COTA Australia has applauded the Prime Minister’s decision to elevate the Ageing portfolio to Cabinet, with Mark Butler’s appointment to Cabinet as Minister for Mental Health and Ageing and Minister for Social Inclusion.

COTA Australia Chief Executive, Ian Yates, said that COTA had been calling for ageing to become a Cabinet portfolio for the last decade.

Other Cabinet changes were also welcomed, with COTA calling on the Prime Minister and the Treasurer to make the 2012 Federal Budget the ageing and aged care budget.

This important development occurred on the same day as the release of the report from the Advisory Panel on Economic Participation of Senior Australians.

More information is available in COTA’s media release.