageing," said Rod Young.
"ACAA welcomes this announcement by Kevin Rudd and looks forward to working with his Government on these issues in coming years," said Mr Young.
