Healthcare, Disability Support and Aged Care Policy
Healthcare, disability support and aged care should be merged in a universal, overarching insurance system that bulkbills where necessary for services. This system should include oral health care. Effectively, this system would comprise the following current systems:
- Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS)
- State and territory oral health care
- National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
- Residential and community aged care
An overarching system will eliminate the service gaps that currently exist between the separate systems.
Disability support and aged care should not be provided by organisations whose first responsibility is to maximise the investment returns of their owners. Care and support should be provided by governments and not-for-profit organisations which can demonstrate that they put people first.
Aged care is a core policy and advocacy area for CPSA. CPSA’s aged care key policy positions are:
- At-home care and residential care should be subsidised where necessary in order to enable people to choose between at-home care and residential care
- The compliance and compliance monitoring systems for at-home care and residential care need to be based on objectively measurable standards of care and administered by an independent authority
- Mandatory staff-to-resident ratios should be introduced in residential care
- Aged care should be available to everyone who needs it, rather than being rationed as it currently is
Housing Policy
Everyone has the right to secure, affordable and appropriate housing.
Homelessness is a national human and social emergency and governments in Australia should put an end date to it.
The supply of social housing should keep pace with need, which means that a significant injection of funding into social housing is required in every Australian state and territory.
Social security recipients should receive adequate Commonwealth Rent Assistance for the area in which they live.
All residents in the private rental market should be protected by minimum standards covering the state of a property and amenities. In addition, tenants should be protected against excessive rent increases, eviction without a valid reason and their housing not being properly maintained.
Owner-occupiers should not be forced to encumber their housing with equity release / reverse mortgage debt. They should not be forced to sell their homes other than for the resumption of land by government agencies.
Security of tenure, site fees and fees for utility services in residential parks and manufactured home estates should be regulated.
A national approach should be taken to ensure retirement village contracts are transparent.
The rights of protected tenants must be maintained.
Essential Services
People on low incomes should have access to basic and adequate levels of essential services regardless of ability-to-pay.
CPSA regards the following services to be essential services:
- Public transport
- Energy
- Waste collection
- Water supply, wastewater and stormwater disposal
- Telecommunications
- Banking
- Price-capped basic funerals
Cost of Living Policy
Independent tribunals should set the rate of all income support payments and concessions.
Social security payments and all concessions should be reviewed periodically to ensure their adequacy. Indexation, which reflects cost-of-living increases, should be applied to all social security payments and concessions.
Superannuation policies should be set to enable a reasonable income in retirement.
Those who were unable during their working life to accumulate savings in superannuation but who accumulated private savings should be able to transfer their assets into superannuation.
People on low incomes should not be forced to use the equity in the family home to pay for government services, nor should the family home be included in means testing for income support payments.