12:45Ian Henschke, the chief advocate for National Seniors Australia, has described the budget as a “mixed bag”. Henschke said the extra aged care places – 14,000 announced tonight and 6,000 announced in December – were welcome. But it was nowhere near enough to meet demand, he said. “But that is only 20,000 packages and we know there are 100,000 Australians who want to stay in their own homes, who are not getting the level of package that they want. So we believe there is a long way to go to meet that need.”The $22m for elder abuse in the budget was welcome, and showed the government had been listening to public concern.

Source: The Guardian May 07, 2018 21:58 UTC