Neil Mitchell says an ‘inexcusable’ problem is to blame for ‘sickening’ aged care failures

Neil Mitchell says money won’t solve the problems in Australia’s aged care and mental health systems, unless a “sickening” moral failure is also addressed.

Yesterday, following the release of the final report of a royal commission into aged care, which found a third of elderly people are receiving “substandard” care, the federal government announced an additional $452 million in funding for aged care.

But Neil Mitchell isn’t hopeful that will fix the failing aged care system.

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“There’s a moral failure here and their answer is just more taxes,” the 3AW Mornings host said.

“I don’t know that money is the problem. The way that it is managed is, the way that it is spent is. Get rid of the fat cats and the long lunches, get out there and use the money properly, and change the culture.

“We don’t respect the elderly, or this wouldn’t have happened. Australia wants to lock old people up and forget about them.

“We are frightened of mental health … we don’t respect the old. Those are the cultural problems we face, and they’re not fixed with just more taxes.

“I remember, as a kid, delivering newspapers to a couple of aged care homes … even then they horrified me — they smelt of urine and faeces and mould and death. Here we are more than 50 years later and they’re no better, many of them.

“That is sickening. That is a failure.

“It’s time to reset Australia. We’ve got to reset our morality, reset our priorities, reset our cultural attitudes.”

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