But advocates say the boost is little more than a good first step.
The massive funding injection forms the centrepiece of the governmentâs response to the aged care royal commission and includes $6.5 billion for an additional 80,000 home care packages over the next two years, bringing the total number available to 275,000.
From 2023 staff will be required to spend at least three hours and 20 minutes every day with each aged-care resident â a welcome boost that will rise to three hours and 35 minutes by 2024.
And resources were boosted in other areas, too.
From July 2022, at least one registered staff member will need to be on shift at every facility for a minimum of 16 hours a day, while significant amounts of money will be poured into up-skilling aged-care workers and enticing more Australians into the industry, including 33,800 training places under an expansion to JobTrainer.
Federal budget must address and fix the issue of Homecare11/05/2021|5min
The government should fix the issue of Homecare as people at that higher level of Homecare are dying before they receive their necessary care, according to National Seniors Australia Chief Advocate Ian Henschke. I think we re going to see more money spent on the sector tonight, he said. I think the issue of Homecare - which has been dragging on now for two years . that s got to be fixed. Because the people at that higher level of Homecare, people are dying before they get the care they need.
Mr Henschke also said many people want the homecare loan scheme to be made available for people at a lower interest rate than it currently is so people can afford to buy their own care.
"The royal commission was called to restore faith in the system - not to have another band-aid measure, not to have another drip-feed of money," according to National Seniors Australia Chief Ian Henschke.
"Forty per cent of people, when they go into aged care, die within nine months, so why wouldn't you have palliative care, nurses there, doctors on call, why wouldn't you do all that," he said.
"I'm hoping that Greg Hunt will be able to see this as a health crisis - in other words - recognise that we have to treat this as a health issue."
Branch close ‘no surprise’
THE closure of the Rosebud branch of the ANZ Bank on 18 March was on the cards for the past six months.
In October 2020, the bank’s general manager for Victoria Michael Wake said: “Every year we see 10 per cent less transactions at our branches because our customers no longer use them for everyday banking like they used to.
“While branch activity has declined, we’ve seen a spike in demand for many of our non-branch roles, such as customer contact centres and the operations team which manages hardship and other inquiries.
“The majority of our customers now prefer the convenience of doing their banking when it suits them. Our apps and call centres are convenient, and we’ve also seen a number of passbook customers opting for debit cards recently to expand their banking options.”
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