Aged care reforms – get involved! 

Anna Harrison


Australia’s age care system currently ticks all the wrong boxes. It is complex, unwieldy, expensive and does not provide the care that older Australians are entitled to expect.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Service heard heart-rendering tales of neglect and downright abuse of vulnerable people. 

A major recommendation of the Commission was that the Aged Care Act 1997 should be replaced with a new Act based on older peoples’ rights.

These are defined as:

1 Independence, autonomy, empowerment and freedom of choice,

2 Equitable access to funded aged care services,

3 Quality and safe funded aged care services,

4 Respect for privacy and access to information,

5 Person-centred communication and ability to raise issues without reprisal,

6 Access for advocates and significant persons, and social connections.

The Commissioners made 148 recommendations. All these were accepted by the government. However, the devil is in the detail and these details need to be worked out by all stakeholders, especially the older people who are the present or future recipients of aged care and the people who care for them.

The Commissioners recommended that the government and department work closely with the stakeholders involved, but especially older people themselves, to design and implement the reforms.

As a result, the government established the Aged Care Council of Elders in 2021 as an advisory body for the aged care reforms. Members of the Council of Elders have a diverse mix of skills, expertise, and background and lived experiences of ageing and aged care. They also represent broad geographical locations, including rural, regional and remote Australia. 

The council meets monthly. Members talk to older people about the changes being made to aged care and matters relating to ageing well. They use this information to give independent advice to government about the aged care system and ageing well. 

Margaret Walsh and Anna Harrison are WA-based members of the Aged Care Council of Elders. 

Margaret is an experienced former nurse and manager of organisations providing services to people who live with disability and to people receiving aged care services. She has been a strong advocate for the disability sector for more than 20 years and, since retirement, the health and aged care sector.

She is also is a community representative for the Older Person Health Network expert advisory group in Western Australia and a board member of the Australian Independent Retirees.

She was recognised for her work in 2011 when she was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for her services to people with disability. 

Margaret was invited to participate on the Taskforce on funding and cost of aged care in the future. She says that the final report did not truly reflect recommendations of all members and as a consumer representative she felt out voted and overlooked.

Anna has dedicated her professional life to advocating for people from Western Australia, particularly older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and those identifying as LGBTIQA+.

She is multilingual, which has helped her to connect and engage with older people from diverse communities. She founded the Umbrella Multicultural Community Care organisation, which supports older people from culturally diverse backgrounds to remain in their own homes and to maintain independence as they age.

Anna’s leadership and commitment to the rights of older Australians from multicultural and LQBTIQ+ communities has resulted in Umbrella today supporting almost 1,000 clients from 70 countries.

In 2023, she was cited as a Member of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours List, one of four women across Australia honoured for their contributions to the aged care sector.

She is also a member of WA Ministerial Multicultural Advisory Council and was on the Positive CALD Ageing Network Ministerial Advisory Committee for Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils Australia.

Margaret and Anna are committed to inclusion and advocating for the rights of older people.

“Everyone’s situation is different and everyone has a right to actively participate in decisions about their health, their care and their lives more broadly,” Margaret said.

“The changes being made to aged care matter. They will affect every single Australian, including my grandchildren. 

“The opportunity we have right now is to contribute to that change, as community members and in our role on the council is crucial.”

The Council invites people to provide feedback. Anyone interested in Australia’s aged care system has been able to contribute, including older people, their families and carers, aged care providers and workers, researchers and experts.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the aged care system right. All Australians should have input as the reform will affect all of us eventually,” says Margaret.

“We need to get it right now. This is our chance to tell the government what we want.”

Margaret and Anna want to hear your concerns or issues with the aged care reforms either by phone, text or email, so they can feed these back to the department and government. 

She would also be more than happy to talk to groups/organisations or meet with individuals in person. Contact Margaret on 0487 290 097 marghw@outlook.com and Anna on ania@iinet.net.au.

The new Act is expected to come into force on  July 1, 2025.

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Frank Smith was trained as an agricultural scientist in the UK, moving to WA in 1974 and shortly afterwards began lecturing at WAIT (now Curtin University) in soils and agronomy. In 1979 he joined the Agriculture Protection Board in charge of publications and media relations, studying part time for a degree in Journalism. In 1992 he spent a year as a visiting professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Later he ran a small publication company with his wife Mary-Helen. He then began freelance writing, editing and book indexing. He has written articles for more than 40 magazines in four continents and indexed more than 20 books. In 2007 he started writing for Have a Go News and gradually reduced his writing for other publications. He later took over the subediting, ensuring Have a Go News is consistent in style and highly readable. He and Mary-Helen live in a passive solar home in the Perth Hills with a varying collection of quendas and native birds.