Please note, the following opinion is that of a thoroughly jaded writer who has spent eight years wading through the swamp of aged care policy. His views do not represent those of HelloCare, its staff, its advertisers, or anyone still capable of optimism.
“It feels like they just want us dead.”
That is a claim I have heard on numerous occasions over the years from dismayed seniors, utterly at a loss to describe the parade of policies and decisions from government’s that seem set on undermining their wellbeing and care.
But in the last six months, I have started hearing this exact sentiment from leading figures in the aged care space, and most recently, from one of Australia’s most well-respected, level-headed and fact-driven journalists.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” this person confided off the record, “but I tell you what, I’m starting to think the government just wants the older people to die.”
As an unashamed conspiracy theorist myself, outside the realms of flat Earth or lizard people overlords, I realise I might be reaching a little too far. So indulge me as I lay out the particulars, and please let me know if you think my cynical distrust of institutions has finally tipped me over the edge.
Now, I would never flat-out accuse our exalted leaders of intentionally trying to kill off an entire generation of people, but if that were the twisted intention, the plan would have to be devilishly subtle to avoid having a negative effect on potential voters. Less like handing out a poison chalice at the nursing home, and more like bad policy inertia acting as euthanasia by proxy.
It might begin with something as sly as qualifying desperate seniors for home care packages, those lifelines they need to maintain any shred of independence, and then simply… refusing to release them. I would then be sure to steep my excuses in vague generalities and use terms like “phased rollout” to deflect from growing waitlists and avoidable deaths it has caused.
By making these vulnerable souls scrape by without support, you worsen their ailments, create fresh hells for them to endure, and herd them into hospitals or aged care facilities long before their time, hastening the inevitable.
With such potential for backlash, I would be sure to keep the excuses fresh and occasionally pivot to terms such as “sector unreadiness” or “IT hiccups”, followed by empty promises of future relief and selective quoting of feel-good statistics to dodge accountability for the carnage. This approach would be a masterstroke. Malevolent mediocrity and death by bureaucratic dawdling with a helping of smug deflection.
Despite my evil intentions, maintaining power does require the feigning of care and concern, so to keep this charade going, I would lean on the credibility of the Royal Commission and the themes of expanding rights that it espoused as the fancy wrapping paper for my own reforms.
I would then thrust the spotlight on the Royal Commission’s recommendations that we are supposedly tackling, while conveniently ignoring the most vital one—funding the system through a dedicated levy, which the Commission said was essential to bridge the gaping fiscal chasm created by our ageing population.
Thankfully, the general public has little interest in the aged care sector, so sidestepping this recommendation avoids any negative polling due to the stigma of “a new tax” becoming attached to the levy. It also conveniently allows us to shift blame for housing and affordability onto those pesky Baby Boomers who hoard all the wealth. See how easy that was? It just works.
However, appearances are everything, so I would then set up advisory meetings with leaders in the aged care sector to make it seem as though my plan was orchestrated on the best advice, but I would be sure to have my Aged Care Minister Anika Wells in attendance – who probably flew into town on a 24-karat helicopter with diamond-encrusted rotor blades at taxpayers’ expense – and have her tell everyone in attendance that she is happy to hear all recommendations, just not that troublesome levy that the Royal Commission recommended.
Next, you would offer your own solution. A Trojan horse painted like a unicorn with an emotive word like “fairer” sprawled across the side of it. It alludes to your previous claims that the older generations are hoarding wealth, but it also gives you the scope to redefine what parts of care are actually “essential” and up the price on bare necessities like showers, meals and housekeeping.
For people already struggling – which is most of them – it becomes a cruel choice. Skip food to afford a bath? Ditch the cleaner to pay for a trip to the doctor? These are fast tracks to an early death, because when you turn essential support into a luxury item, fewer people will ask for it. And that would be the point.
Fewer people able to pay equals fewer claims, which means fewer pensions and Medicare subsidies. It is a calculated squeeze brought about by rationing and delay.
All this paints a picture that is hard to ignore, does it not? But let’s be clear: I do not think Anthony Albanese, Mark Butler, Anika Wells and Sam Rae have huddled in a smoke-filled room, twirling moustaches and plotting to erode a generation for sport.
No, it is far more mundane and insidious. They have simply prioritised finances and retaining power over the wellbeing of the elderly Australians they campaigned so fervently to help.
The end result? More neglect, which, ironically, was the damning title of the Royal Commission’s report on the state of aged care. Neglect does not need malicious intent to be lethal. It simply requires people in power who decide that death is an acceptable price to pay.
Very accurate. I worked as an RN in the Disability and Ageing sectors for many years. We were always fighting to keep appropriate staffing levels.
The elderly these days are seen by most as a burden on society. Hence, the lack of aged care places and expensive assistance at home for daily living etc etc.
Why they are all still being jabbed en-masswith covid vaccinations in the aged care sector is beyond me. The falls at my facility are crazy because there just aren’t enough hired staff to watch them. All down to the last dollar. God help the ones who’s families don’t want them going to hospital. Alot end up with fractures not noticed for weeks sometimes often due to new staff not understanding the obvious signs of pain especially with residents with dementia. So sad to be an elderly person today. But what is an elderly person. Seems 65 is it!! Scary right?? But you cannot retire until 67? Alot still.working into their 70’s and above. If they can.
Albanese and his band of evil politicians should be tarred and feathered and paraded around the streets so people can throw manure at them. What his government is doing is called genocide, and that is not only against the aged, but people with mental problems, people who are dependent on Government support in any shape or form.
When are the citizens of Australia going to rise and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ This low form of life, called the ‘Prime Minister,’ needs to go now, not tomorrow, because by tomorrow, he will have passed another bill to bring Australians down to the lowest level and legally take all they have worked their entire lives for. Wake up, Australia, if you can’t see Australia belongs to the Blacks, and the brindles, and any colour other than white, then you deserve the Government we have. Australia belongs to the refugees that are given everything we as Australian slave for.
Yes I have a great idea I am 79 and had a few medical problems
If the government made it easier to opt out of life a lot of us would go save them heaps
Or maybe the money they spend on function and travel they could give to us to get a one way ticket to Switzerland then we wouldn’t have to save it out of our pension
That’s sad that you think the solution is to end your life before it’s natural end but it illustrates that the government has not spent the necessary money to make palliative care first class. One day they will be old and they will understand the difficulties. Hard working Aussies have contributed for many decades to government coffers yet now, when the elderly need help the most, it isn’t forthcoming.
100% seems that way Jakob. I am struggling to reduce Care Services for vulnerable people. If I don’t I was told yesterday the debt for any overspend will sit with me as Coordinator. How can I continue if thats the case. Pensioners do not have these spare dollars. As for Baby Boomers be prepared to reverse mortgage
Yep it’s not rocket science it has been crystal clear to so many of us no help is made easy to get everything has an expiry date forcing us all to reapply which becomes too hard so we don’t bother and living in rural towns is a further nightmare and if your alone with no family Hurry up and Die. When one retires absolutely nothing should expire we are all not going to get younger nor healthier!! Of course it’s hurry up and die always has been ! Sadly it’s far more serious today when seniors are forced out of homes to live in cars and tents etc that’s a disgrace for anybody let alone a senior.
What about us? ~The Silent Generation Birth Years: Roughly 1928-1945.
1940~ I was born in 1940!!
Just saying..
Have a lovely day.
Coral Allen
I think those deadheads haven’t got a clue about the aged. The silent generation are mixed in with the boomers. But why would a hospital suggest a bone marrow biopsy on a 95 year old, especially when surgeons won’t operate because anaesthesia might end his life?
Nailed the current state of play in aged care. The ‘reforms’ are nothing short of smoke and mirrors. The responsibility for actual aged care will be transferred to the State and Territory health systems. Community based care opportunities will only be afforded to those able and willing to fail…let’s see what unfolds at the next Royal Commission. Such a missed opportunity.
Thanks jakob, time someone said it. But you leave us thinking the answer is just more money so frail elders can buy more of what they dont like .
Hello Jakob,
Well, you may well be a conspiracy theorist, but more likely also just totally sick of the lies and propaganda… but I’m on the same page as you.
It is increasingly clear the government and opposition (what is left of it!!) are failing older Australians, as well as failing people with disabilities, immigrant families, First Nations People, and children.
Then there are those of us who are Baby boomers, who it appears, they’d prefer we died than provided adequate support. I am so disillusioned with politics, politicians, and their harmful, hateful policies, all the while as they have their own snouts in the trough (Annika Wells is just the latest example of that…)!
Many Australians can barely afford food, and don’t have adequate, if any housing, but the politicians who the Australian public fund, can fly their families around in Business Class, but expensive investment properties, et al… the list goes on and on and on.
Animal Farm is here, and it is here to stay…
Keep up your great journalism,
Kate Swaffer
This is exactly what I have been saying for years.
Good on you putting in print.
I think that this statement captures the truth. “They have simply prioritised finances and retaining power over the wellbeing of the elderly Australians they campaigned so fervently to help.”
I would add that Albo et al. have handed the business of older people as commodities to profiteering companies, who may become potential campaign donors.
I tend not to be a conspiracy theorist but in this case I’ve been stating loud and clear to whoever will listen that the government so called aged (care hmm ) reform represent theft and genocide by stealth . I’m pre boomer age ( the silent generation ) and have been shouting from the rooftop that the LNP (Costello ) blatantly stole our universal pension fund set up in the 1940s ( worth billions ) and put it into consolidated revenue . We paid 7.5% of our wage into that fund for most of our working life , many of us starting at age 14 . Had it been left alone it would now be worth trillions and afford us a pension and support with dignity and respect . Labor stood back and quietly allowed this to happen and are now doing much the same in a more devious and underhanded way . The underlying agenda is – let them die early from neglect , it will release housing stock and distribute accumulated wealth from increased property values . Sam Rae’s smugness when he smoothly rattles off his PR spin only serves to confirm my theory . If that makes me a conspiracy theorist then so be it . Like many others I hope to die soon so I don’t have to deal with this bureaucratic minefield and watch the erosion of the pittance I was able to personally set aside for my own aged care needs . I’d rather burn it in a backyard bonfire then give them access to it .
Great reply.. Well said..
I have a HCP now know as SAH, l concur with all you sprout, but it’s worse. People like l who have a serious disability without NDIS due to my age, lm over 65 in fact 76. On arriving at 65 and due to disability l had to work for myself and yes pay my dues tax wise. If that wasn’t hard enough on reaching 65 the Prime Minister placed his hand on my head and said ‘rise you’re cured’, here is the aged pension.
Those like l are living road kill with society feeding off our carcass.
The “new” SAH is designed without any consideration of those like l that are seriously disabled without NDIS. Don’t get me started with this ‘Age Discrimination’ on top of this abuse where our government while recognise a diagnosed disability only provides for half of those suffering.
Living alone looking forward to the day when l DON’T wake up is my only quest.
DM.
So well written and quite plausible.
Hopefully things will be smoothed out and aged care issues resolved in a humane way.
Baby boomers helped to make this country great and paid taxes for decades. It would be nice for those in power to make their last years on Earth comfortable and not stressful.
Ohhhhhh such a sad point of view. Just remember, we are all going to die, sometime. In the past, pensioners only had help from family. If not available, we helped ourselves. Yes, things are expensive, but not only now, in the past just as bad. I remember, in my 20ties having to make a choice: do I buy milk OR bread. It took 2.5 years to save a deposit for a house by living on 1 income. 2nd income was saved. And then we could only afford a ” fixer-upper”. We did not travel. We had 1 old car. We did not buy cafe coffee or meals. Our generation only had super savings during the last 15 years of our working life. So now I Iive alone on a single pension. And I CAN. Thankfully with a little help from MAC. And I am glad to be alive and thankful that my own taxes (I worked untilI was 72, because I could) have helped to support me.
Yep, not too far fetched. Boomers have lost their political clout, and as in nature; the strong turn on the weak.
Well said, Jakob! The points that stick in my mind are the apathy, the bungling, the dawdling, and the smugness. There has been much talk of wanting to avoid a levy (like the Medicare one), but do the present taxpayers not realise how much money is being handed to providers (let’s call some of them ‘grifters’) from the taxes that they are paying–in the expectation that they would be used to fund hospitals, education and so on? Since there is almost nobody in government who actually gives a darn, then maybe the only way to go, in the long term, is to start looking after ourselves from early on. Maybe a Healthy Seniors Campaign would work–something like the Life Be In It Campaign of earlier times, which actually got people out of their chairs and into the exercise arena. I don’t think that the pollies are generally hoping that people die, but I do think that they regard them as collateral damage, and that they will not be too upset if a few hundred thousand of them fall by the wayside. Maybe, though, they could free up some lower-level jobs by resigning en masse, a bit like the call to the oldies to free up housing for the younger generation. Final question … does Sam Rae ever answer a question that he has been asked? He seems to have all the spin.
Wow-wee! What a stopped-clock effect this article is… it’s not often I agree with your article sentiments Jakob, but this one is spot on.
I also think it is not malicious intent, just lack of insight and preparedness and no real understanding of the current scope of the situation, despite the amount of “consultation” they’ve had with the sector.
Sad stories (what we saw come out of the Royal Commission) make poor laws. And we are seeing that across the board.
We cannot forget however, there are Hardship options for SAH care seekers. They can apply to have their fees looked at if they think they cannot afford them. There are a lot of people banging on about the rise in costs, but at the same time failing to mention there are fiscal supports for those in trouble.
And so say all of us
Thanks Jakob. My thoughts exactly.
We could say similarly for the Disability sector.
Thanks Jakob,
YEP RIP Resisting in Place rather than Resting in Place
I never thought that support for dignity in ageing would turn into subsidising private equity firms over my equity to the compassion and care that we have always provided to people who needed a helping hand.
I’m tired. I am over regulated, over loaded and over it.
I am so much cheaper to support in place – my place, my bed, my community.
Kindness to all
Peter Willcocks
I have had the same feeling for awhile now. The sooner we are gone the better it is for the govt. I have made some enquires about dementia. Why can’t we have a form signed now while still able to and put everyone out of the misery it causes, staff family etc. I sure would prefer a needle if I do get dementia
Judith, I have written to every aged care Minister etc on exactly this point. Add a page to our Advanced Health Directive that allows VAD if we get Dementia. Hit 4 out of 7 milestones, get signed off by two Geriatricians and allow us to die with dignity. I am currently putting together an e petition.
Great to hear Catherine Chambers I will be with you all the way
Pity that Hello Care does not endorse the above sentiments because the article states the facts for our country’s elderly. In addition, those self funded retirees who struggled and sacrificed all their lives to be independent and not want the pension are now living below the poverty line. One rental property as an investment, which provides a home for those who require it and eases the home shortage, has attracted 5 forms of tax from day one to the present with land tax being the final nail in the coffin together with capital gains – for which the govt. did nothing to assist but put its hand out at every juncture. We are denied almost every concession and we are called the greedy generation and the wealthiest. Well, you can’t eat bricks and mortar and from our meager incomes we can’t pay for health care which is exorbitant and beyond our financial ability to pay, thanks to the revolting former aged care minister Anika Wells and her ilk, past and present.
Yes, I do believe the Govt. wishes the elderly would just disappear. The standard of “care” is appalling and the respect we receive from the Govt. is Nil. Whist hoping to be independent, not rely on govt. funding and provide for oneself and not be squeezed and owned by the Govt. tentacles if they even give you a dime, this Albanese govt. will go down in history as being the most destructive and oppressive towards its hard working citizens and the most incompetent. Robodebt, the Taxation Office’s hard handed treatment – note the person who had no criminal record etc. but had (illegally) an ankle bracelet placed on their foot which nearly caused gangrene and amputation, the Land Tax which is forcing the elderly to sell their homes, the cost of Bonds of $1m. to just secure a decent place for the elderly in a nursing home. Well done the Albanese Govt., the great socialist nightmare which lives off everyone else’s money, yet provides nothing in return of any value or rewards its elderly citizens who built this country through their sweat and tears. Yes, the former Govt., the Liberals, were responsib for Robodebt but the Albanese Govt. has its own can of worms. That we are still having the same decades long conversations about the dire state of aged care etc. is a sad reflection of the “leaders”, the low calibre of people who are governing this country, the rulers of our lives who have done nothing but to dismantle any vestiges of hope that this is a country worth living in – unless you are …………… you now the rest of the sentence!
You can all bleat about Pauline Hanson but she is a person who needs to be listened to and respected because she has ALWAYS cared about this country and to the fools who disagree, do you proper research and rely on facts – you will see that we need more people like her in Parliament not the dunderheads, radicals, incompetents and self-interested career politicians who only care about feeding from the trough. We have some good people in politics who do care but they always get beaten down by the ruthless political machine. Many of our citizens are to blame because they vote in the election without doling their research.
The only way we can fix this is to get a Govt. that cares about its people, that cares about the country and that the populace will have all available services, health care, education, housing and incentives to self-actualise and get ahead by individual effort to be in a position to provide for themselves. A fair taxation system that will also use those funds to provide quality assistance and support to those who need it instead of bleeding dry the workers and wasting taxpayers money on projects that always end up with a big F for FAIL – aged care being one of them.
Aged care should be a given to every citizen in this country and a levy set aside, in a national fund, from every single paypacket which should go towards providing for one’s needs in old age. The baby boomers never had a free lunch, we paid our way consistently throughout our lives, and the best the govt. can come up with and those academic fools is to say that the govt. should tax them for every extra bedroom, make them sell their family home and move into butter boxes so the young people can have them (never mind that they couldn’t afford them at age 25), give them every opportunity to kill themselves legally,maintain the low standards in aged care across the board ( so that it guarantees a shortened lifespan) and make sure that technology will deny them the right to pay with cash, go to a counter and speak with a human and complete a transaction (so as to make life so miserable that they would prefer to meet their maker than to live so meanly because of Govt. policies).
I’ve thought this too
Accurate. Thanks Jakob. What is concerning is that people are trying to raise problems in aged care facilities with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the Minister and they are not being taken seruiously and regularly cases are closed without doing anything about the problem. How does this comply with the recommendations of the Royal Commission? Improvements can be made through people speaking up and exposing the problems, and the authorities acting on the complaints. With home care packages, the system of a package being “approved” but not “assigned” is plain ridiculous. What sort of society are we if we do not have high quality care for our elderly people?
The government has thrown the responsibility to carer’s to look after their loved one’s. No respite in Queensland Nursing Homes are full. Waiting lists are long. We will have carer’s burnt out more aged care people won’t be able to afford to pay for home help as greedy provides push prices through the roof. This is a government with no clear solutions. This is a government that cares for no one that can’t pay Nursing Home fees in full. And the solution is no government is worth voting for because they just can’t or won’t fix the problem.
Wow what a negative article! To sprout “It feels like they just want us dead” is certainly not what I hear from the seniors I know. Can I suggest that maybe it’s time Jakob goes out and smell the flowers, watch the bees, look up at the big beautiful open sky and take a deep breath, it’s certainly not all doom and gloom.
Wow, surely you are not from the poorer part of town. I am glad for you to expierence the beautiful sky, the warm sunshine and the bees buzzing. I dont know where you live? Certainly not in some peoples reality of struggle street. This not only for the elders of society as this applies to all low income earners. Open your eyes and talk to people from all walks of life, not just people from the golf club. I assume, and I love golf.
Have eyes wide open and not eyes wide shut.
Very sad, because at the end all will be in the same position, as the rest of us. Laying flat.
Perhaps is this how ageism is created by denying reality. Just a thought.
I could not agree more. It seems to me that politicians are our landlords and we are their serfs to be discarded when we are of no more use to them. I concur also with your last sentence and I too, will not let them have one cent of capital gain in my lifetime. When I see the “rules” which allow the blatant excess of our taxpayers money spent by these political parasites – Anika Wells being only one of them – it only goes to confirm that the majority are ruthless b……., who are only in Govt. for what they can get from a political career and live the high life on the govt. teat.
Well, it all depends on what side of the street you are looking from. You and yours might be fortunate but there are a great deal of others who are not and relate very closely to what Jakob Neeland has said. It is a bit hard to see the sunshine when there are only dark clouds and rain for some. You might not like what he has said but there is a great deal of truth in what he has written.
In my view Jakob, your opinions are far from being in the realms of a conspiracy theory but are more aligned with the realities of aged care currently and in the foreseeable future. What we are seeing is ageism at its worst, perpetuated by budget constraints, political policy, marketisation and privatisation of aged care (where profits take precedence) and, sadly, the conscious and unconscious bias of the very individuals in aged care facilities who are supposed to be caring for residents.
‘Malevolent mediocrity’, ‘death by bureaucratic dawdling’ and ‘smug deflection’ look certain to ensure the ongoing neglect of our aging population.
A new approach is needed, starting with a dedicated aged care levy.
I totally agree with that ‘conspiracy theory’. What’s to say that’s not true? As pointed out, they’ve done everything they can to make it impossible to get what’s needed to survive to old age for most of us.
For me, I’d be happy if I died tomorrow, but many who are not ready to go yet will likely die waiting in a bloody queue, for the government to deliver on their promised relief and help.
It’s easy to believe they don’t want us, and all the promises are empty ones.
Jacob, Thank you for keeping reality alive and say how you see it and how it is. The plain truth.
Monika
There has never been an attack so harsh on the elderly than this new aged care policy being carried out by the Labor Albanese Government. The elderly are becoming nervous wrecks and frightened out of their witts by just trying to access any help at all.