Pensioners not Boomers, Te Ao Māori collectivism over Pakeha individualism – why Aged Care needs a culture shift in NZ

Report calls for action over creaking aged care model

An advisory group tasked with assessing the aged care model is sounding the alarm, saying the system is “at a turning point” and “major systemic reform must start now”.

“While many older people are supported well, current settings will not be able to meet future demand safely, equitably or sustainably without major deliberate system change,” it said.

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The Ministerial Advisory Group on Aged Care in New Zealand, chaired by former Labour minister of health David Cunliffe, has made 40 recommendations in total, including the government committing to “significant price uplifts” and lowering the threshold at which people with assets must pay more towards their care.

It warned if there was no change, there could be a shortage of more than 9000 residential beds in just over a decade, at an additional cost to the government of nearly $600 million a year.

But even the recommended course of action is only somewhat cheaper than the worst-case scenario, with all projections costing billions of dollars.

Late last year, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said there were “major political considerations” attached to any changes in the aged care system and so an independent group was needed to make recommendations. Long-term thinking and a bipartisan approach were also needed.

On Monday, she said the government had appointed the group because it wanted ideas for reform.

The 186-page report, titled A place to grow old: Securing the future of aged care, was released on Monday. It said that “if we do nothing there will be a mountain of unmet need, alongside a much higher demand for hospital beds”.

The advisory group was tasked with considering the way services were funded and how costs might be shared, as well as how care systems and health services might be better integrated, and provide recommendations.

It tested possible scenarios and came to the conclusion there was “no alternative but fundamental reform”.

“The only real choice is between a hard set of changes made deliberately now, or a more painful set of changes forced on the country later.”

RNZ

 

I’ve always felt that it is a disgrace the way Pakeha culture treat our elderly and have always believed we need to lean from Māori collectivism when it comes to the culture shift needed in Aged Care.

In pakeha culture we seem to want to sweep our Parents and Grandparents away into some awful retirement village that suck them dry with costs.

The demographic realities of our ageing population demands a range of responses alongside real culture shifts.

We need more aged care accessibility from whanau members. We should properly pay whanau to look after their own with wrap around support to ensure the extra care some of our older whanau require as they age.

We need more incentives for Kiwis to have more domestic births from free ECE to better child care and longer maternity leave.

We need to accept more aged care migrant labour.

We need to see Local Councils providing more Council Flats and Housing for the elderly.

We need to acknowledge the cultural, political and economic difference between propertied Boomers and Pensioners.

New Zealand’s cost of living crisis is exposing a generational divide that is too often ignored — not between young and old, but between those who own and those who do not.

When Survival Becomes the Weekly Shop

‘I don’t have lunch any more’: Food prices bite as pensioner left with 33 cents after weekly shop

When Owen Kinnane did his weekly supermarket shop on Tuesday, he could still see the bottom of the trolley. Yet the $102 bill left him with just 33 cents in his bank account.

The 70-year-old lives alone in a Christchurch rental. Kinnane said he had $225 a week after his rent was paid. That had to cover bills and food.

“I have been finding it very tough.”

Stuff

The Divide: Propertied Boomers vs Pensioners

There’s a huge cultural, political and economic difference between propertied Boomers and Pensioners.

Propertied Boomers have leveraged their cradle to the grave subsidisation into a property portfolio and they vote with the venal self interest of a piranha.

National, ACT and NZF all benefit from the property pimps who donate heavily to ensure their interests are forever protected…

Property Power and Political Influence

Shadows cast on Auckland’s Sunfield development

One of Auckland’s largest new housing developments – the Sunfield community near Ardmore Airport in South Auckland, given the go-ahead under fast-track rules – has raised the ire of local politicians.

Developers Winton envisage nearly 4,000 homes, a town centre, retail and healthcare buildings, three retirement villages and approximately 26 hectares of parks and reserves and ecological areas. Regional development minister Shane Jones says it will deliver up to $3.2 billion to the economy and support more than 24,000 jobs over the 10- to 15-year building period.

But concerns have been raised that it sits on a flood plain, is located near an airport, and does not have the extensive transport, water and sewerage infrastructure needed to support it.

 

… Winton is a property pimp who donates to Chris Bishop. Abusing Fast Track powers to build housing for the poor on flood plains is as diabolical as it gets.

That’s the propertied Boomer electorate for you.

Pensioners Living on the Edge

Then we have pensioners, Boomers who didn’t use their cradle to the grave subsidisation to leverage into the property market and they are almost living on cat food level subsistence.

These Pensioners require our support and our aroha.

If we don’t support their housing, increase Super and lift social participation through adult education they will be lost to Peter Williams on Reality Check Radio and Sean Plunkett on The Platform while voting for Winston.

Propertied Boomers are in it for themselves in a way that makes your average South American cartel blush, Pensioners however need our support and respect.

A Moral Failure We Can’t Ignore

We must not leave their dignity to rot!

It is as unconscionable that the old have to live in  poverty the way 170,000 kids do in this country.

We need to battle poverty at both ends of the human life cycle.

What do we get?

1200 jobs about to be lost when we need more…

Hundreds of home support workers could lose jobs as contracts cut

…the hunt for the cheapest provider demeans us all.