Government taskforce rules out new tax to fund aged care sector

The Federal Government is remaining tight lipped about when changes could be made to the way aged care is funded.

Transcript

00:00 Over the next four decades, Australia's population aged 80 and over will grow to 3.5 million

00:08 people.

00:09 And our workforce is under pressure with people aged between 15 and 64 years expected to decline

00:16 as a proportion of our population.

00:20 We've already heard that the next generation of people entering aged care want a different

00:25 model and different standard of care than those that have gone before them.

00:30 We're going to have to be innovative to address this challenge.

00:34 We need more services for more Australians.

00:37 We need good facilities not to close and we need Australians in rural and remote communities

00:43 to have nearby facilities.

00:46 The government confirms today that it will not impose a new tax or a new levy to fund

00:52 aged care costs or any changes to the means testing treatment of the family home.

00:59 And we hope that in being able to do that today, we can now work cooperatively with

01:02 the opposition and try and land a response that everybody can support in the parliament.

01:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]