There are many reasons why the Royal Commission into Aged Care should include Retirement Villages, attention should certainly be given to one critical matter.
An important point here is that retirement villages operate under state laws not federal laws as is the case with residential aged care.
The industry direction for residential Aged Care and Retirement Villages is a closer relationship and where possible a joint facility. The operator becomes a registered care provider and delivers home care packages to the residents of the retirement village section.
This leads to older Australians spending a longer period in a retirement village and a subsequent shorter period in a residential aged care facility. Sounds ok but critically this will mean older Australians will spend most of their latter years under State Government legislation rather than Commonwealth legislation.
One glaring example of the danger in this situation is -
Under federal law it is mandatory for an aged care operator to have an emergency evacuation plan and assembly point. Under Victorian retirement village law there is no mandatory requirement for a retirement village operator to have an emergency evacuation plan or assembly point.
Professor Tim Kyng from Macquaire University and Paul Latimer from the Swinburne Law School have both made persuasive arguments for retirement villages to come under federal law.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3030570
https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/Retirement_Housing/FINAL-SCLSI-RHS-16112016-MU.pdf
https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/Retirement_Housing/RH-Presentation-16112016-MU.pdf
Retirement villages INCREASE the number of older Australians that are dependent on the taxpayer funding for aged care such is the financial destiny of retirement village residents. A flatter or falling property market into the future will make it even worse. When it comes time to enter an aged care facility older Australians living in retirement villages require this increased taxpayer funding as a result of the 'deferred management fee' purchasing mechanism inherent in retirement villages.
The proposed Royal Commission into aged care should look at retirement villages, for the reasons outlined in the material above.
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