Careless (2025) Movie Script
[girl] Sometimes
we're all a little careless.
[bleep] me dead. Oh!
And tell these
dickheads in the embassy
to just give me simple sentences.
[Barnaby Joyce]
I'm on a prescription drug
and they say certain things
may happen to you if you drink
and they were absolutely 100% right.
[Anthony Albanese speaks indistinctly]
[audience exclaims]
[ball thwacks]
[speaks indistinctly]
[reporter] Politics can be
a bruising sport.
[people exclaim]
[girl] In countries all over the world,
populations are getting older.
Some countries provide good care
for their ageing populations.
Many countries are worried
about the rapid increase
in the number of old people.
It's a problem that
gets bigger every year.
In Australia,
governments seem to think
that old people and their care
don't win elections.
But what's it like
to be an older Australian?
If we're lucky,
this will be us one day.
[Sue Thomson] Let's go into the kitchen
and make a cup of tea.
Oh, yeah. I'm gonna
need some help, I think.
[grunts] Yeah.
See, it's because I
I'm not concentrating.
[Sue] It's all right.
[sighs] I don't know whether I can.
- You'll have to pull me up.
- [Sue] Oh, okay. Sorry.
- Oh! [chuckles]
- [Sue] Yep, yep, yep.
- There I am.
- Oh, we did it! [laughs]
How's your arm?
[Sue chuckles] Okay, are we stable?
Yes, I'm stable now.
Just stand and look ahead
and just take a breather.
Oh, my goodness.
That was full-on.
Oh, you poor girl.
I'm so sorry.
No, it's fine!
- Yeah, bash up your daughter.
- Normally
Yeah, just you watch what
you're doing on your feet.
[woman] Yes.
[Sue] So did you ever
imagine that you would end up
having to consider
going into aged care?
Never. Never, never
in my wildest dreams.
[Sue] Why?
Because it was
like a black mark against you
if someone had to go into a nursing home
when they had family.
It was all on the families.
[Sue] I think that's a good point,
to be honest.
Do you know, that's why
I'm making a film about it.
[woman] It was nice
meeting you guys.
You might make a fortune
out of this, you know?
[all laugh]
Then you'll be careful! [chuckles]
Oh, dear.
So thanks for doing
whatever it is you do.
[laughs]
[driving jazz music playing]
[soft clattering]
You just walk behind me, dear.
[Sue] Do you know
your My Aged Care number?
[woman] No.
[Sue] And what about myGov?
Do you know how to access that?
MyGov? Well, ask the operator.
[Sue] Okay, here.
We can ring My Aged Care.
Why are you ringing them?
[Sue] 'Cause we've gotta
ask them about your respite
Oh.
[Sue] and see if they
can help us.
[automated voice]
Welcome to My Aged Care.
Our calls are recorded for
training and quality purposes.
If you do not wish
for your call to be recorded,
please advise
your contact center agent.
[pensive music playing]
[Sue] When you had to
become a single mum,
when Dad and you separated,
was that hard?
[Margaret] Oh, terribly.
That hurt me because
I wanted my children
to be brought up by the same people
and live a very ordinary life.
On the whole,
my life has been all right,
but old age is nothing to be
pleased about, in my opinion.
[sentimental carefree music playing]
It was better to be
an older person in the '50s.
At least that's what I think.
Governments used to take
better care of older people.
That's how I remember it.
[frantic music playing]
I think it probably changed
at the end of the '60s
and there was a rapid increase
in for-profit providers
and they really were
interested in the money.
[people jostling]
[cash register dings]
- [doorbell dings]
- [Margaret on intercom] Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
I'll let you in now.
[Sue] Mum, remember
I told you the idea that I had
of getting young people
to narrate a film about old people?
- Yes.
- So these three
have been part of the narration team,
- 'cause there's a few people doing it.
- Well done, girls. Well done.
- And do you have grannies?
- [girls] Yes.
[Margaret] And how old are they?
My gran is around 72.
Oh, that's good.
I'm much older than that.
[Sue] Well, how old are you, Mum?
I'm, um, 80 89.
Are you going to be in the film?
[girls] Yes.
Oh, well done.
- [girl 1] Thanks.
- [girl 2] Thank you.
Absolutely marvelous.
And I'm sure you'll star.
[girls giggle]
Once upon a time,
a Labor prime minister was elected.
[camera shutters click]
[girl 2] His government
decided to do things differently.
They wanted to work closely
with the business community.
We are about a fundamental change
in the way government operates
and the way it cooperates
with important sectors
of the Australian community.
Hawke's treasurer was a man named Paul.
[Paul Keating] We were
not trying to run prosperity
out of the Commonwealth budget.
Rather, we wanted to employ the markets
to make the whole economic pie larger.
From Keating onwards,
you've got the march
of neoliberal groupthink.
[girl 1] Governments come and go.
Then, a Liberal named John
became prime minister.
[girl 2] He decided
to do things differently.
[dramatic sinister operatic music playing]
Welcome to our show-and-tell
on the Aged Care Act.
To begin our presentation on ageing,
we're going to read a bit from
the 1997 Australian Aged Care Act.
[students groan]
"The objects of this act are as follows."
"To provide for funding of aged care
- that takes account of"
- "The quality of the care"
"The need to ensure access
to care that is affordable"
"And appropriate to the needs
of the people who require it."
Basically, what the government
is saying here
is every older person will have access
to affordable aged care
as they grow old.
[girls cheer]
[woman] In reading the Aged Care Bill,
it would appear that nursing homes
have disappeared and vanished
from the face of this earth.
George Orwell would be proud of this bill.
It should be called the
Aged Care Bill of 1984, not 1997.
I must point out that there is
general agreement
throughout much of the aged care sector
that the lack of capital care funding
in particular, for nursing homes,
estimated to be approximately 800 million
constitutes nothing less than a crisis
which must be urgently addressed.
[girl 2] Say hello to my grandma.
That's not your grandma.
Grandma represents everyone
who needs care in Australia.
Before 1997, Grandma and her friends
felt the care was already going downhill.
The government didn't like
spending on aged care anymore
and the money they did spend
was incentivizing
nursing homes to make money.
Not great for Grandma.
But if Grandma thought
things were bad before 1997,
she had another thing coming,
and that thing coming was privatization.
[dramatic interlude]
That's where the government said,
"Hey, who wants to make money off Grandma?
We don't want to be
responsible for Grandma's care.
You can do it."
So they gave aged care
over to private companies
who were very happy about it.
[easygoing music playing]
[reporter] Ageing is an industry
worth over $22 billion a year,
and growing.
Today, nursing homes are marketed
more like hotels than hospitals.
The elderly no longer patients,
rather customers.
[woman] You don't call
most people "consumers."
I think that's quite
a demeaning, derogatory term.
Most of the consumer consumer
consumer consumer consumer
All consumers are Consumers
The thought of them
just ordering a glass of wine
or, you know
I mean, these people are struggling
to have their dentures put in.
[woman 2] Well, you're more
like selling a cruise.
You're selling a cruise
with extra packages.
You're not selling a service
that's keeping your mother,
father or whoever
safe, well-looked-after and happy.
You know, it's stuff on top that's fluff.
It's fluff.
[woman 3] I think it is fair to say
that we have commodified
the elderly in Australia.
They're walking profit targets
when you've got big corporates
who are making a lot
of money out of them.
The fact that they were able to, you know,
release prospectuses
and say, "Hey,
literally profit from the elderly,"
that was one of their sub headlines,
like, it's crazy to me.
John Howard had set the ball rolling
on a system that was
dramatically outsourced
but that was suddenly
running out of money.
What he basically did
was opened it up to the free market.
They are sacrificing older people
for the good of the economy.
[melancholy music playing]
[reporter] Many older Australians
in residential aged care
are still not getting
the minutes of care per day
that they should be.
Advocates say the for-profit
sector is most at fault
and there needs to be better scrutiny
on how government funds are being spent.
[Margaret] I love the radio
and I learn such a lot.
There's very interesting talks
by interesting people, in my opinion.
Yes, we've got a good relationship,
the radio and me.
If I'm going to die,
I'd like to die here,
surrounded by my family.
That's the most important thing.
If I'm on my own somewhere,
I'm going to be very frightened.
I know I am.
It's quite a common feeling,
I've discovered amongst aged people.
We lose all our "doing stuff
on our own" decisions.
It will be a group decision that's made,
not an independent decision.
The fear of death and dying
and the taboo around that
and the fear of losing agency
and losing control,
they go very, very deep
and the reality is both of those things
do relate to aged care.
There's no sort of shying away from that.
[woman] There's no aged care
services at Batchelor.
It would be nice if there was.
So the pressures on family members
can be very overwhelming.
As a carer, going in to help
my sister do her insulin,
it was very scary and daunting,
but she didn't want to go to
an aged care facility.
Having her daughter there
and her grandkids coming
and great-grandchildren
and her siblings come and visit,
and friends,
at her home
she still felt like she was the queen
in her own environment,
and that was important to her.
It just helped her stay alive
for a bit longer.
Of course, we all want to do our bit
to be able to share
in our responsibilities
and obligations to family members
to make sure that they get
as much support in their decision
either to stay at home
or to go into respite care.
None of my family
actually wanted respite care,
'cause they thought they had
enough family members
that could come
and look after them anyway.
[woman] Do you mind if Jeremy
puts a microphone on you?
[Jeremy] So we're just gonna
stick this on the inside.
Just actually I think we'll go between
the jumper and the thing.
So I'll get I'll feed this
Probably the easiest way is feeding it
from upstairs to downstairs.
Why are you What are you
[woman] We're gonna put
a microphone on you.
[man] We're doing a little
bit of filming with Sue.
- Yes, I know.
- Oh, great.
But why do you need
to listen to me?
[Jeremy] Because you'll be talking.
[woman] Because we want
to hear what you're gonna say
'cause we're just gonna film
you in the car with Mum
Oh, right.
going to the nursing home.
Where?
[Sue] We're going to visit
that nursing home.
That's what we're doing today.
We're going to look at
We'll be gone for half an hour,
coming back, that's it.
So we just want to hear
what you think
of the nursing home,
we're gonna look at today.
You can just be honest, Mum.
- Mm-hmm.
- So I'm just gonna put this one down.
[woman 2] Oh, good glasses, Granny!
Oh, they look so cool, Granny!
[Sue chuckles]
[woman speaks indistinctly]
[Margaret] You've got to put
some purple in it. Yes.
[traffic rushes by]
- [woman 2] Love you, Granny.
- [Margaret] Love you too.
[woman 2] See you soon.
[gentle music playing]
[Sue] So this place we're going to,
my friend, Mum, I told you is there.
[Margaret] Right.
[Sue] Two of her children are doctors
and they did their research
and said this place
is one of the better ones.
All right.
[Sarah Holland-Batt]
Ageing is often something
we think happens to other people.
It's not something
that's ever gonna touch us.
The same thing doubly so for aged care.
"Aged care is something
that other people go into.
It's not a system that
I'll ever need to go into."
Most people think this way.
[Sue] Well done.
Okay, can you just stand here?
I'll get your handbag and mine.
[wind blusters]
[car door shuts]
[woman] Most people try and keep
their older person at home,
however, the burden of that,
the weight of that for a carer
who's providing all the care
is often too great.
The person who generally
gives the care is a woman,
either the spouse or the daughter.
[Holland-Batt] The idea of sort of being
in someone else's hands so completely,
like you are in aged care,
it's very confronting to our sense
of who we are as competent people,
as people who are making choices in life.
I'm an only child
and my parents had me
relatively late for the time.
So Dad was 45 when I was born
and Mum was 35.
Dad was a mineral metallurgist
by trade,
but he had so many
other interests and hobbies.
So he loved classical music.
He loved jazz. He played jazz piano.
He loved reading.
He had a giant library that
I was given free rein of,
full of inappropriate books
that, you know,
probably should have been
withheld from me at that age.
He was a wonderful, wonderful dad.
He was diagnosed with
Parkinson's when I was 18.
He had a relatively kind of slow decline
and then it kind of caught up with him
and, eventually,
kind of with great reluctance,
we had to move him into aged care.
And at that moment,
pretty much instantly
Mum and I felt that
we constantly were worried
that things were being missed.
He was having lots of falls
because he wasn't
medicated at the right time.
And then we had
a sort of really awful crisis
where a whistleblower came to us
and mentioned that a staffer
had been deliberately kind of abusing Dad.
I presumed it would be relatively easy,
that I would make a complaint
to the regulator,
the regulator would
investigate the complaint.
And then when that didn't happen,
then I went to the police.
And eventually I realized
that it wasn't just bad luck,
that it was the system.
And so then when the Royal Commission
into Aged Care
Quality and Safety was called,
I made a submission to that.
[reporter] The room belonged
to an 85-year-old woman with dementia
whose identity is protected.
Within hours of putting
the camera in place,
this is what it captured.
A warning. The footage
is very confronting to watch and hear.
[woman shrieks and yells]
Terrible revelations of abuse
against some of society's
most vulnerable
have prompted the Prime Minister
to call a royal commission into aged care.
[Scott Morrison] I just could not get past
what was occurring in our
residential aged care sector.
[Holland-Batt] I solemnly and sincerely
- [clerk] Declare and affirm
- Declare and affirm
- That the evidence I shall give
- That the evidence I shall give
I was sort of nervous
about my father's privacy.
I was nervous about my family's privacy.
And then I thought,
"No, it's the right thing to do."
So in your statement, you
detail that from about 2016,
you start noticing some issues.
It was when Mum and I would go and visit,
we would often find Dad disheveled,
in unclean clothes
[Holland-Batt] Aged care's an issue
that's poorly understood by most people
because they don't want to think about it,
I understand.
I'd never given it a moment's thought
before we had to move Dad into care.
She'd verbally abused him and told him
that she was "sick of his shit,"
um, that she left his wheelchair
away from the bed
so that he was left completely immobile,
and the whistleblower
also mentioned to my mother
that the reason that she'd told us
and not the facility
was that if she told the facility,
it would get swept under the carpet
and absolutely nothing would be done.
[Margaret Thorpe]
There was so much publicity
about abuse and lack of care
in aged care.
I think that many, many family members
would consider
the care that their relative receives
as being careless.
[person calls out repeatedly]
What a tragedy that an old person
at the end of their life
is treated with such disrespect.
So, you see, it's not just
breaking down in the nursing homes.
It's breaking down everywhere.
It's our humanity.
[girl] How did things get so bad?
Why was care forgotten
and profits put before people?
Perhaps it had something
to do with this guy.
[tense Western music playing]
Doug Moran was a man with a plan.
I suppose it could be
compared to a five-star hotel
for the residents that are
going to come in here.
This is one of our private rooms,
which has an ensuite bathroom
attached to it.
[reporter] It's being built by Doug Moran,
the country's largest
private nursing home operator.
Moran lobbied to introduce
the user-pays principle
into nursing homes.
I mean, there's almost no doubt that
Doug Moran was heavily involved
in writing the 1997 changes
with John Howard.
And he rallied the rest of
the for-profit groups around him.
Someone who's got power and money
and who believes they can
actually dictate the outcome.
[reporter]
The Federal Government introduced
a user-pays system for nursing homes.
Elderly people stood to pay
up to a quarter of a million dollars
as a bond for their accommodation.
And the government
has to accept their responsibility!
[reporter] The government's
under pressure to overturn its decision
on nursing home entry fees and bonds.
John Howard had said,
"We'll give you accommodation bonds,"
and Moran was so disgusted he didn't
get them, he quit the Liberal Party.
There's got to be some good
aged care providers out there.
And there are,
there are places that do it well,
and isn't it a shame
that they get a bad name
based on the others.
[exhales deeply]
- [Margaret] She seemed very nice.
- [Sue] Yeah, they all seemed nice.
Yes, they do.
No, I think that's definitely
one of the top ones so far.
Yes, I think
I'd have to talk to people now.
I'm getting worried about finances.
[Sue] Yeah, if you move
into something like that,
what do you do with your flat?
[Margaret] Yes, I'd have to sell it.
[sighs]
[Sue] We'll go and see a financial adviser
so you don't have to sell your flat
in case you want to go home.
[chuckles]
I think if I make
the effort to go somewhere,
I'm not going to want
to go back home
however nice that sounds.
[Sue] Yeah.
[Margaret exhales]
Oh, dear, it's exhausting
doing all these things.
[Sue] Now we're done anyway.
- We've looked at five now.
- Four.
Four. I've read all about them.
[Sue] All right, if you get
to the point where you go,
"I can't live alone,
I can't do it, I'm too lonely,
I don't like the weekends,"
- which is what
- I hate the weekends.
[Sue] And why do you hate
the weekends?
Because everyone's out
having fun, fun, fun
and I'm not.
Oh, pardon me.
Oh!
[camera shutters click]
I'm here today with Minister Butler
to announce the Government's new policy
on the future of aged care.
[Saltarelli] When Labor
were last in government,
they picked up the baton
from where Howard started.
They introduced the so-called
"Living Longer, Living Better" reforms.
I'm sure that was more for industry,
not for the actual recipients of care.
And that really just put
everything on steroids.
Today, we announce
the most sweeping reforms
to our aged care system
in almost 30 years.
In designing these reforms,
we've listened
to stakeholders in the sector
who have worked with us very closely.
Aged care in Australia
is industry-driven
and it's a partnership between
government and industry.
Industry Industry Industry
The community have been
largely disenfranchised.
Yeah, they've been
shut out of the system.
We will also finally introduce
a single system of
accommodation charging,
reflecting the principle
of ageing in place, which
[girl] So with the help
of a Labor government,
the industry finally had their bonds.
John Howard was spooked
by the reaction
to wanting to introduce
accommodation bonds.
And so Mark Butler,
whether he wants the crown or not,
is the guy that finished Howard's reforms.
[plays moving tune]
[ends song]
I'm Olivia Dorothy Cornwell
and I'm 94 years of age.
She's a miracle.
[both laugh]
[plays heartwarming tune]
This is my daughter Jane
and she's a journalist
and she lives in London.
She and I are in contact
in some way or other
pretty much every day.
My knees are a bit sore.
When I was a preschool teacher,
I used to put out planks
for the kids to jump
and I'd have a plank under each arm.
I'm sure that's responsible.
- [bird chirps]
- Oh, look at the parrot.
I'm a Mallee girl.
I was born in Birchip
in the north-west of Victoria.
I was trained to be
a preschool teacher
and then I went overseas.
I went to the
Buckingham Palace Garden Party
and the Queen was cross with me
because I didn't curtsy
like everybody else was doing.
One minute, we were all standing up,
the Queen appeared, I looked around
and everybody was down there
and I hadn't
And she really did give me
an unpleasant look.
I came back from England
and I did some more preschool teaching,
but then I decided
I'd like to be an air hostess,
as we were called in those days.
Then I met my husband Alan.
We eventually married.
And then our beautiful daughter Jane
was born
and Alicia was the next one,
and Chris was the next one.
[film reel whirring]
My husband liked outdoor sport
and he was very fair-skinned
and he got a melanoma
and he died when he was 73.
I suddenly lost interest in everything.
I didn't want to do anything.
I got a couple of rather
unpleasant illnesses
followed by depression
and my doctor suggested I spend
a few a couple of weeks in respite care
and the place I went to was wonderful.
I always associated old people's homes
with dear old ladies and bingo,
you know, so
But I went there for a couple of weeks,
and it was amazing.
But after two weeks,
I felt like I was living in a bubble.
I thought, "Now, I'm still mobile.
"I don't really want to spend
any more time here."
'Cause you went into respite
with a view to long-term staying.
So we got you a room with a courtyard,
I'm back here because I thought
I was going to have to
sell the house to pay for
Well, I had no intention of staying there.
[gentle musing music playing]
[Olivia] I just love living at home.
It's just great.
I love my garden,
I like playing the piano
and I'm very keen on jigsaws.
I'd like to spend a lot
more time doing jigsaws.
Oh, and I like to attract the birds
even though the cockatoos
come and take all the seed.
I love to be independent
and do my own thing.
[Jane] The more research
I started doing about aged care,
it became obvious
that there was a way
that you could get help
living in your home.
And what I was told was that
to be able to stay in your home
was the goal of the government.
You know,
they have a vested interest
in keeping, you know, people at home.
They have to come out and inspect
and I remember saying to you,
"Please act as doddery as you can."
[laughs]
[woman] Most people that you speak to
say that they want to grow old
in their own home.
So it's all very well and good
for an older person
to have their home modified and cleaned
and to get their nursing care
and their medication
management in their home
but if they walk down the street
and nobody knows their name
or cares to say hi to them
or, you know, would even notice
if they didn't step outside their door
for a couple of days
[Holland-Batt] There have been
some really harrowing stories
coming out of home care
just as there have
out of residential care.
The problems in home care
are lesser known
because they're not monitored.
There's a huge degree
of vulnerability in home care,
so I don't think
we want to romanticize it
and say everything's great
so long as you can stay at home.
[phone rings]
[phone continues ringing]
[phone line ringing]
[Margaret] Hello.
- Hi, Mum. It's me.
- Yeah.
I'll be there in about 20 minutes.
20 minutes.
And is Lola going to do
that bit of shopping for me?
Yes, she's definitely gonna do that.
And where are we going to go?
[Sue] Given what happened,
we're gonna go and look
at a couple more aged care places.
Oh, okay.
We'll sort it out when you get here.
[Sue] You just drive past this one
because it's Glen Huntly Road.
Right, is that the one we went to?
No, no.
And then there's another one, this one.
So we'll just have a look
out the car window
and you think about,
you know, what you think.
[Margaret] Mm-hmm.
[Sue] Can you put them in your bag?
- [Margaret] Oh, okay.
- Hang on.
Here.
We're actually out the back, Mum.
[Margaret] Right.
[Sue] Just I'm gonna
shut your front door.
[Margaret speaks indistinctly]
[Sue] Yeah, they're coming
and they'll lock it.
[gate shuts]
[keys jangle]
[Sue] Big step. Watch your head.
Okay, I'm gonna just
change those hearing aids.
You've got them in the wrong ears.
- Oh!
- Anyway, that's the right way.
[soft music playing]
[Margaret] Where are we going now?
[Sue] We're gonna go and show you
- the two aged care places up here.
- Oh, that's right. Yes.
You can see just from the outside.
- Yes.
- So they're
Because what was your criteria?
You said you wanted them around this area.
Yes.
- Anything else that you
- No, no.
I'd just like to be left alone.
[Sue chuckles]
- In the place or now?
- In the place.
What, you don't want people
coming into your room?
No, I don't want thousands
of people coming in and out.
The Aged Care Act was
supposed to help old people,
but were these changes
really about helping Grandma
or just making private companies
more money?
They were coming for the money,
no doubt about it.
If you look at the aged care providers
and the owners and the CEOs,
some of them are on the BRW rich list.
They live in mansions,
they drive luxury cars,
yet they're constantly crying poor.
[glasses clink]
[girl] The industry was sought
as independent experts
to the newly created
Aged Care Financing Authority,
such as the CEO of Bupa.
You know, Bupa is the biggest
private aged care provider in the country.
They had a shocking track record.
That's a provider that time and again
has failed care standards.
There were so many of its homes
that had failed with the regulator,
but they were still operating.
[girl] By 2019,
over half of Bupa's 72 nursing homes
were failing to meet
all the health and safety standards.
When you look at the failures
over the last 20 years in aged care,
it really is a story
of provider influence.
First and foremost, that is the issue.
There is no doubt that the regulator
is absolutely captured by industry.
The regulator says,
"Can you not do that?
You're embarrassing us.
But, you know,
we'll let you get away with it
if you, you know,
tick some boxes on a piece of paper
and say that you will never
be like that again."
The fox is guarding the hen house.
There does seem to be something of
a revolving door, if you like,
between industry
and government positions.
It's the same list of names
that have been moving
from government to regulation to industry
and back again for 20 years.
[automated voice on phone]
For myGov enquiries, press 1.
For assistance with
a myGov linking code, press 2.
For Centrelink online enquiries, press 3.
For Medicare online enquiries, press 4.
For Australian Taxation Office
online enquiries, press 5.
If you're an ATO customer
service representative,
press 6.
To hear these options again,
please press 9.
[quirky music playing]
[phone message continues indistinctly]
For assistance linking your
ATO to your myGov account,
press 3.
For assistance with linking
other government services
to your myGov account, press 4.
You may need to contact
the member services directly.
- [door shuts]
- [quirky music ends]
[Margaret] I might have to go
into that place a bit sooner.
- [Sue] What place?
- The nursing home.
[Sue] Do you want to go
into a nursing home?
- No.
- [Sue] Why?
Not at this moment in time,
because I've got enough
faculties still going.
There are a few that
are going down the tubes, but
[chuckles]
That's the trouble with old age.
It's a lot of it is very frightening.
You find you can't do heaps of stuff.
- [Sue] Mmm.
- Um
For instance, I used to think
cooking was quite an honorable job.
[chuckles] I can't
be bothered with it now.
- I'd rather starve to death.
- [Sue laughs]
- I would!
- [Sue] That's not good.
What about, you know,
you used to catch the bus
to go and see movies,
book clubs, walking group.
You had so many things
Yes, I did and I loved them all,
but it wasn't right anymore.
[Sue] Yeah, now you don't
Now I go out to the doctor. [chuckles]
About the only one I see! [laughs]
The long-awaited final report
from the Aged Care Royal Commission
has delivered a damning assessment
of the system
which is supposed to protect
the country's most vulnerable.
[Anne Connolly] I was waiting
for the report
from the Royal Commission
to come down.
I mean, it was our Four Corners,
our two-part Who Cares? stories
that actually prompted
the Royal Commission.
Scott Morrison got in
the day before the first one went to air,
so he got ahead of it.
This is the first of many volumes
Morrison got out there
and brandished a copy of the report,
you know, saying effectively,
"Now we've done something
about aged care,"
where the journalists had only been given
access to the report 20 minutes beforehand
and then he never did
a press conference again.
[Connolly] You tabled
the report while we were here.
How can we ask questions
[Connolly] He didn't like
being questioned.
He thought
he would get a free run.
The Department of Health
and the regulator
put a submission into
the Royal Commission
I'm the Prime Minister.
This is my minister.
Our cabinet will decide
our response to this
Royal Commission, okay?
- So is this
- So we've released it.
I think I've answered your question.
Thank you.
I think it says a lot about
how we regard older people.
We do regard them as disposable
after a certain period of time.
They're insignificant.
They're not important in our lives.
[man] Thank you.
[Holland-Batt] I don't think
any of the politicians
are thinking, "Oh, this is
a system I'd like to go into."
They're not thinking, "Great! We've solved
it. I'm gonna be right when I'm old."
They're thinking,
"Thank God that I earn so much
"that I'm not gonna have to
be touched by this system."
You know, that's that's the reality.
And, you know,
what we should be doing
is stepping back from
all of this and saying,
"What do we all actually want
when we get old?"
[pensive music playing]
[woman] The majority of the people
have worked their entire life
and have been paying tax
and have been contributing
to the community
and when they're older,
I think everyone
deserves to have a good life
and to have a secure home,
a safe home,
and I hope that I can contribute
to someone's wellbeing
to stay at home safely.
I am a care finder
with Housing for the Aged Action Group
and the role is to help
older people over 65 and plus
navigating through the aged care system.
I'm loving it.
Like, that's really a calling.
I have been in the social work
field for about 20 years
so I have been seeing,
like, a lot of changes.
Since it has been privatized,
I don't think the clients
are getting the help that they need.
If you are living by yourself
and don't have, like, a partner,
and you are still fit in your mind,
I still believe the best option for you
would be staying at home
and being independent
and have some support in your home
like cleaning, shopping
or someone to take you
to your medical appointments.
[gentle music playing]
[teacup rattles]
[Beverly] My husband's name
was Lewis.
I'd been with him for 27 years, yes,
and, um, I miss him every day.
When my husband died,
I didn't know what I was up against.
I realized that rent was
getting way out of my league.
When I'd get my pension,
I paid my rent,
I had a provision for my utilities,
I could see things diminishing.
[phone line rings]
- [Beverly] Hello, Hanh.
- Hi, Bev. It's Hanh speaking.
- How are you going?
- I'm good.
We are now on our way to see you.
Bye.
[computerized voice]
Continue on State Route 22
for seven kilometers.
[Beverly] I was frightened
of what the future held.
I knew that it would reach a stage
where I would be homeless.
So I rang My Aged Care
and along the way, I mentioned
that I would like independent living
if it could be arranged.
And the next thing I knew,
this little lass Hanh
came to my front door.
She put forward plans and we came out here
and I loved the place straightaway,
and, um, here I am.
Once you get the services,
you can stay at home.
A nursing home means death.
I would say, "You no"
I'll say it in Italian.
[speaking Italian]
"You're not going to put me there,
are you?"
[plane engines drone]
[people chattering]
[Luciana] We came to Australia in 1960.
Dad was here, was injured at work,
couldn't come back to Italy,
so we joined him here.
And I was Loved it.
I was 14 and a half.
I went to work in a factory
and said I was 16
and I worked in a factory for four years
and it was dreadful.
The idea
was that I could go and study,
but then I met Mario.
I met Mario when I was 17.
We went to the Boathouse
and we had a really nice ride
on the river.
He said, "Well, I'm old enough.
We need to get married.
I want to start a family."
I said, "Okay."
And Mum said, "No, too young."
I said, "Well, I feel good,"
and so we married.
[traditional Italian folk music playing]
Mum asked, "Where you gonna live?"
And Mario said,
"But I do have a house,"
and he brought me to this house.
I said, "Fancy that!
I feel really good in it."
And that was it.
And we have been here
ever since, 59 years.
[chatters indistinctly]
I always wanted to study,
but Mario said,
"But I think I'm old enough
to start a family,"
but I was only 19.
Oh, he won.
[quirky music playing]
All right, here we go. Afternoon tea.
And then I wanted
very much to start working
and I qualified a social diploma
in community development.
I worked at a community health center.
At the time, I was studying,
working, family
and looking after
Mum and Dad as well.
Let's see, Theresa.
Oh, we still have to wait.
Lovely. [chuckles]
[Luciana] Afternoon tea.
My father passed away July 2002.
- [Theresa] Do you want some?
- [Luciana] Yeah.
Then Mum was alone for five years
and then she was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer.
There was not even a thought
of Mum going into a nursing home.
The idea of a nursing home
was waiting for death.
I've never known Mum to be selfish
until the last two months.
She said
"If I had my mother here,
I would spend all my time with her."
And I said, "Mum, I'm 60.
Who would employ me?"
I find my job terribly rewarding.
You depend on your children,
but children do have their own family.
They have their own problems.
They've got their own issues,
their own work issues as well.
[Jane] Often I am on a deadline
or I will be travelling somewhere
and I just feel like at any moment,
I have to go back to Australia
and sort Mum out.
If you want to put your parent
into an aged care facility
and you live overseas,
to navigate the myGov
or the Aged Care website
is really, really hard.
To get on the phone to anyone
is really, really hard.
I found that
when I was even getting her
up the levels of aged care,
because there's the four levels,
I really needed to be there to do that.
I don't think I could have
done it from here.
[Anna Donaldson]
My Aged Care is the system
of government-funded support
for older people as they're ageing,
which starts
at really sort of low-level,
entry-level support around the home
and goes all the way
through to residential care.
But actually the majority of the system
is geared towards supporting people
in their own homes.
I've spoken to so many older people
who find it completely bamboozling.
And not just older people,
their carers and their families.
[Linda] Just prior to this interview,
I went and looked up
the Aged Care
and the categories there
didn't really suit me at this point
in time of my life and my career,
and so I clicked on "Early Retirement"
and it dropped down into all these boxes
and I went, "Oh, my God!
This is going to take forever to read."
And I've got a PhD,
and I just looked at the first paragraph
and I went, "Oh, I'll look at that later."
And I was thinking about
how I would talk about this
to other Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people
that struggle with myGov.
Accessing a lot
of the services like myGov
would be near impossible
in remote communities
because the Telstra services
are non-existent,
and if they do exist
in remote communities,
it's intermittent.
Like during the wet season,
you might as well say
there's no Telstra communication.
They're talking to you, but it
sounds like they're under water
and you can hardly understand
what they're saying.
[Jane] Clearly, I'm on
the other side of the world.
It's a real worry to think
that she could fall,
something could happen to her.
I'm so far away.
I am her main point of contact.
She has her aged care provider
and they're brilliant,
but it's not like if anything happens,
she can, you know, call me.
Mum has to battle with loneliness.
She watches a lot of television.
She has some friends
who are quite loyal, which is great.
And she does kind of maybe
sometimes overthink things
and I think being on her own
too much is not great.
She's very youthful in her
outlook and in her mind
and I love her to bits,
but that also means
that she might rush at things.
And, you know,
lately we've got her a walker,
a red walker, which we call
the "Mean Machine."
So I have had to encourage her
to use that.
I've set up various
contingency plans, as it were,
but at any moment,
I have to go back to Australia
and sort Mum out.
It's a constant source of stress.
What did you do today?
[Olivia] Uh not a lot.
No? Did you go for a walk?
Yes, I went 'round the block.
Did you take the Mean Machine?
[Olivia chuckles] Yes. Yeah.
Oh, by the way,
I went to the doctor yesterday
and she's given me
a clean bill of health.
Yeah, well, you're a force of nature, Mum.
That's amazing.
Who are those two men
in your house, darling?
Can you see them?
Look. Here they are. Look.
- Lovely. Waving.
- [man] Hey!
Yes, they look rather nice.
What are they doing?
They're filming me.
They're just doing a little film thing.
- Look. There they are.
- Lovely!
All right, off you go.
Okay, darling.
- All right, bye, Mum.
- [man] See you later.
- Waving. Bye!
- Bye, darling.
See you soon.
[thoughtful music playing]
[footsteps thud softly]
[Margaret] I get lonely
here on my own now.
Last year, five of my friends died.
One I'd known since I was 16.
[indistinct chatter on TV]
I spend at least four hours
watching television.
Most of the time, I can't
work the television properly.
[Sue] Okay, is that too tight
or not tight enough?
No.
It seems to be all right.
[Sue] Do you ever get
frightened at night, Mum?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Sue] Tell me about that.
Well, it's all very quiet.
And I just have to tell myself
that I'm all right
because if I if I, um
talked about how I was feeling,
it would make me even more frightened.
See, all this is exhausting for me
unfortunately.
Is your granny
John, does your granny
manage, like, on her own?
- [John] Yeah.
- Yeah?
- How old is she?
- [John] She's 90.
- Really?
- [John] But, uh
Is she in a care place?
[John] No, not at the moment.
- She's still at home?
- [John] Still at home.
She's got a lot of neighbors
uh, who visit her every day.
- Wow. That's
- [John] But she's a very able woman.
- Isn't that wonderful?
- [John] She's very healthy.
[Margaret] Ooh, it's very dark.
[solemn music playing]
[reporter] Across the country,
nursing home residents
account for almost 60%,
of coronavirus deaths,
amongst the worst in the world.
[Morton] The pandemic
taught us a lot.
Above all else, I think, that
privatized services don't work.
Particularly when
they're essential services
because in the end,
the government needs to intervene
to make sure we continue getting them.
This is a gig economy,
it's a casualized workforce.
We get paid a pittance
and I need to work at five
different homes in a week,
otherwise I cannot feed my family.
The skill involved in caring
is just not recognized,
completely undervalued.
You don't usually
remember all the machines
and the stethoscopes and the fancy thing,
but you will remember the touch
of the nurse or the care worker
and the kindness, the compassion.
We just don't have
enough of the right people
with the right skills across the system.
[Sue] I'll just get the bubbles out.
[cork pops]
Well done.
Oh, look at this girl.
She's got a pirate ship.
[Margaret] Oh, so she has.
[Sue chuckles]
[Margaret] I wonder
if she's going to sail it.
I don't think she'll ever see it again
if she lets it out now.
So, Mum, if you were in
aged care, I could pick you up
and we could sneak out
and do this maybe.
Well, I'll keep that in mind
because, you know, it's nerve-racking
that you're going to go into this place
where you're not alone,
which is one of the reasons
I'd like to do it.
[Sue] Yeah, 'cause you're not alone.
Do you think you could
ring and book yourself
into an aged care place?
- No, I don't want to do that.
- [Sue] Why?
But why couldn't you do it
rather than me?
I don't
I don't want to do many of
the things that you insist on.
- For instance
- No, but I would like you
Why do I have to do it?
Now, that's a nice little dog.
- [Sue chuckles]
- Look at that one.
That's cute, like Jerry.
Yeah, a bit like Jerry.
Can you do all the phone calls?
I used to, always. I did everything.
But I don't know.
I've lost the the will.
[Sue] But do you think
you could do it without me?
No.
What if I went somewhere
and lived overseas?
- How would you do it?
- Well, you did.
- You went away on holiday.
- Yeah, for two weeks.
I'm talking about,
what if I went for two years?
Well, I'd just turn up my toes and
It's been such a great thing,
what you've done for me,
because I couldn't have done
many of the things that you've taken over.
And you've done it well.
[waves crash softly in distance]
[pensive music playing]
[Beverly] Come in.
[Hanh] Hello, my dear.
Let me just
- Whoops-a-daisy!
- Hello!
- Heya.
- Hey.
Now that I have
moved away from your area,
I would like to introduce
another care finder in this area.
And they will assist me, like
- What I do.
- Going shopping?
That's something that
I am going to find out today
with My Aged Care.
[phone line rings]
[automated voice on phone]
Good afternoon.
Welcome to the Online Services
Support Hotline.
This help desk provides customer support
for your myGov account
or Services Australia online accounts.
If you haven't received your security code
to sign into your myGov account,
go to my.gov.au and search
'tips for troubleshooting'
[Beverly] Keeping up with technology.
I'm not frightened of it,
I just can't keep up with it,
you know, at the present moment.
Your whole system sort of goes into
a bit of a rut and a grind.
[automated voice] For assistance
with a myGov linking code, press 2.
When they do that thing
where they give you a little
code, a special code,
I say, "Don't do that!"
Because my eyesight
and the rest of me
just can't cope with it.
[automated voice]
To hear these options again,
please press 9.
[rock music plays on phone]
[Beverly] When you can't hear,
sounds come in at different levels.
It can be very disconcerting.
And when they play that music
Oh, it can play havoc
with your hearing aids.
[laughs] You know,
sometimes they make funny noises
and then you're trying to listen
to people on the telephone.
It's a challenge.
[rock music continues on phone]
[Hanh] I would simplify things,
you know?
Like, I would put a person, a human being
to answer the phone
and I would not go, like,
from option A to option C,
then to option B
and then to option C again
and then by the time you reach someone,
it's, like, an hour.
[gentle music playing]
One last thing
that I also found out
I don't know if you're interested at all.
Knox City Council, around here
they have a talking cafe.
- They have which?
- A talking cafe.
It's, like, for people who are over 65
who are feeling a bit isolated.
Oh, they might have a book club too.
They do! They do meet, like, a lot of
[Beverly] I love my independence.
I'll do the best I can to maintain it.
I am grateful for all those
who made it happen.
That little lass, she's
she's just absolutely wonderful.
- Thank you, sweetheart.
- All right.
Okay, I will see you soon.
[Hanh] You'd think, as a care finder,
you'd do, like, only linking
someone in My Aged Care,
but I do more than that.
- Bye.
- Bye, darling.
[Hanh] There's a lot of loneliness.
You rely on some worker
to come to your home
and to give you that
community connection.
[Luciana] Which one
was the house you were born?
- This one.
- And where did you ski?
Here, there, everywhere,
cross-country.
[Luciana] And how old were you
when you started skiing?
And he's got also
He won a prize skiing.
Cross-country championship. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, at 12.
I think at home
you would have a better quality of life
with support services.
[Sue] So your plan
is for you and Mario to stay here?
I keep on telling him,
"Mate, we've got to keep healthy.
We've got to keep healthy."
So Mario might want to go up the ladder.
I say, "No, no, no, no, no.
We've got to keep healthy
because the alternative is much worse."
We're a proud lot.
We want to be independent as much.
So we ask for help
when it's almost too late.
Yes, there is some isolation,
but I think I feel confident
that we could stay at home a long time.
I go to the University of the Third Age.
I love it because not only
do I practice my Italian,
but the knowledge is great.
Mario loves his garden,
can fix anything
you put in front of him,
but he doesn't want to read,
he doesn't want to learn anything else.
So take that away,
and that would be real trouble.
There would be depression
setting in and all that.
"No, no, no, no. I don't need
anyone to do the garden."
And Mario helps me to clean.
He does the kitchen every night.
I cook and he does
the dishes, cleaning
[Sue laughs] He's the perfect husband.
- Hey, hang on.
- [Mario chuckles] Oh, dear!
Hang on a second!
[laughs]
There's no such thing.
You you could say 98%.
- [Sue] All right.
- Leave 2%.
[romantic Italian folk music playing]
[Luciana] We can't stay up
until 12 o'clock anymore,
but we dance together.
[romantic music continues]
The first time I sat with him
when we went
to that blessed Boathouse,
I felt good.
I just felt good.
And that's it.
[romantic music continues]
[ducks quacking]
But you need
to want to grow old together.
I'm not perfect. He's not perfect.
But you have to make a decision
whether you want that relationship
and, therefore,
you work towards that.
If your idea is to grow old together,
then it can happen.
[girl] Older people need proper care.
They need things like
strong communication.
- Touch.
- Empathy.
- Love.
- Dignity.
- Respect.
- [all] And care.
So if we keep cutting corners,
it's not just Grandma who's in trouble.
[all] We're all in trouble.
[students applaud]
[distant chatter]
[woman] When people arrive
at our dementia cafes,
they're welcomed
by our volunteer team,
by our facilitator.
Everybody has a name tag.
It just has their name on it.
There's no other labels
or anything that highlights
that they might be living
with dementia themselves.
And the beauty of that is,
is that nobody feels
different to anybody else.
That everybody is equal
in our cafes.
[woman 2] Oh, we can't win.
We don't remember the game!
[man] Yeah, coffee.
- [woman 3] Coffee? Milk? Milk?
- [man] Yeah.
You've got the flat white?
No, it's a good atmosphere here.
Oh, and the people
are interesting as well.
[indistinct chatter]
[Jess Conley] One story I hear
time and time again
from new enquiries is,
"My partner has been
diagnosed with dementia
and, as a result, they have
withdrawn from society.
They're too scared to go out.
They're embarrassed,
they're ashamed and so they withdraw."
So to have a social outlet to come to
where everybody's going
through similar experiences,
the best feedback I can
receive is when people say,
"I can't tell who are the ones
living with dementia and who aren't,"
because everybody's interacting,
everybody's enjoying themselves
and everybody has a connection.
It's Judy and Roy's 65th
wedding anniversary tomorrow.
[all applaud]
And she said, "Don't tell anyone!"
[laughter]
[Conley] And it looks
like our guests are here!
Today we invited
some of the Kinder children
from the early learning center
to come and join us
preparing for Christmas.
So we generally like to do some
sort of craft activity
or something that we can then display
at our Christmas party.
[light whimsical music playing]
[people chatter busily]
[Holland] They're part of a community,
they get to speak with younger people,
they don't feel like they're locked away
and I think that's the sort of
That's the first thing that
we get wrong in Australia.
Our aged care homes
are pretty much completely segregated
from the rest of the community.
I think models that allow older people
some presence in the general community
rather than being
entirely kind of locked away,
seem like a really good starting place.
[Michael Wynne] Every one
of us is going to get older.
It's the one sector,
more than any other,
where we can start involving community.
Bring them back into taking control
of their lives, of their communities,
instead of being controlled.
And I think it's government's job
to build community
so that community takes over
these roles and local
These things are managed locally
and supported by central government.
He's got a blue shirt, has he?
[Linda Payi Ford] As soon as babies
can understand language
in the mother's tummy, in the womb,
through their growing years,
they should be hearing about aged care
and the sorts of issues
that elderly people face.
It would often be very difficult
if the person was solely on their own,
but if they're in a community
and they're loved by their community,
um, the community will step up
and come and help.
[people chattering]
Until our community are engaged
as citizens and participants
who care about creating
a better future of ageing,
no structural reform
will get us there.
[girl 1] Once again,
governments come and go.
[girl 2] A guy named Anthony
promised to fix it all.
Good afternoon.
Today, we are putting
the care back into aged care.
We're announcing
the greatest improvement
in aged care in 30 years.
[girl 3] This sounds good.
Will he make Grandma's life better?
[Annie Butler] In October 2022,
they passed a bill that was an amendment
to the Aged Care Act.
"You must have a registered nurse
in every nursing home."
[girl 1] But the aged care industry
didn't like this idea at all.
Once again, they cried poor.
[reporter] The families of
almost 200 aged care residents
are in a state of disbelief tonight,
with the shock closure
of three Wesley Mission nursing homes.
Joining me now is the CEO
and Superintendent of Wesley Mission,
Reverend Stu Cameron.
People who are watching,
should they be worried
the home that their parents
are in could be next?
I think Leila,
I think there's a lot of change
that has happened
and will continue to happen
- So yes?
- Yes.
I think there will be more.
So they're very worried about
threats that come from nursing homes.
"Oh, we have to
We're gonna have to shut down.
If we don't get this,
we're gonna have to shut down."
And so they basically hold
the government hostage.
I think the profit motive
is very damaging to health and aged care.
They're very uncomfortable bedfellows.
[gate squeaks]
[footsteps approach]
What was that?
There's the phone.
Do I put this out tomorrow?
Friday.
How long have you been
doing exercise classes for?
Oh, this is my second year.
- [Sue] And do you like it?
- Yes, I do.
- Very much.
- [Sue] Why?
Why do you like it?
I like it because it's
I'm able to do
or try to do all of them.
It's not that difficult.
And they're very nice people.
But do you do it for a reason?
Well, I keep hearing that exercises
are terribly important.
I should do some
on other days as well,
but there is no-one
that will pick me up.
Last year, my legs felt stronger
so I'm hoping
the same thing will happen
'cause I've had no exercises
over the Christmas period.
So doing it, surely,
is partly trying to keep you
out of a nursing home maybe.
'Cause if you couldn't walk,
what would happen?
Oh, I'd have to go in
or you'd have to come
and live with me.
[Sue laughs] We don't want that.
Where would I sleep?
In one of the bedrooms.
I've got two.
[Sue chuckles] I'll come and
visit you at the nursing home.
Yeah.
- [woman] Take your time.
- [Margaret] Yes.
[man speaks indistinctly]
- Yeah, just push my back.
- Oh, push your back. All right.
- A bit of a shove.
- [Margaret chuckles]
You right?
- All righty.
- Yes, good.
- You comfortable? Sorry.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- That's good.
- No worries.
[quirky music playing]
[sighs]
I've travelled all around the world.
[woman] How lucky are you, Margaret?
- I don't know about that.
- [woman] Yeah.
Some of it was terrific,
but we had a year
in the Philippines
[woman] Oh, wow. For your
husband's work, was it?
Yes, he was at the
University of the Philippines.
And I've been to the Chinese Wall.
- I nearly forgot that.
- [woman] Oh!
Yeah, I went with a friend years ago.
[woman] Yep.
[people chattering]
[Margaret] That's my daughter,
by the way,
that's doing the film,
and that's my granddaughter.
[man] Oh, right, okay. Oh, hey.
- [woman] Hello.
- [man] How are you?
[Margaret] She's making
one about old age.
- [man] Oh, yeah?
- And I'm in it. [chuckles]
[people chattering indistinctly]
[Margaret] I thought I was going to fall.
That's always my terror.
[quirky music playing]
Three more each.
Two.
And one.
All right, legs out straight.
Let's just raise them
up and down 10 times.
Yep, and get them arms going!
Up and down, sideways.
Six, seven
eight
So it'll be right, left, right.
Right up, left side, right straight.
[Margaret] Oh, my God!
- So, up, hook, right.
- Side
Right, hook, right.
All right, guys, I reckon
you've done very well today.
[cheerful carnival music playing]
No-one really talks about
aged care until they're old.
Yeah, we should be talking
about it a lot earlier.
We'll never fix
our aged care system
unless we realize
we're all in this together.
Maybe governments could work for us
instead of whoever
pays them the most.
But surely our governments
care more about people than money.
Yeah, you'd hope so.
But the lobby is very powerful.
If they continue to drive policy,
aged care won't work for us.
[plays bright folk tune]
[Luciana] We're involved
in a seniors Italian group
of 70 people.
There are 10 males.
The rest, they're all female,
and they all live at home.
[bright folk tune continues]
[music fades]
Most of our members
have had a pretty hard life,
like all all migrants
of the '50s, '60s and '70s.
You reach a certain age,
you've had enough.
Not that once they stop working,
they've got nothing to do.
They raise all
the grandchildren first.
But once you arrive at this age,
you've had enough.
["Forever Young" by Alphaville plays]
Let's dance in style
Let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait
We're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best
But expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young
Or let us live forever
We don't have the power
But we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit
Life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man
Can you imagine when this race is won?
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders
We're getting in tune
The music's played by the
The mad man
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever
And ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
So you want to do a cheers?
Mmm.
So, Mum, why are
you doing this film?
Because I thought it would help you
because I wasn't as helpful
when you were doing the others.
You must understand, I don't
You're comfortable with all these things.
I'm not.
- But we're finished now.
- Nearly finished.
But it's a nice opportunity
to spend time together.
Would you suggest that?
And Lola and Claudie
and Ben and Jeremy and
Well, I don't know
so much about them,
but I'm sure if I got to know
them more intimately,
I would find they were
absolutely charming.
- I think that's enough now.
- Okay, no worries.
- Good.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
- Nothing else you want to add?
- No.
- You sure?
Absolutely certain.
Thank you so much, Mum, for doing it.
- Okay.
- I really You can relax.
- Yes, good, good.
- Yeah.
Goodbye!
[laughter]
Oh, dear. Goodbye.
- [woman] Well done, Granny.
- Oh, thank you, darling.
[woman] Thank you.
Oh, she's beautiful, isn't she?
Look how skinny she is.
All righty, well done.
And that's a wrap!
And ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young
[song continues]
[song fades]
[light quirky music playing]
we're all a little careless.
[bleep] me dead. Oh!
And tell these
dickheads in the embassy
to just give me simple sentences.
[Barnaby Joyce]
I'm on a prescription drug
and they say certain things
may happen to you if you drink
and they were absolutely 100% right.
[Anthony Albanese speaks indistinctly]
[audience exclaims]
[ball thwacks]
[speaks indistinctly]
[reporter] Politics can be
a bruising sport.
[people exclaim]
[girl] In countries all over the world,
populations are getting older.
Some countries provide good care
for their ageing populations.
Many countries are worried
about the rapid increase
in the number of old people.
It's a problem that
gets bigger every year.
In Australia,
governments seem to think
that old people and their care
don't win elections.
But what's it like
to be an older Australian?
If we're lucky,
this will be us one day.
[Sue Thomson] Let's go into the kitchen
and make a cup of tea.
Oh, yeah. I'm gonna
need some help, I think.
[grunts] Yeah.
See, it's because I
I'm not concentrating.
[Sue] It's all right.
[sighs] I don't know whether I can.
- You'll have to pull me up.
- [Sue] Oh, okay. Sorry.
- Oh! [chuckles]
- [Sue] Yep, yep, yep.
- There I am.
- Oh, we did it! [laughs]
How's your arm?
[Sue chuckles] Okay, are we stable?
Yes, I'm stable now.
Just stand and look ahead
and just take a breather.
Oh, my goodness.
That was full-on.
Oh, you poor girl.
I'm so sorry.
No, it's fine!
- Yeah, bash up your daughter.
- Normally
Yeah, just you watch what
you're doing on your feet.
[woman] Yes.
[Sue] So did you ever
imagine that you would end up
having to consider
going into aged care?
Never. Never, never
in my wildest dreams.
[Sue] Why?
Because it was
like a black mark against you
if someone had to go into a nursing home
when they had family.
It was all on the families.
[Sue] I think that's a good point,
to be honest.
Do you know, that's why
I'm making a film about it.
[woman] It was nice
meeting you guys.
You might make a fortune
out of this, you know?
[all laugh]
Then you'll be careful! [chuckles]
Oh, dear.
So thanks for doing
whatever it is you do.
[laughs]
[driving jazz music playing]
[soft clattering]
You just walk behind me, dear.
[Sue] Do you know
your My Aged Care number?
[woman] No.
[Sue] And what about myGov?
Do you know how to access that?
MyGov? Well, ask the operator.
[Sue] Okay, here.
We can ring My Aged Care.
Why are you ringing them?
[Sue] 'Cause we've gotta
ask them about your respite
Oh.
[Sue] and see if they
can help us.
[automated voice]
Welcome to My Aged Care.
Our calls are recorded for
training and quality purposes.
If you do not wish
for your call to be recorded,
please advise
your contact center agent.
[pensive music playing]
[Sue] When you had to
become a single mum,
when Dad and you separated,
was that hard?
[Margaret] Oh, terribly.
That hurt me because
I wanted my children
to be brought up by the same people
and live a very ordinary life.
On the whole,
my life has been all right,
but old age is nothing to be
pleased about, in my opinion.
[sentimental carefree music playing]
It was better to be
an older person in the '50s.
At least that's what I think.
Governments used to take
better care of older people.
That's how I remember it.
[frantic music playing]
I think it probably changed
at the end of the '60s
and there was a rapid increase
in for-profit providers
and they really were
interested in the money.
[people jostling]
[cash register dings]
- [doorbell dings]
- [Margaret on intercom] Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
I'll let you in now.
[Sue] Mum, remember
I told you the idea that I had
of getting young people
to narrate a film about old people?
- Yes.
- So these three
have been part of the narration team,
- 'cause there's a few people doing it.
- Well done, girls. Well done.
- And do you have grannies?
- [girls] Yes.
[Margaret] And how old are they?
My gran is around 72.
Oh, that's good.
I'm much older than that.
[Sue] Well, how old are you, Mum?
I'm, um, 80 89.
Are you going to be in the film?
[girls] Yes.
Oh, well done.
- [girl 1] Thanks.
- [girl 2] Thank you.
Absolutely marvelous.
And I'm sure you'll star.
[girls giggle]
Once upon a time,
a Labor prime minister was elected.
[camera shutters click]
[girl 2] His government
decided to do things differently.
They wanted to work closely
with the business community.
We are about a fundamental change
in the way government operates
and the way it cooperates
with important sectors
of the Australian community.
Hawke's treasurer was a man named Paul.
[Paul Keating] We were
not trying to run prosperity
out of the Commonwealth budget.
Rather, we wanted to employ the markets
to make the whole economic pie larger.
From Keating onwards,
you've got the march
of neoliberal groupthink.
[girl 1] Governments come and go.
Then, a Liberal named John
became prime minister.
[girl 2] He decided
to do things differently.
[dramatic sinister operatic music playing]
Welcome to our show-and-tell
on the Aged Care Act.
To begin our presentation on ageing,
we're going to read a bit from
the 1997 Australian Aged Care Act.
[students groan]
"The objects of this act are as follows."
"To provide for funding of aged care
- that takes account of"
- "The quality of the care"
"The need to ensure access
to care that is affordable"
"And appropriate to the needs
of the people who require it."
Basically, what the government
is saying here
is every older person will have access
to affordable aged care
as they grow old.
[girls cheer]
[woman] In reading the Aged Care Bill,
it would appear that nursing homes
have disappeared and vanished
from the face of this earth.
George Orwell would be proud of this bill.
It should be called the
Aged Care Bill of 1984, not 1997.
I must point out that there is
general agreement
throughout much of the aged care sector
that the lack of capital care funding
in particular, for nursing homes,
estimated to be approximately 800 million
constitutes nothing less than a crisis
which must be urgently addressed.
[girl 2] Say hello to my grandma.
That's not your grandma.
Grandma represents everyone
who needs care in Australia.
Before 1997, Grandma and her friends
felt the care was already going downhill.
The government didn't like
spending on aged care anymore
and the money they did spend
was incentivizing
nursing homes to make money.
Not great for Grandma.
But if Grandma thought
things were bad before 1997,
she had another thing coming,
and that thing coming was privatization.
[dramatic interlude]
That's where the government said,
"Hey, who wants to make money off Grandma?
We don't want to be
responsible for Grandma's care.
You can do it."
So they gave aged care
over to private companies
who were very happy about it.
[easygoing music playing]
[reporter] Ageing is an industry
worth over $22 billion a year,
and growing.
Today, nursing homes are marketed
more like hotels than hospitals.
The elderly no longer patients,
rather customers.
[woman] You don't call
most people "consumers."
I think that's quite
a demeaning, derogatory term.
Most of the consumer consumer
consumer consumer consumer
All consumers are Consumers
The thought of them
just ordering a glass of wine
or, you know
I mean, these people are struggling
to have their dentures put in.
[woman 2] Well, you're more
like selling a cruise.
You're selling a cruise
with extra packages.
You're not selling a service
that's keeping your mother,
father or whoever
safe, well-looked-after and happy.
You know, it's stuff on top that's fluff.
It's fluff.
[woman 3] I think it is fair to say
that we have commodified
the elderly in Australia.
They're walking profit targets
when you've got big corporates
who are making a lot
of money out of them.
The fact that they were able to, you know,
release prospectuses
and say, "Hey,
literally profit from the elderly,"
that was one of their sub headlines,
like, it's crazy to me.
John Howard had set the ball rolling
on a system that was
dramatically outsourced
but that was suddenly
running out of money.
What he basically did
was opened it up to the free market.
They are sacrificing older people
for the good of the economy.
[melancholy music playing]
[reporter] Many older Australians
in residential aged care
are still not getting
the minutes of care per day
that they should be.
Advocates say the for-profit
sector is most at fault
and there needs to be better scrutiny
on how government funds are being spent.
[Margaret] I love the radio
and I learn such a lot.
There's very interesting talks
by interesting people, in my opinion.
Yes, we've got a good relationship,
the radio and me.
If I'm going to die,
I'd like to die here,
surrounded by my family.
That's the most important thing.
If I'm on my own somewhere,
I'm going to be very frightened.
I know I am.
It's quite a common feeling,
I've discovered amongst aged people.
We lose all our "doing stuff
on our own" decisions.
It will be a group decision that's made,
not an independent decision.
The fear of death and dying
and the taboo around that
and the fear of losing agency
and losing control,
they go very, very deep
and the reality is both of those things
do relate to aged care.
There's no sort of shying away from that.
[woman] There's no aged care
services at Batchelor.
It would be nice if there was.
So the pressures on family members
can be very overwhelming.
As a carer, going in to help
my sister do her insulin,
it was very scary and daunting,
but she didn't want to go to
an aged care facility.
Having her daughter there
and her grandkids coming
and great-grandchildren
and her siblings come and visit,
and friends,
at her home
she still felt like she was the queen
in her own environment,
and that was important to her.
It just helped her stay alive
for a bit longer.
Of course, we all want to do our bit
to be able to share
in our responsibilities
and obligations to family members
to make sure that they get
as much support in their decision
either to stay at home
or to go into respite care.
None of my family
actually wanted respite care,
'cause they thought they had
enough family members
that could come
and look after them anyway.
[woman] Do you mind if Jeremy
puts a microphone on you?
[Jeremy] So we're just gonna
stick this on the inside.
Just actually I think we'll go between
the jumper and the thing.
So I'll get I'll feed this
Probably the easiest way is feeding it
from upstairs to downstairs.
Why are you What are you
[woman] We're gonna put
a microphone on you.
[man] We're doing a little
bit of filming with Sue.
- Yes, I know.
- Oh, great.
But why do you need
to listen to me?
[Jeremy] Because you'll be talking.
[woman] Because we want
to hear what you're gonna say
'cause we're just gonna film
you in the car with Mum
Oh, right.
going to the nursing home.
Where?
[Sue] We're going to visit
that nursing home.
That's what we're doing today.
We're going to look at
We'll be gone for half an hour,
coming back, that's it.
So we just want to hear
what you think
of the nursing home,
we're gonna look at today.
You can just be honest, Mum.
- Mm-hmm.
- So I'm just gonna put this one down.
[woman 2] Oh, good glasses, Granny!
Oh, they look so cool, Granny!
[Sue chuckles]
[woman speaks indistinctly]
[Margaret] You've got to put
some purple in it. Yes.
[traffic rushes by]
- [woman 2] Love you, Granny.
- [Margaret] Love you too.
[woman 2] See you soon.
[gentle music playing]
[Sue] So this place we're going to,
my friend, Mum, I told you is there.
[Margaret] Right.
[Sue] Two of her children are doctors
and they did their research
and said this place
is one of the better ones.
All right.
[Sarah Holland-Batt]
Ageing is often something
we think happens to other people.
It's not something
that's ever gonna touch us.
The same thing doubly so for aged care.
"Aged care is something
that other people go into.
It's not a system that
I'll ever need to go into."
Most people think this way.
[Sue] Well done.
Okay, can you just stand here?
I'll get your handbag and mine.
[wind blusters]
[car door shuts]
[woman] Most people try and keep
their older person at home,
however, the burden of that,
the weight of that for a carer
who's providing all the care
is often too great.
The person who generally
gives the care is a woman,
either the spouse or the daughter.
[Holland-Batt] The idea of sort of being
in someone else's hands so completely,
like you are in aged care,
it's very confronting to our sense
of who we are as competent people,
as people who are making choices in life.
I'm an only child
and my parents had me
relatively late for the time.
So Dad was 45 when I was born
and Mum was 35.
Dad was a mineral metallurgist
by trade,
but he had so many
other interests and hobbies.
So he loved classical music.
He loved jazz. He played jazz piano.
He loved reading.
He had a giant library that
I was given free rein of,
full of inappropriate books
that, you know,
probably should have been
withheld from me at that age.
He was a wonderful, wonderful dad.
He was diagnosed with
Parkinson's when I was 18.
He had a relatively kind of slow decline
and then it kind of caught up with him
and, eventually,
kind of with great reluctance,
we had to move him into aged care.
And at that moment,
pretty much instantly
Mum and I felt that
we constantly were worried
that things were being missed.
He was having lots of falls
because he wasn't
medicated at the right time.
And then we had
a sort of really awful crisis
where a whistleblower came to us
and mentioned that a staffer
had been deliberately kind of abusing Dad.
I presumed it would be relatively easy,
that I would make a complaint
to the regulator,
the regulator would
investigate the complaint.
And then when that didn't happen,
then I went to the police.
And eventually I realized
that it wasn't just bad luck,
that it was the system.
And so then when the Royal Commission
into Aged Care
Quality and Safety was called,
I made a submission to that.
[reporter] The room belonged
to an 85-year-old woman with dementia
whose identity is protected.
Within hours of putting
the camera in place,
this is what it captured.
A warning. The footage
is very confronting to watch and hear.
[woman shrieks and yells]
Terrible revelations of abuse
against some of society's
most vulnerable
have prompted the Prime Minister
to call a royal commission into aged care.
[Scott Morrison] I just could not get past
what was occurring in our
residential aged care sector.
[Holland-Batt] I solemnly and sincerely
- [clerk] Declare and affirm
- Declare and affirm
- That the evidence I shall give
- That the evidence I shall give
I was sort of nervous
about my father's privacy.
I was nervous about my family's privacy.
And then I thought,
"No, it's the right thing to do."
So in your statement, you
detail that from about 2016,
you start noticing some issues.
It was when Mum and I would go and visit,
we would often find Dad disheveled,
in unclean clothes
[Holland-Batt] Aged care's an issue
that's poorly understood by most people
because they don't want to think about it,
I understand.
I'd never given it a moment's thought
before we had to move Dad into care.
She'd verbally abused him and told him
that she was "sick of his shit,"
um, that she left his wheelchair
away from the bed
so that he was left completely immobile,
and the whistleblower
also mentioned to my mother
that the reason that she'd told us
and not the facility
was that if she told the facility,
it would get swept under the carpet
and absolutely nothing would be done.
[Margaret Thorpe]
There was so much publicity
about abuse and lack of care
in aged care.
I think that many, many family members
would consider
the care that their relative receives
as being careless.
[person calls out repeatedly]
What a tragedy that an old person
at the end of their life
is treated with such disrespect.
So, you see, it's not just
breaking down in the nursing homes.
It's breaking down everywhere.
It's our humanity.
[girl] How did things get so bad?
Why was care forgotten
and profits put before people?
Perhaps it had something
to do with this guy.
[tense Western music playing]
Doug Moran was a man with a plan.
I suppose it could be
compared to a five-star hotel
for the residents that are
going to come in here.
This is one of our private rooms,
which has an ensuite bathroom
attached to it.
[reporter] It's being built by Doug Moran,
the country's largest
private nursing home operator.
Moran lobbied to introduce
the user-pays principle
into nursing homes.
I mean, there's almost no doubt that
Doug Moran was heavily involved
in writing the 1997 changes
with John Howard.
And he rallied the rest of
the for-profit groups around him.
Someone who's got power and money
and who believes they can
actually dictate the outcome.
[reporter]
The Federal Government introduced
a user-pays system for nursing homes.
Elderly people stood to pay
up to a quarter of a million dollars
as a bond for their accommodation.
And the government
has to accept their responsibility!
[reporter] The government's
under pressure to overturn its decision
on nursing home entry fees and bonds.
John Howard had said,
"We'll give you accommodation bonds,"
and Moran was so disgusted he didn't
get them, he quit the Liberal Party.
There's got to be some good
aged care providers out there.
And there are,
there are places that do it well,
and isn't it a shame
that they get a bad name
based on the others.
[exhales deeply]
- [Margaret] She seemed very nice.
- [Sue] Yeah, they all seemed nice.
Yes, they do.
No, I think that's definitely
one of the top ones so far.
Yes, I think
I'd have to talk to people now.
I'm getting worried about finances.
[Sue] Yeah, if you move
into something like that,
what do you do with your flat?
[Margaret] Yes, I'd have to sell it.
[sighs]
[Sue] We'll go and see a financial adviser
so you don't have to sell your flat
in case you want to go home.
[chuckles]
I think if I make
the effort to go somewhere,
I'm not going to want
to go back home
however nice that sounds.
[Sue] Yeah.
[Margaret exhales]
Oh, dear, it's exhausting
doing all these things.
[Sue] Now we're done anyway.
- We've looked at five now.
- Four.
Four. I've read all about them.
[Sue] All right, if you get
to the point where you go,
"I can't live alone,
I can't do it, I'm too lonely,
I don't like the weekends,"
- which is what
- I hate the weekends.
[Sue] And why do you hate
the weekends?
Because everyone's out
having fun, fun, fun
and I'm not.
Oh, pardon me.
Oh!
[camera shutters click]
I'm here today with Minister Butler
to announce the Government's new policy
on the future of aged care.
[Saltarelli] When Labor
were last in government,
they picked up the baton
from where Howard started.
They introduced the so-called
"Living Longer, Living Better" reforms.
I'm sure that was more for industry,
not for the actual recipients of care.
And that really just put
everything on steroids.
Today, we announce
the most sweeping reforms
to our aged care system
in almost 30 years.
In designing these reforms,
we've listened
to stakeholders in the sector
who have worked with us very closely.
Aged care in Australia
is industry-driven
and it's a partnership between
government and industry.
Industry Industry Industry
The community have been
largely disenfranchised.
Yeah, they've been
shut out of the system.
We will also finally introduce
a single system of
accommodation charging,
reflecting the principle
of ageing in place, which
[girl] So with the help
of a Labor government,
the industry finally had their bonds.
John Howard was spooked
by the reaction
to wanting to introduce
accommodation bonds.
And so Mark Butler,
whether he wants the crown or not,
is the guy that finished Howard's reforms.
[plays moving tune]
[ends song]
I'm Olivia Dorothy Cornwell
and I'm 94 years of age.
She's a miracle.
[both laugh]
[plays heartwarming tune]
This is my daughter Jane
and she's a journalist
and she lives in London.
She and I are in contact
in some way or other
pretty much every day.
My knees are a bit sore.
When I was a preschool teacher,
I used to put out planks
for the kids to jump
and I'd have a plank under each arm.
I'm sure that's responsible.
- [bird chirps]
- Oh, look at the parrot.
I'm a Mallee girl.
I was born in Birchip
in the north-west of Victoria.
I was trained to be
a preschool teacher
and then I went overseas.
I went to the
Buckingham Palace Garden Party
and the Queen was cross with me
because I didn't curtsy
like everybody else was doing.
One minute, we were all standing up,
the Queen appeared, I looked around
and everybody was down there
and I hadn't
And she really did give me
an unpleasant look.
I came back from England
and I did some more preschool teaching,
but then I decided
I'd like to be an air hostess,
as we were called in those days.
Then I met my husband Alan.
We eventually married.
And then our beautiful daughter Jane
was born
and Alicia was the next one,
and Chris was the next one.
[film reel whirring]
My husband liked outdoor sport
and he was very fair-skinned
and he got a melanoma
and he died when he was 73.
I suddenly lost interest in everything.
I didn't want to do anything.
I got a couple of rather
unpleasant illnesses
followed by depression
and my doctor suggested I spend
a few a couple of weeks in respite care
and the place I went to was wonderful.
I always associated old people's homes
with dear old ladies and bingo,
you know, so
But I went there for a couple of weeks,
and it was amazing.
But after two weeks,
I felt like I was living in a bubble.
I thought, "Now, I'm still mobile.
"I don't really want to spend
any more time here."
'Cause you went into respite
with a view to long-term staying.
So we got you a room with a courtyard,
I'm back here because I thought
I was going to have to
sell the house to pay for
Well, I had no intention of staying there.
[gentle musing music playing]
[Olivia] I just love living at home.
It's just great.
I love my garden,
I like playing the piano
and I'm very keen on jigsaws.
I'd like to spend a lot
more time doing jigsaws.
Oh, and I like to attract the birds
even though the cockatoos
come and take all the seed.
I love to be independent
and do my own thing.
[Jane] The more research
I started doing about aged care,
it became obvious
that there was a way
that you could get help
living in your home.
And what I was told was that
to be able to stay in your home
was the goal of the government.
You know,
they have a vested interest
in keeping, you know, people at home.
They have to come out and inspect
and I remember saying to you,
"Please act as doddery as you can."
[laughs]
[woman] Most people that you speak to
say that they want to grow old
in their own home.
So it's all very well and good
for an older person
to have their home modified and cleaned
and to get their nursing care
and their medication
management in their home
but if they walk down the street
and nobody knows their name
or cares to say hi to them
or, you know, would even notice
if they didn't step outside their door
for a couple of days
[Holland-Batt] There have been
some really harrowing stories
coming out of home care
just as there have
out of residential care.
The problems in home care
are lesser known
because they're not monitored.
There's a huge degree
of vulnerability in home care,
so I don't think
we want to romanticize it
and say everything's great
so long as you can stay at home.
[phone rings]
[phone continues ringing]
[phone line ringing]
[Margaret] Hello.
- Hi, Mum. It's me.
- Yeah.
I'll be there in about 20 minutes.
20 minutes.
And is Lola going to do
that bit of shopping for me?
Yes, she's definitely gonna do that.
And where are we going to go?
[Sue] Given what happened,
we're gonna go and look
at a couple more aged care places.
Oh, okay.
We'll sort it out when you get here.
[Sue] You just drive past this one
because it's Glen Huntly Road.
Right, is that the one we went to?
No, no.
And then there's another one, this one.
So we'll just have a look
out the car window
and you think about,
you know, what you think.
[Margaret] Mm-hmm.
[Sue] Can you put them in your bag?
- [Margaret] Oh, okay.
- Hang on.
Here.
We're actually out the back, Mum.
[Margaret] Right.
[Sue] Just I'm gonna
shut your front door.
[Margaret speaks indistinctly]
[Sue] Yeah, they're coming
and they'll lock it.
[gate shuts]
[keys jangle]
[Sue] Big step. Watch your head.
Okay, I'm gonna just
change those hearing aids.
You've got them in the wrong ears.
- Oh!
- Anyway, that's the right way.
[soft music playing]
[Margaret] Where are we going now?
[Sue] We're gonna go and show you
- the two aged care places up here.
- Oh, that's right. Yes.
You can see just from the outside.
- Yes.
- So they're
Because what was your criteria?
You said you wanted them around this area.
Yes.
- Anything else that you
- No, no.
I'd just like to be left alone.
[Sue chuckles]
- In the place or now?
- In the place.
What, you don't want people
coming into your room?
No, I don't want thousands
of people coming in and out.
The Aged Care Act was
supposed to help old people,
but were these changes
really about helping Grandma
or just making private companies
more money?
They were coming for the money,
no doubt about it.
If you look at the aged care providers
and the owners and the CEOs,
some of them are on the BRW rich list.
They live in mansions,
they drive luxury cars,
yet they're constantly crying poor.
[glasses clink]
[girl] The industry was sought
as independent experts
to the newly created
Aged Care Financing Authority,
such as the CEO of Bupa.
You know, Bupa is the biggest
private aged care provider in the country.
They had a shocking track record.
That's a provider that time and again
has failed care standards.
There were so many of its homes
that had failed with the regulator,
but they were still operating.
[girl] By 2019,
over half of Bupa's 72 nursing homes
were failing to meet
all the health and safety standards.
When you look at the failures
over the last 20 years in aged care,
it really is a story
of provider influence.
First and foremost, that is the issue.
There is no doubt that the regulator
is absolutely captured by industry.
The regulator says,
"Can you not do that?
You're embarrassing us.
But, you know,
we'll let you get away with it
if you, you know,
tick some boxes on a piece of paper
and say that you will never
be like that again."
The fox is guarding the hen house.
There does seem to be something of
a revolving door, if you like,
between industry
and government positions.
It's the same list of names
that have been moving
from government to regulation to industry
and back again for 20 years.
[automated voice on phone]
For myGov enquiries, press 1.
For assistance with
a myGov linking code, press 2.
For Centrelink online enquiries, press 3.
For Medicare online enquiries, press 4.
For Australian Taxation Office
online enquiries, press 5.
If you're an ATO customer
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press 6.
To hear these options again,
please press 9.
[quirky music playing]
[phone message continues indistinctly]
For assistance linking your
ATO to your myGov account,
press 3.
For assistance with linking
other government services
to your myGov account, press 4.
You may need to contact
the member services directly.
- [door shuts]
- [quirky music ends]
[Margaret] I might have to go
into that place a bit sooner.
- [Sue] What place?
- The nursing home.
[Sue] Do you want to go
into a nursing home?
- No.
- [Sue] Why?
Not at this moment in time,
because I've got enough
faculties still going.
There are a few that
are going down the tubes, but
[chuckles]
That's the trouble with old age.
It's a lot of it is very frightening.
You find you can't do heaps of stuff.
- [Sue] Mmm.
- Um
For instance, I used to think
cooking was quite an honorable job.
[chuckles] I can't
be bothered with it now.
- I'd rather starve to death.
- [Sue laughs]
- I would!
- [Sue] That's not good.
What about, you know,
you used to catch the bus
to go and see movies,
book clubs, walking group.
You had so many things
Yes, I did and I loved them all,
but it wasn't right anymore.
[Sue] Yeah, now you don't
Now I go out to the doctor. [chuckles]
About the only one I see! [laughs]
The long-awaited final report
from the Aged Care Royal Commission
has delivered a damning assessment
of the system
which is supposed to protect
the country's most vulnerable.
[Anne Connolly] I was waiting
for the report
from the Royal Commission
to come down.
I mean, it was our Four Corners,
our two-part Who Cares? stories
that actually prompted
the Royal Commission.
Scott Morrison got in
the day before the first one went to air,
so he got ahead of it.
This is the first of many volumes
Morrison got out there
and brandished a copy of the report,
you know, saying effectively,
"Now we've done something
about aged care,"
where the journalists had only been given
access to the report 20 minutes beforehand
and then he never did
a press conference again.
[Connolly] You tabled
the report while we were here.
How can we ask questions
[Connolly] He didn't like
being questioned.
He thought
he would get a free run.
The Department of Health
and the regulator
put a submission into
the Royal Commission
I'm the Prime Minister.
This is my minister.
Our cabinet will decide
our response to this
Royal Commission, okay?
- So is this
- So we've released it.
I think I've answered your question.
Thank you.
I think it says a lot about
how we regard older people.
We do regard them as disposable
after a certain period of time.
They're insignificant.
They're not important in our lives.
[man] Thank you.
[Holland-Batt] I don't think
any of the politicians
are thinking, "Oh, this is
a system I'd like to go into."
They're not thinking, "Great! We've solved
it. I'm gonna be right when I'm old."
They're thinking,
"Thank God that I earn so much
"that I'm not gonna have to
be touched by this system."
You know, that's that's the reality.
And, you know,
what we should be doing
is stepping back from
all of this and saying,
"What do we all actually want
when we get old?"
[pensive music playing]
[woman] The majority of the people
have worked their entire life
and have been paying tax
and have been contributing
to the community
and when they're older,
I think everyone
deserves to have a good life
and to have a secure home,
a safe home,
and I hope that I can contribute
to someone's wellbeing
to stay at home safely.
I am a care finder
with Housing for the Aged Action Group
and the role is to help
older people over 65 and plus
navigating through the aged care system.
I'm loving it.
Like, that's really a calling.
I have been in the social work
field for about 20 years
so I have been seeing,
like, a lot of changes.
Since it has been privatized,
I don't think the clients
are getting the help that they need.
If you are living by yourself
and don't have, like, a partner,
and you are still fit in your mind,
I still believe the best option for you
would be staying at home
and being independent
and have some support in your home
like cleaning, shopping
or someone to take you
to your medical appointments.
[gentle music playing]
[teacup rattles]
[Beverly] My husband's name
was Lewis.
I'd been with him for 27 years, yes,
and, um, I miss him every day.
When my husband died,
I didn't know what I was up against.
I realized that rent was
getting way out of my league.
When I'd get my pension,
I paid my rent,
I had a provision for my utilities,
I could see things diminishing.
[phone line rings]
- [Beverly] Hello, Hanh.
- Hi, Bev. It's Hanh speaking.
- How are you going?
- I'm good.
We are now on our way to see you.
Bye.
[computerized voice]
Continue on State Route 22
for seven kilometers.
[Beverly] I was frightened
of what the future held.
I knew that it would reach a stage
where I would be homeless.
So I rang My Aged Care
and along the way, I mentioned
that I would like independent living
if it could be arranged.
And the next thing I knew,
this little lass Hanh
came to my front door.
She put forward plans and we came out here
and I loved the place straightaway,
and, um, here I am.
Once you get the services,
you can stay at home.
A nursing home means death.
I would say, "You no"
I'll say it in Italian.
[speaking Italian]
"You're not going to put me there,
are you?"
[plane engines drone]
[people chattering]
[Luciana] We came to Australia in 1960.
Dad was here, was injured at work,
couldn't come back to Italy,
so we joined him here.
And I was Loved it.
I was 14 and a half.
I went to work in a factory
and said I was 16
and I worked in a factory for four years
and it was dreadful.
The idea
was that I could go and study,
but then I met Mario.
I met Mario when I was 17.
We went to the Boathouse
and we had a really nice ride
on the river.
He said, "Well, I'm old enough.
We need to get married.
I want to start a family."
I said, "Okay."
And Mum said, "No, too young."
I said, "Well, I feel good,"
and so we married.
[traditional Italian folk music playing]
Mum asked, "Where you gonna live?"
And Mario said,
"But I do have a house,"
and he brought me to this house.
I said, "Fancy that!
I feel really good in it."
And that was it.
And we have been here
ever since, 59 years.
[chatters indistinctly]
I always wanted to study,
but Mario said,
"But I think I'm old enough
to start a family,"
but I was only 19.
Oh, he won.
[quirky music playing]
All right, here we go. Afternoon tea.
And then I wanted
very much to start working
and I qualified a social diploma
in community development.
I worked at a community health center.
At the time, I was studying,
working, family
and looking after
Mum and Dad as well.
Let's see, Theresa.
Oh, we still have to wait.
Lovely. [chuckles]
[Luciana] Afternoon tea.
My father passed away July 2002.
- [Theresa] Do you want some?
- [Luciana] Yeah.
Then Mum was alone for five years
and then she was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer.
There was not even a thought
of Mum going into a nursing home.
The idea of a nursing home
was waiting for death.
I've never known Mum to be selfish
until the last two months.
She said
"If I had my mother here,
I would spend all my time with her."
And I said, "Mum, I'm 60.
Who would employ me?"
I find my job terribly rewarding.
You depend on your children,
but children do have their own family.
They have their own problems.
They've got their own issues,
their own work issues as well.
[Jane] Often I am on a deadline
or I will be travelling somewhere
and I just feel like at any moment,
I have to go back to Australia
and sort Mum out.
If you want to put your parent
into an aged care facility
and you live overseas,
to navigate the myGov
or the Aged Care website
is really, really hard.
To get on the phone to anyone
is really, really hard.
I found that
when I was even getting her
up the levels of aged care,
because there's the four levels,
I really needed to be there to do that.
I don't think I could have
done it from here.
[Anna Donaldson]
My Aged Care is the system
of government-funded support
for older people as they're ageing,
which starts
at really sort of low-level,
entry-level support around the home
and goes all the way
through to residential care.
But actually the majority of the system
is geared towards supporting people
in their own homes.
I've spoken to so many older people
who find it completely bamboozling.
And not just older people,
their carers and their families.
[Linda] Just prior to this interview,
I went and looked up
the Aged Care
and the categories there
didn't really suit me at this point
in time of my life and my career,
and so I clicked on "Early Retirement"
and it dropped down into all these boxes
and I went, "Oh, my God!
This is going to take forever to read."
And I've got a PhD,
and I just looked at the first paragraph
and I went, "Oh, I'll look at that later."
And I was thinking about
how I would talk about this
to other Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people
that struggle with myGov.
Accessing a lot
of the services like myGov
would be near impossible
in remote communities
because the Telstra services
are non-existent,
and if they do exist
in remote communities,
it's intermittent.
Like during the wet season,
you might as well say
there's no Telstra communication.
They're talking to you, but it
sounds like they're under water
and you can hardly understand
what they're saying.
[Jane] Clearly, I'm on
the other side of the world.
It's a real worry to think
that she could fall,
something could happen to her.
I'm so far away.
I am her main point of contact.
She has her aged care provider
and they're brilliant,
but it's not like if anything happens,
she can, you know, call me.
Mum has to battle with loneliness.
She watches a lot of television.
She has some friends
who are quite loyal, which is great.
And she does kind of maybe
sometimes overthink things
and I think being on her own
too much is not great.
She's very youthful in her
outlook and in her mind
and I love her to bits,
but that also means
that she might rush at things.
And, you know,
lately we've got her a walker,
a red walker, which we call
the "Mean Machine."
So I have had to encourage her
to use that.
I've set up various
contingency plans, as it were,
but at any moment,
I have to go back to Australia
and sort Mum out.
It's a constant source of stress.
What did you do today?
[Olivia] Uh not a lot.
No? Did you go for a walk?
Yes, I went 'round the block.
Did you take the Mean Machine?
[Olivia chuckles] Yes. Yeah.
Oh, by the way,
I went to the doctor yesterday
and she's given me
a clean bill of health.
Yeah, well, you're a force of nature, Mum.
That's amazing.
Who are those two men
in your house, darling?
Can you see them?
Look. Here they are. Look.
- Lovely. Waving.
- [man] Hey!
Yes, they look rather nice.
What are they doing?
They're filming me.
They're just doing a little film thing.
- Look. There they are.
- Lovely!
All right, off you go.
Okay, darling.
- All right, bye, Mum.
- [man] See you later.
- Waving. Bye!
- Bye, darling.
See you soon.
[thoughtful music playing]
[footsteps thud softly]
[Margaret] I get lonely
here on my own now.
Last year, five of my friends died.
One I'd known since I was 16.
[indistinct chatter on TV]
I spend at least four hours
watching television.
Most of the time, I can't
work the television properly.
[Sue] Okay, is that too tight
or not tight enough?
No.
It seems to be all right.
[Sue] Do you ever get
frightened at night, Mum?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Sue] Tell me about that.
Well, it's all very quiet.
And I just have to tell myself
that I'm all right
because if I if I, um
talked about how I was feeling,
it would make me even more frightened.
See, all this is exhausting for me
unfortunately.
Is your granny
John, does your granny
manage, like, on her own?
- [John] Yeah.
- Yeah?
- How old is she?
- [John] She's 90.
- Really?
- [John] But, uh
Is she in a care place?
[John] No, not at the moment.
- She's still at home?
- [John] Still at home.
She's got a lot of neighbors
uh, who visit her every day.
- Wow. That's
- [John] But she's a very able woman.
- Isn't that wonderful?
- [John] She's very healthy.
[Margaret] Ooh, it's very dark.
[solemn music playing]
[reporter] Across the country,
nursing home residents
account for almost 60%,
of coronavirus deaths,
amongst the worst in the world.
[Morton] The pandemic
taught us a lot.
Above all else, I think, that
privatized services don't work.
Particularly when
they're essential services
because in the end,
the government needs to intervene
to make sure we continue getting them.
This is a gig economy,
it's a casualized workforce.
We get paid a pittance
and I need to work at five
different homes in a week,
otherwise I cannot feed my family.
The skill involved in caring
is just not recognized,
completely undervalued.
You don't usually
remember all the machines
and the stethoscopes and the fancy thing,
but you will remember the touch
of the nurse or the care worker
and the kindness, the compassion.
We just don't have
enough of the right people
with the right skills across the system.
[Sue] I'll just get the bubbles out.
[cork pops]
Well done.
Oh, look at this girl.
She's got a pirate ship.
[Margaret] Oh, so she has.
[Sue chuckles]
[Margaret] I wonder
if she's going to sail it.
I don't think she'll ever see it again
if she lets it out now.
So, Mum, if you were in
aged care, I could pick you up
and we could sneak out
and do this maybe.
Well, I'll keep that in mind
because, you know, it's nerve-racking
that you're going to go into this place
where you're not alone,
which is one of the reasons
I'd like to do it.
[Sue] Yeah, 'cause you're not alone.
Do you think you could
ring and book yourself
into an aged care place?
- No, I don't want to do that.
- [Sue] Why?
But why couldn't you do it
rather than me?
I don't
I don't want to do many of
the things that you insist on.
- For instance
- No, but I would like you
Why do I have to do it?
Now, that's a nice little dog.
- [Sue chuckles]
- Look at that one.
That's cute, like Jerry.
Yeah, a bit like Jerry.
Can you do all the phone calls?
I used to, always. I did everything.
But I don't know.
I've lost the the will.
[Sue] But do you think
you could do it without me?
No.
What if I went somewhere
and lived overseas?
- How would you do it?
- Well, you did.
- You went away on holiday.
- Yeah, for two weeks.
I'm talking about,
what if I went for two years?
Well, I'd just turn up my toes and
It's been such a great thing,
what you've done for me,
because I couldn't have done
many of the things that you've taken over.
And you've done it well.
[waves crash softly in distance]
[pensive music playing]
[Beverly] Come in.
[Hanh] Hello, my dear.
Let me just
- Whoops-a-daisy!
- Hello!
- Heya.
- Hey.
Now that I have
moved away from your area,
I would like to introduce
another care finder in this area.
And they will assist me, like
- What I do.
- Going shopping?
That's something that
I am going to find out today
with My Aged Care.
[phone line rings]
[automated voice on phone]
Good afternoon.
Welcome to the Online Services
Support Hotline.
This help desk provides customer support
for your myGov account
or Services Australia online accounts.
If you haven't received your security code
to sign into your myGov account,
go to my.gov.au and search
'tips for troubleshooting'
[Beverly] Keeping up with technology.
I'm not frightened of it,
I just can't keep up with it,
you know, at the present moment.
Your whole system sort of goes into
a bit of a rut and a grind.
[automated voice] For assistance
with a myGov linking code, press 2.
When they do that thing
where they give you a little
code, a special code,
I say, "Don't do that!"
Because my eyesight
and the rest of me
just can't cope with it.
[automated voice]
To hear these options again,
please press 9.
[rock music plays on phone]
[Beverly] When you can't hear,
sounds come in at different levels.
It can be very disconcerting.
And when they play that music
Oh, it can play havoc
with your hearing aids.
[laughs] You know,
sometimes they make funny noises
and then you're trying to listen
to people on the telephone.
It's a challenge.
[rock music continues on phone]
[Hanh] I would simplify things,
you know?
Like, I would put a person, a human being
to answer the phone
and I would not go, like,
from option A to option C,
then to option B
and then to option C again
and then by the time you reach someone,
it's, like, an hour.
[gentle music playing]
One last thing
that I also found out
I don't know if you're interested at all.
Knox City Council, around here
they have a talking cafe.
- They have which?
- A talking cafe.
It's, like, for people who are over 65
who are feeling a bit isolated.
Oh, they might have a book club too.
They do! They do meet, like, a lot of
[Beverly] I love my independence.
I'll do the best I can to maintain it.
I am grateful for all those
who made it happen.
That little lass, she's
she's just absolutely wonderful.
- Thank you, sweetheart.
- All right.
Okay, I will see you soon.
[Hanh] You'd think, as a care finder,
you'd do, like, only linking
someone in My Aged Care,
but I do more than that.
- Bye.
- Bye, darling.
[Hanh] There's a lot of loneliness.
You rely on some worker
to come to your home
and to give you that
community connection.
[Luciana] Which one
was the house you were born?
- This one.
- And where did you ski?
Here, there, everywhere,
cross-country.
[Luciana] And how old were you
when you started skiing?
And he's got also
He won a prize skiing.
Cross-country championship. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, at 12.
I think at home
you would have a better quality of life
with support services.
[Sue] So your plan
is for you and Mario to stay here?
I keep on telling him,
"Mate, we've got to keep healthy.
We've got to keep healthy."
So Mario might want to go up the ladder.
I say, "No, no, no, no, no.
We've got to keep healthy
because the alternative is much worse."
We're a proud lot.
We want to be independent as much.
So we ask for help
when it's almost too late.
Yes, there is some isolation,
but I think I feel confident
that we could stay at home a long time.
I go to the University of the Third Age.
I love it because not only
do I practice my Italian,
but the knowledge is great.
Mario loves his garden,
can fix anything
you put in front of him,
but he doesn't want to read,
he doesn't want to learn anything else.
So take that away,
and that would be real trouble.
There would be depression
setting in and all that.
"No, no, no, no. I don't need
anyone to do the garden."
And Mario helps me to clean.
He does the kitchen every night.
I cook and he does
the dishes, cleaning
[Sue laughs] He's the perfect husband.
- Hey, hang on.
- [Mario chuckles] Oh, dear!
Hang on a second!
[laughs]
There's no such thing.
You you could say 98%.
- [Sue] All right.
- Leave 2%.
[romantic Italian folk music playing]
[Luciana] We can't stay up
until 12 o'clock anymore,
but we dance together.
[romantic music continues]
The first time I sat with him
when we went
to that blessed Boathouse,
I felt good.
I just felt good.
And that's it.
[romantic music continues]
[ducks quacking]
But you need
to want to grow old together.
I'm not perfect. He's not perfect.
But you have to make a decision
whether you want that relationship
and, therefore,
you work towards that.
If your idea is to grow old together,
then it can happen.
[girl] Older people need proper care.
They need things like
strong communication.
- Touch.
- Empathy.
- Love.
- Dignity.
- Respect.
- [all] And care.
So if we keep cutting corners,
it's not just Grandma who's in trouble.
[all] We're all in trouble.
[students applaud]
[distant chatter]
[woman] When people arrive
at our dementia cafes,
they're welcomed
by our volunteer team,
by our facilitator.
Everybody has a name tag.
It just has their name on it.
There's no other labels
or anything that highlights
that they might be living
with dementia themselves.
And the beauty of that is,
is that nobody feels
different to anybody else.
That everybody is equal
in our cafes.
[woman 2] Oh, we can't win.
We don't remember the game!
[man] Yeah, coffee.
- [woman 3] Coffee? Milk? Milk?
- [man] Yeah.
You've got the flat white?
No, it's a good atmosphere here.
Oh, and the people
are interesting as well.
[indistinct chatter]
[Jess Conley] One story I hear
time and time again
from new enquiries is,
"My partner has been
diagnosed with dementia
and, as a result, they have
withdrawn from society.
They're too scared to go out.
They're embarrassed,
they're ashamed and so they withdraw."
So to have a social outlet to come to
where everybody's going
through similar experiences,
the best feedback I can
receive is when people say,
"I can't tell who are the ones
living with dementia and who aren't,"
because everybody's interacting,
everybody's enjoying themselves
and everybody has a connection.
It's Judy and Roy's 65th
wedding anniversary tomorrow.
[all applaud]
And she said, "Don't tell anyone!"
[laughter]
[Conley] And it looks
like our guests are here!
Today we invited
some of the Kinder children
from the early learning center
to come and join us
preparing for Christmas.
So we generally like to do some
sort of craft activity
or something that we can then display
at our Christmas party.
[light whimsical music playing]
[people chatter busily]
[Holland] They're part of a community,
they get to speak with younger people,
they don't feel like they're locked away
and I think that's the sort of
That's the first thing that
we get wrong in Australia.
Our aged care homes
are pretty much completely segregated
from the rest of the community.
I think models that allow older people
some presence in the general community
rather than being
entirely kind of locked away,
seem like a really good starting place.
[Michael Wynne] Every one
of us is going to get older.
It's the one sector,
more than any other,
where we can start involving community.
Bring them back into taking control
of their lives, of their communities,
instead of being controlled.
And I think it's government's job
to build community
so that community takes over
these roles and local
These things are managed locally
and supported by central government.
He's got a blue shirt, has he?
[Linda Payi Ford] As soon as babies
can understand language
in the mother's tummy, in the womb,
through their growing years,
they should be hearing about aged care
and the sorts of issues
that elderly people face.
It would often be very difficult
if the person was solely on their own,
but if they're in a community
and they're loved by their community,
um, the community will step up
and come and help.
[people chattering]
Until our community are engaged
as citizens and participants
who care about creating
a better future of ageing,
no structural reform
will get us there.
[girl 1] Once again,
governments come and go.
[girl 2] A guy named Anthony
promised to fix it all.
Good afternoon.
Today, we are putting
the care back into aged care.
We're announcing
the greatest improvement
in aged care in 30 years.
[girl 3] This sounds good.
Will he make Grandma's life better?
[Annie Butler] In October 2022,
they passed a bill that was an amendment
to the Aged Care Act.
"You must have a registered nurse
in every nursing home."
[girl 1] But the aged care industry
didn't like this idea at all.
Once again, they cried poor.
[reporter] The families of
almost 200 aged care residents
are in a state of disbelief tonight,
with the shock closure
of three Wesley Mission nursing homes.
Joining me now is the CEO
and Superintendent of Wesley Mission,
Reverend Stu Cameron.
People who are watching,
should they be worried
the home that their parents
are in could be next?
I think Leila,
I think there's a lot of change
that has happened
and will continue to happen
- So yes?
- Yes.
I think there will be more.
So they're very worried about
threats that come from nursing homes.
"Oh, we have to
We're gonna have to shut down.
If we don't get this,
we're gonna have to shut down."
And so they basically hold
the government hostage.
I think the profit motive
is very damaging to health and aged care.
They're very uncomfortable bedfellows.
[gate squeaks]
[footsteps approach]
What was that?
There's the phone.
Do I put this out tomorrow?
Friday.
How long have you been
doing exercise classes for?
Oh, this is my second year.
- [Sue] And do you like it?
- Yes, I do.
- Very much.
- [Sue] Why?
Why do you like it?
I like it because it's
I'm able to do
or try to do all of them.
It's not that difficult.
And they're very nice people.
But do you do it for a reason?
Well, I keep hearing that exercises
are terribly important.
I should do some
on other days as well,
but there is no-one
that will pick me up.
Last year, my legs felt stronger
so I'm hoping
the same thing will happen
'cause I've had no exercises
over the Christmas period.
So doing it, surely,
is partly trying to keep you
out of a nursing home maybe.
'Cause if you couldn't walk,
what would happen?
Oh, I'd have to go in
or you'd have to come
and live with me.
[Sue laughs] We don't want that.
Where would I sleep?
In one of the bedrooms.
I've got two.
[Sue chuckles] I'll come and
visit you at the nursing home.
Yeah.
- [woman] Take your time.
- [Margaret] Yes.
[man speaks indistinctly]
- Yeah, just push my back.
- Oh, push your back. All right.
- A bit of a shove.
- [Margaret chuckles]
You right?
- All righty.
- Yes, good.
- You comfortable? Sorry.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- That's good.
- No worries.
[quirky music playing]
[sighs]
I've travelled all around the world.
[woman] How lucky are you, Margaret?
- I don't know about that.
- [woman] Yeah.
Some of it was terrific,
but we had a year
in the Philippines
[woman] Oh, wow. For your
husband's work, was it?
Yes, he was at the
University of the Philippines.
And I've been to the Chinese Wall.
- I nearly forgot that.
- [woman] Oh!
Yeah, I went with a friend years ago.
[woman] Yep.
[people chattering]
[Margaret] That's my daughter,
by the way,
that's doing the film,
and that's my granddaughter.
[man] Oh, right, okay. Oh, hey.
- [woman] Hello.
- [man] How are you?
[Margaret] She's making
one about old age.
- [man] Oh, yeah?
- And I'm in it. [chuckles]
[people chattering indistinctly]
[Margaret] I thought I was going to fall.
That's always my terror.
[quirky music playing]
Three more each.
Two.
And one.
All right, legs out straight.
Let's just raise them
up and down 10 times.
Yep, and get them arms going!
Up and down, sideways.
Six, seven
eight
So it'll be right, left, right.
Right up, left side, right straight.
[Margaret] Oh, my God!
- So, up, hook, right.
- Side
Right, hook, right.
All right, guys, I reckon
you've done very well today.
[cheerful carnival music playing]
No-one really talks about
aged care until they're old.
Yeah, we should be talking
about it a lot earlier.
We'll never fix
our aged care system
unless we realize
we're all in this together.
Maybe governments could work for us
instead of whoever
pays them the most.
But surely our governments
care more about people than money.
Yeah, you'd hope so.
But the lobby is very powerful.
If they continue to drive policy,
aged care won't work for us.
[plays bright folk tune]
[Luciana] We're involved
in a seniors Italian group
of 70 people.
There are 10 males.
The rest, they're all female,
and they all live at home.
[bright folk tune continues]
[music fades]
Most of our members
have had a pretty hard life,
like all all migrants
of the '50s, '60s and '70s.
You reach a certain age,
you've had enough.
Not that once they stop working,
they've got nothing to do.
They raise all
the grandchildren first.
But once you arrive at this age,
you've had enough.
["Forever Young" by Alphaville plays]
Let's dance in style
Let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait
We're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best
But expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young
Or let us live forever
We don't have the power
But we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit
Life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man
Can you imagine when this race is won?
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders
We're getting in tune
The music's played by the
The mad man
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever
And ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
So you want to do a cheers?
Mmm.
So, Mum, why are
you doing this film?
Because I thought it would help you
because I wasn't as helpful
when you were doing the others.
You must understand, I don't
You're comfortable with all these things.
I'm not.
- But we're finished now.
- Nearly finished.
But it's a nice opportunity
to spend time together.
Would you suggest that?
And Lola and Claudie
and Ben and Jeremy and
Well, I don't know
so much about them,
but I'm sure if I got to know
them more intimately,
I would find they were
absolutely charming.
- I think that's enough now.
- Okay, no worries.
- Good.
- Well done.
- Thank you.
- Nothing else you want to add?
- No.
- You sure?
Absolutely certain.
Thank you so much, Mum, for doing it.
- Okay.
- I really You can relax.
- Yes, good, good.
- Yeah.
Goodbye!
[laughter]
Oh, dear. Goodbye.
- [woman] Well done, Granny.
- Oh, thank you, darling.
[woman] Thank you.
Oh, she's beautiful, isn't she?
Look how skinny she is.
All righty, well done.
And that's a wrap!
And ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young
[song continues]
[song fades]
[light quirky music playing]