As reported in that august journal Australian Ageing Agenda, Hogan reckons the “omission” of aged care from the Summit agenda is “inexplicable”.

“An immediate worry with the new Government comes from the failure to address any issues in aged care for the 2020 summit,” he said.

No, Professor Hogan, what’s really “inexplicable” are:

1. Why you haven’t bothered looking at the list of topics at the Summit website, which clearly says: “Health — a long-term national health strategy — including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population.” [my emphasis]
2. How you reckon the Summit fails to address this issue when it hasn’t even happened yet.

I’m getting pretty goddam sick of the narrow-mindedness and short-term thinking shown by so many of the commentators so far.

The Summit is organised thematically, people — things like infrastructure, the economy, our place in the world and so on. Each community sector is affected by and has input into all of these themes.

So, Professor Hogan, once we all say, “Gosh, the population is ageing,” as if every planner hasn’t already been saying that for a decade or two, we notice that this affects how we’ll have to structure health care, housing, transport, taxation — wow, just about everything. And maybe our 1000 “best and brightest” can take that on board and then move on to the next step, which is working on the future vision.

Professor Hogan, are you really so blinkered that you can’t see how “the ageing population” fits into the Summit unless it’s spelt out for you? Or, as Robert Merkel reports in Lavartus Prodeo today, is it just that every medical specialty in town is trying to drum up publicity because we’re renegotiating the federal-state health funding agreement?

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