So!? Who really gives a rat's? People who've outlived their usefulness and are sitting alone on valuable real estate? That they may have sweated/slaved to purchase, need to be disposed of thoughtfully! Euthanasia!?

It's is all this aged cohort of demented rubbish deserves! Never mind that they built the country/everything in it, died in their thousands/sacrificed in so many other ways to protect our remaining (whittled away) freedoms/rights.

They are all used up/a useless burden that not even their families want!?

Just want them gone so their property, i.e., that not confiscated by the state? Can be divided as they see fit?

Oh, it's fine for born again committed Christians like Somo, to thump the pulpit/lectern, thunder/roar out how shameful this is!? But just meaningless pious hypocrisy of the worst order, writ large, if that's all there is! Generally speaking, all there is?

As things remain largely unchanged as for-profit aged care chases the dollar above all else! Reminds one that a recent study found it cost nearly half to keep people in their homes with adequate service provision as opposed to INCARCERATING THEM in DEATH SENTENCE aged care!

HALF!

This situation will continue unabated as long as health/home care is a nation divided against itself/able to be scapegoated by various, state federal, government agencies able to blame shift forever!

State governments will endlessly duck shove their elderly into federally funded nursing homes ASAP! To minimise their aged care costs!

Seen it exampled with mine own eyes as one VERY COGNENT ND ALERT William Riddle was frog-marched by a young intern right out of the ward, into a distant nursing home at Oaky, with a NICE DUCK POND! He owned valuable Toowoomba CBD real estate!

Again as a so-called night nurse wandered a geriatric hospital ward, with a large, club-sized, rubber covered touch as he searched through the belongings of elderly patients in his alleged care. no names no pack drill.

So many premature deaths due to head injuries suffered in a remarkable number of falls? Time that CCTV was made mandatory in all aged care!
Alan B.

Shareholders are more important than old people in the right wing Australia of today.

'Morrison is a hypocrite; parading his 'Christian credentials' while preferring tax cuts to caring for the vulnerable. '

you are one deluded marxist Tristan.

"in depth analysis" from Runner ; The Aged Care sector needs funding for ratios, Stay-at-Home packages , training and support for Aged Care workers , a Registered Nurse in all residential facilities 27/7. Elderly people are suffering pain and indignity. And that's all you have to say.

we know Tristan only those who hold your failed marxist ideology can possibly be people of compassion. Your dig at the PM is nothing short of sicknening only worthy of the likes of the abc who love to take up your marxist causes. One day you will wake up from your dogma to find out that spending spending spending eventually leads you to the compassion now being shown in Venezualla.

To call a man who has been the PM a few months ''Morrison is a hypocrite; parading his 'Christian credentials' ' is a low snivelling marxist cheap shot. I suspect he has as much if not more compassion than you although granted you marxist mob have a mortgage on vitue signalling.

Tristan Ewins never fails to demonstrate what is wrong with the far Left of politics: he can always find a problem which, in his opinion, can easily be solved by spending other people's money. Lots of it.

Reducing taxes does not put more money in the pockets of taxpayers, according to Tristan, it will merely "lead to austerity".

The logic trails badly, however. For him, "...SYSTEMIC ELDER ABUSE...[derives from]..."...insufficient regulation and funding." Yep, right. Just what the elderly need. More regulation. And more other people's money. Of course, there's a bit of a contradiction when Tristan complains that nursing home residents are forced out of bed, showered, fed, sit around watching TV a lot, then are told when they must go to bed. That the sort of regulation you have in mind, Tristan?

Amusingly, Tristan, like many on the Left, is still promoting the policies which failed so dismally at the May election.

And he wants another bottomless pit of money equivalent to that of the NDIS. Well, that cadaverous bureaucracy is working so well, isn't it?

Just like the pink batts program, the cash for clunkers program, all of the other Rudd-Gillard half bright ideas which didn't work in practice and the sky-rocketing cost of electricity thanks to subsidies. Oops, the elderly people Tristan claims to care so much about are actually dying in significant numbers now because they can't afford to heat their homes.

CalWest ; You're living on a different planet to elderly people who need to be showered and dressed within 5 mins every morning ; who may not eat their food because there are not enough workers to check ; Who will not receive urgent medical attention because there is no Registered Nurse on site. Do you have elderly loved ones? Do you have enough money to keep them in higher quality care? Do you care what other people may go through?

The logic of your argument is to totally dismantle the welfare state and social wage. And you don't seem to have a care - or any idea - of the consequences.

Yes the regulation of every day life is a regrettable symptom of the overall Aged Care system. Which is why the elderly need to be given options. For outings, discussions, books to read , or in today's world even internet. Very often elderly people are just sat down in front of a TV all day. Is that the kind of fate you want for your loved ones? But to give people options you need funding for resources and workers.

Phase three of the Coalition's tax cuts will cost over $95 billion over just 5 years. Tell me - where would you cut? Do you have any idea how much money that is and how deep the cuts would need to go? And do you have ANY idea of the human consequences?

Increasing energy prices can be largely traced to privatisation. The transition to renewables also has its cost for now ; and people on low to middle incomes should be fully supported during the transition.

Tristan, the Left is a one trick pony - spend other people's money on the latest half bright grandstanding, that's all they've got.

We need to "save" $95 billion? Good, save it as tax reductions, then people will be able to decide for themselves what they spend it on without any further advice from the creepy Left. And we could start with stripping out all of the costs imposed through RETs, subsidies and all the rest of the crap that goes with the global warming hoax.

Your naivete and confidence in the magical abilities of registered nurses is noted. While I admire the skills which nurses have, with the best will in the world, a registered nurse in a facility with, say, 80 residents, is not trained, educated or qualified to a level which would enable him/her to treat people with serious complicated illnesses. That's why we have specialists across the medical disciplines. You can't be taken seriously if you are proposing that a registered nurse, with the limited resources of a nursing home, would make any significant difference to health outcomes.

"The logic of your argument is to totally dismantle the welfare state and social wage." No, that's not the logic at all; you just made that up with your ridiculous exaggeration. The logic is that if creepy Leftists stopped trying to tell everyone else what could, must and should be done, people could make up their own minds about how they spend their own money.

"Increasing energy prices can be largely traced to privatisation." Not at all. Energy prices are now directly related to the level of subsidies of unreliable wind and solar energy generation, to the enforced inefficiency of renewable energy targets - yes, yes, one of Greg Hunt's dumb ideas - and to the demonisation of coal, which once delivered the cheapest electricity in the world to Australians.

But, as always, the Tristan Ewins solution is to throw more billions of other people's money around, with no thought whatsoever about who creates wealth or how.

That's the only idea you have.

Hey, Tristan,

Coincidentally, just found this: http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/task-force-eyes-93m-in-disability-fraud/news-story/8f0b5f3406c6aec01debce2a154a37e7

Seems that Labor's big spending programs attack crooks like blow flies.

Calwest ;

NDIS has a market based model of private provision which leaves it somewhat vulnerable. Would you rather straight state provision?

You knock the NDIS. What would you do about the needs of the disabled? Just 'let the market sort them out', eh?

https://theconsumervoice.org/issues/other-issues-and-resources/support-24-hr-rn-coverage-in-nursing-homes

https://hellocaremail.com.au/heres-need-nurse-resident-ratios-aged-care-homes/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-03/mandated-nurse-to-resident-ratios/9820452

Tristan, "Increasing energy prices can be largely traced to privatisation. The transition to renewables also has its cost for now ; and people on low to middle incomes should be fully supported during the transition", with this bit of rubbish you prove yourself to be either stupid, uneducated in things practical, or simply a globalist who will tell any lie to try to promote your cause. Which is it old mate?

No one with more than half a brain & an ounce of technical savvy could possibly believe the current crop of renewables can ever support the power needs of a modern society.

I suggest you stop commentating, & thus making a fool of yourself, go off & get some real education, then if you ever get enough technical understanding off how things work, come back & try again.

I do find it interesting that those whole life has been spent living off the taxpayer are always the ones to advocate more spending of tax payers money.

The technology - esp for micro-renewables -is always improving. For instance - the amount of energy retained by solar cells. This is what an engineering PhD told me when I graduated with my Social Sciences PhD. Micro-renewables will become more viable in the future, not less.

I guess the dumbing down of the education system has run all the way to PhDs - your irrefutable evidence for vast and rapid improvements in solar cell technology, Tristan, amounts to "somebody told me". And that's all you have.

Fact is, even large, professionally managed solar and wind systems are grossly inefficient, generating only about a third of their nameplate capacity. Even before the bird droppings hit the micro-systems' solar panels their performance would be no better. And then there's the problem of battery storage, which hasn't improved in decades.

And the cost of installing micro-systems to generate enough energy to meet Australia's needs? No mention at all, of course, but we all know that the Tristan Ewins solution will be to take money from taxpayers and squander it. Left wing governments here have history and form.

Still, it's on a par with the rest of your thinking, Tristan: somebody who works two or three jobs to keep his/her family afloat is entitled to have the government take away a big chunk of it to waste on social engineering crap.

Why is it that the Left always - ALWAYS - ends up lurching towards totalitarianism?

But in CalWest's 'brave new world' aged care can be 'left to the market' where our loved ones are left in their own feces, with bed sores and starvation - Because tax cuts for people on $200,000 and more is 'a greater priority'.

The person who told me this was a PhD student who had been studying the matter several years. I think his opinion counts for something.

The reality is that health technology is advancing along with an ageing population. In the future we will have to prioritise. Health investment equals crucial quality of life issues for millions of Australians. An ageing population means there will be more demand. So we'll have to decide whether our priority is tax cuts for the wealthy to acquire their third Ferrari - or investment in health and aged care to improve the quality and decency of peoples' lives.

BTW for the foreseeable future my aim is to raise Australia's tax take as a proportion of GDP to the OECD average. There must always be a balance between state and market - and interpenetration between the two. Incentives for co-ops and mutuals is also a good idea.

In the US Trump made enormous tax cuts for corporations and the rich. There has been NO flow on effect with increased growth or employment. Trickle-down doesn't work.

Also ; what is 'totalitarian' about a mixed economy and welfare state? The income tax system is more favorable to the rich today (and after Labor governments even) than was the case in Menzies' time.

'In the US Trump made enormous tax cuts for corporations and the rich. There has been NO flow on effect with increased growth or employment. Trickle-down doesn't work.'

just keeps the crap coming. Hasn't checked employment figures. Marxist can't lie straight in bed.

I called Morrison a Hypocrite. Why? Because Christianity is founded on compassion. I consider myself Christian as well. But hundreds of billions in tax cuts for the wealthy will mean austerity for everyone else ; and it will hit the poor. In showing himself unconcerned with the plight of the poor and vulnerable some aspects of Morrison's Christianity can be called into question.

But most importantly: this is an article about the sufferings of the Aged in an under-resourced aged care sector.

The ideologues want to make it an argument about the virtues of small government.

I am simply telling you: The sector is under-resourced. People are suffering. People are dying. People are cold, lonely and hungry. Without committing resources what do you suggest we do about it? Or (s evidenced by the evasion of the actual issues) is it just that you don't care? Just for a moment now make it about the PEOPLE who are suffering. And respond with their needs and interests in mind.

As for my Marxism ; I'm strongly influenced by Marx yes. Maybe I'm still a Marxist ; maybe not. It depends where you draw the line. I accept a lot of Marx's critique of capitalism and I believe in class struggle for justice. (as well as other struggles) But I'm not a philosophical materialist. And I believe in God. I'm interested in learning more about the Neo-Kantians.

So Tristan I suggest that if you are so concerned about the elderly that each week you visit a nursing home and bring a little joy to someone whose family has abandoned them. Seriously mate your politics is virtue signalling and generally I have found conservatives far more willing to put their money where there mouth is then your mad wealth distribution schemes. Obviously every decent Australian wants old people taken care of in a compassionate manner. To use this issue in a political point scoring exercise is frankly sick and typical of marxist conduct.

1f you want to be taken seriously Tristan, you have to start telling the truth, not just singing from the lefty song book. "In the US Trump made enormous tax cuts for corporations and the rich. There has been NO flow on effect with increased growth or employment. Trickle-down doesn't work"

What would you call the lowest unemployment in decades? The highest employment of African Americans ever, along with most marginal groups.

Do you know these facts, or do you simply avoid reading anything that might dent your Marxist ideology.

The quality and value of Tristan's PhD is evident from his writing: he has attributed to me the proposition that aged care should be left to the market, although I have never expressed that opinion. Your PhD must be in sociology, Tristan.

Elderly people are "left in their own feces with bed sores and starvation"? Who is? Name them. Where are they? If this is more than a figment of your imagination, have you reported the situation to health authorities?

Tax cuts will be used by the wealthy to buy a third Ferrari? My advice would be to sell the Ferraris and buy a Bugatti. But if they did, what business is that of yours? It's their money. On what basis do you think for a millisecond that you are entitled to seize money earned by others?

But that's the way with the socialist left. Their pretensions are profound. That's why there were millions of deaths last century directly related to Marxist ideology. Tristan's still OK with all that, apparently.

CalWest I suggest you explore the following website to get an idea of the state of aged care in this country.

https://www.agedcarecrisis.com/

and this is indicative of what some people go through:

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6109199/aged-care-resident-left-in-dirty-nappies/?cs=14231

If I wanted to 'virtue signal' I'd probably pick a more popular topic ; but most people don't want to know about the Aged Care crisis. I talk about it because I saw my own grandmother suffer. We got her into the best home we could afford. Even then my mother went in there every day to make sure my grandma ate her food - because there weren't enough staff to make sure of it. Basically the residents spent all day sat down in a common room. But at least we got her a private room with her own phone. The other homes were much worse ; and at least many of the workers in grandma's home genuinely cared.

re: Trump ; Ok you have me technically; unemployment is technically low ; however there is the following:

"when the labor market appears to be this tight, it would make sense to see more people in their prime working years (between the ages of 25 and 54) with jobs. However, the employment-to-population ratio for this group is conspicuously feeble. In September, only 79.3% of working-age Americans had jobs." "Part of the problem is that many of them seem to have exited the workforce—meaning, that they’ve given up looking for work." https://qz.com/1414865/the-us-unemployment-rate-is-at-a-48-year-low-so-why-are-so-many-americans-still-out-of-work/

re: 'leaving it to the market' ; well if you won't provide public funding what else do you think you're going to do? You have to make a decision what's most important to you: a tax cut of approx $24 billion a year for the rich ; or crucial frontline services in aged care, dental, mental health. This isn't 'virtue signalling'. It's a question of peoples values, morality and priorities.

Call me a Marxist or whatever ; I'm interested in learning more about Neo-Kantianism - but I don't guess you'll look that up. I'm willing to do what's necessary to fix the crisis. CalWest and Runner have other priorities. Namely $10,000 and $20,000 tax breaks for the very rich.

If you want the tax cuts to go through instead of addressing aged care etc, how about saying EXACTLY where you want Morrison to make the cuts? $24 billion a year is a LOT of money. It's not enough to say 'cut red tape'. Frontline services will be damaged critically.

Social Sciences PhD

Doesn't that say it all ?

Abuse for lack of an argument.

For all the naysayers - what would YOU do about Aged Care?

All I see here are people with an Ideological commitment to small government ; and a model of small government which benefits the wealthy first and foremost. But for those people putting me down ; using the label "Marxist" to avoid having to engage - again: What would you do about Aged Care re: the problems I've tried to allude to here? Don't you realise that nursing homes exist largely because there is a limit to what loved ones can manage on their own? And if the elderly have to sell their homes to get even mediocre care - what's the difference re: the alleged 'death tax' you all accused Labor of? And if there needs to be $24 billion in austerity every year to pay for the tax cuts: WHERE would you make those cuts?

If you cannot answer these questions properly the remainder of your arguments can be dismissed.

Well argued Tristan

Don't be put off by OLO's over-representative band of:

- Murdoch reading
- Sky News watching
- Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt listening
- Peta Credlin luvin yet misogynist
- rightwing...Tosseratti.

They're so far gone many consider Pell put upon!

Poida

I don't like Pell's Conservative dogma and the social forces he supports ; however with the appeal in process i'm open to the possibility it may go one way or the other.