In his initial response to the Federal Budget last night, Anglicare Sydney CEO Peter Kell says, "the Treasurer's zeal for a "fiscally responsible' budget has seen Australians living at the
margins largely forgotten yet again".
Anglicare Sydney is the largest Christian organisation providing community-based disability services and one of the largest not-for-profit aged care service providers in Australia.
Full comments follow:
Aged Care
"While additional funding for the training of aged care nursing staff is welcome, the funding gap that continues to make residential aged care unsustainable remains", says Anglicare Sydney CEO Peter Kell.
"The aged care system continues to founder on insufficient capital and a failure to index according to the real cost of care.
"We were hoping to see some adjustments in this Budget whilst acknowledging that further reform will hinge on the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Aged Care".
Disability and Carers
"People with a disability and those that care for them have been forgotten in tonight's budget.
"They have essentially been told to wait until the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Disability Care and Support delivers its recommendations in 12 months time; recommendations which may take at least another year after that to be implemented, if at all.
"In the meantime, Australia's 500,000 carers continue to largely meet alone the challenge of caring for a loved one who is frail aged, has a disability or a mental illness. These Australians will continue to experience significant barriers to economic and social participation."
Emergency Relief
"The Government's social inclusion agenda, much vaunted in 2007-08, was conspicuously absent tonight.
"The Government itself admits that there remain five percent of the population, one in 20 of us, who continue to live at the ragged edges of Australian society.
"Quite often these people face multiple and complex challenges to social and economic participation which compound across generations.
"While the Government increased emergency relief funding last year, this continues to only address the symptoms of disadvantage without addressing the root causes."
