CANBERRA, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a 662 million Australian dollars (469.6 million U.S. dollars) funding boost for the nation's aged care sector.
The package, unveiled by Morrison on Sunday, will see an extra 10,000 elderly Australians receiving care in their own homes rather than being forced to move into residential facilities.
Approximately 320 million Australian dollars will be spent on improving services for those already in residential facilities by mid-2019, the equivalent of 1,800 Australian dollars per resident.
The initiative was announced ahead of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety beginning hearing in Adelaide on Monday.
"Older Australians have worked hard all their life, paid taxes and done their fair share, and they deserve our support," Morrison said in a statement.
The Council on the Ageing (COTA), Australia's peak body representing the elderly, was broadly supportive of the announcement but said the money should be tied to aged care facilities increasing the number of staff and improving their training.
"It is disappointing there are no conditions attached," COTA Chief Executive Ian Yates told Australian Associated Press (AAP).
"I expect many of the issues and unsatisfactory practices that will be raised during the Aged-Care Royal Commission, which begins its first hearings tomorrow, will be attributed to inadequate staff numbers and poor staff training and development."
Morrison has announced more than 1 billion Australian dollars in funding for aged care since establishing the royal commission in October 2018, having promised 550 million Australian dollars for new home-care packaged in December.
The announcements are part of the governing Liberal-National party coalition (LNP)'s plan to shore-up support among the elderly, traditionally among the party's strongest supporters, ahead of the May general election.
The opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) has announced it will undertake an ambitious tax-and-spend agenda if elected in May, including abolishing cash refunds for franking credits associated with dividend imputations.
Under the current system, introduced by the ALP in the 1980s, shareholders in companies that make a profit do not pay tax on those dividends, instead receiving a handout in the form of a franking credit that entitles them to a reduction of their tax liability.
However, changes made by the LNP in 2000 made it so that retirees who do not have a tax liability can trade their franking credits in for a cash handout for the government.
According to the ALP, abolishing those changes will increase tax revenue by more than 55 billion Australian dollars.
