Peak retirement body hits out at Cairns Regional council for the second time

An elderly resident is giving up private cancer treatment in anticipation of a significant rate rise, as a national peak body reveals Cairns Regional Council is contradicting its own critical report.

Daniel Gannon, executive director of the Retirement Living Council. Picture: File

An elderly resident is giving up private cancer treatment in anticipation of a significant rate rise, as a national peak body reveals Cairns Regional Council is contradicting its own critical report.

Council is proposing to increase rates at retirement homes by up to 800 per cent in some cases.

But the Retirement Living Council says the Far North Queensland LGA has identified how crucial retirement villages will become in the future.

Council’s Towards 2050: Shaping Cairns from the Beaches to the Boulders draft report predicts over-65s will make up 20 per cent of the Cairns population by 2050, adding retirement villages will play a pivotal role in supporting the ageing population.

“Many elderly residents live alone, creating a demand for smaller, well-located housing that provides access to essential services and infrastructure … such as retirement and respite care facilities,” the report said.

Retirement Living Council executive director Daniel Gannon said council was selling “two contrasting messages”.

“One day they’re highlighting the importance of retirement villages, the next day they’re punishing pensioners because they live in one,” Mr Gannon said.

Oak Tree Retirement Village in White Rock was originally hit with an 800 per cent proposed rate increase, before council announced it would be phased in over two years. Picture: Oak Tree Retirement Villages

“Given the anticipated surge in the number of people over 65 in Cairns, the council should be doing everything in its power to make all age-friendly accommodation as affordable as possible.”

Mr Gannon said the RLC had spoken to hundreds of residents who would be impacted by the rate hike, some of whom said they would have to give up private cancer treatment, sell their cars and survive on Vegemite sandwiches for dinner.

“This proposal can only be viewed as one thing – a cruel cash grab hitting some of the most vulnerable people in the community,” Mr Gannon said.

“Councils are meant to build community, not destroy it.”

A Cairns Regional Council spokesman said the proposal would “align” retirement village charges with other multi-unit dwellings in the region, ensuring “a fairer system”.

“Some of the properties affected by the proposed change currently pay as little as $58 per dwelling per year in rates,” he said.

The spokesman said 640 dwellings would be impacted by the change, of which a “portion” are occupied by pensioners, out of the 8274 properties in Cairns receiving a pensioner concession.

“That is, the vast majority of pensioners within Cairns Regional Council are occupying dwellings to which the minimum general rate already applies,” he said.

Council is expected to make a decision on the proposal to reclassify retirement villages in June.

Originally published as Peak retirement body hits out at Cairns Regional council for the second time