Election 2016
A $5 MILLION national strategy for mature aged workers is a cornerstone of the Greens' older Australians policy, launched this week.
The policy has been welcomed by seniors groups as the first comprehensive ageing platform to be released by a major party in the July election.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said entrenched discrimination that left older people out of work for long periods needed to be addressed.
She said her party's strategy would allocate $5 million over three yeats to ensure participation and address prejudice.
"Alongside the national strategy, the Greens will also commit to increasing the level of employment services for job seekers aged 45 and over, meaning more support while they find work."
The platform also includes an extra $135 million funding for dementia and $76 million for palliative care, and a commitment to work with stakeholders to implement the recently-released Aged Care Roadmap and fully consumer-directed care across the aged care sector.
Council on the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates welcomed the focus on mature workers.
"In particular, the increased job active support recognises the need to holistically support mature age workers beyond simply incentivising employers to hire this critical cohort of experience within our population," he said.
"A national mature age participation strategy is something for which we have been advocating, and I hope it will be similarly considered by other political parties ahead of July 2."
He said the Greens commitment to the phasing out of aged care package rationing was welcome, but stopped short of committing to a timetable.
"Consumer directed care is already being introduced in the home care setting, and thousands of older people are benefitting," he said.
"However it has not yet moved to the residential care setting, and this is a critical next step to ensuring older people are in control of their care no matter where it is delivered."
Mr Yates said while the ALP had released its age-friendly nation policy, including a commitment to have a Minister for Ageing and a review of aged care reforms, and the Coalition had released policies on protecting the rights of older people and a National Dementia Strategy, neither had taken a comprehensive approach.
Aged and Community Services Australia president Paul Sadler also welcomed the Greens' commitment on ageing, but said more commitment on a specific timeframe for ongoing reform was still needed.
"Aged care needs stability and a firm timeframe to finalise the reform agenda," he said.
"The path for change already exists wuthin the National Aged Care Alliance blueprint and the Aged Care Sector Committee's roadmap, and yet we still don't see any of the major parties adopting it.
"This lack of political commitment continues to leave many old and frail people waiting months and months for care."
