Aged care in Australia under the microscope in new documentary Careless

As I sit down to write up this interview with passionate Melbourne-based filmmaker Sue Thomson about her must-see documentary Careless, which examines the bipartisan mess that's been made of aged residential care via privatisation, a text from her pops up.

The mighty Margaret, Thomson's mother, whose resistance to going into care is the cornerstone of the film, died over the weekend. I've been given permission to mention this, and I think Margaret's worth saluting.

"She was funny and outrageous, smoked cigarettes, sewed all my clothes and my dolls', worked full-time as a nurse and was incredible," Thomson says.

"But over the years, I saw another side of her. She was full of grief and pain, residual trauma from her upbringing."

Like many older Australians, some doors were best left closed, in Margaret's mind.

"We were never allowed to talk about her losing her mother at 16 in a very tragic way," Thomson says. 

"Her father had a stroke. When my mum and dad divorced, we had family members she never saw again. My mum's armour went up big time, and she and I clashed for years."

Thomson and Margaret butt heads in the film but there's never any doubt of their deep bond of love and respect. Lola, Thomson's daughter with partner Brian Nankervis (ABC Melbourne host and RocKwiz co-host) eases their sparring.

"I have three children working in the arts, with Lola particularly interested in making her own documentaries," Thomson says. "So I asked her if she would be interested in working on Careless. If I hadn't had Lola, my mother would have hardly been in the film."

Careless features a gorgeous cast of older Australians faced with leaving their beloved homes, including immigrant Italian couple Luciana and Mario and First Nations Elder Professor Linda Payi Ford (Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu) who notes remote communities often have no care home provision, let alone a reliable phone or internet connection.

Lola bridged the gap. 

"She did that with all the subjects, who saw her as their grandchild and were much more at ease."

Omnishambles

Intergenerational care, and how we've lost sight of that, is at the heart of Careless, which debuted at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival.

"Capitalism plays a big part, sadly," Thomson says. "In Western society, it became all about home ownership, so you work longer hours and you're not available to care."

The film, co-written and produced by Thomson's regular collaborator, Adam Farrington-Williams, marks the finale of an unofficial trilogy.

The Coming Back Out Ball Movie explores  as an LGBTQIA+ person, sometimes having to go back in the closet in care homes.

Under Cover investigates the shocking statistic that women over 50 are the fastest-growing cohort experiencing homelessness in Australia. 

"There are women over 50 living in their cars," Thomson says. 

"Loneliness is probably a bit of a through line."

Careless opens with a montage of prime ministerial pratfalls, playing on the word 'careless', then goes on to unpick not just their clumsy footwork, but also how they have let older Australians down.

Bob Hawke and Paul Keating made moves towards business, but it was John Howard who turbocharged the privatisation shift. The successive Labor governments of Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Anthony Albanese have done little to course-correct.

"In 1997, the government very clearly saw it as a way of making lots of money, without thinking clearly about the long-term effects of monetising aging," Thomson says.

"They all talk a lot, we had a royal commission, and very little has changed."

Even the food that residents are served is heinous, as ABC TV's Maggie Beer's Big Mission underlined.

Navigating a labyrinth

Technology can be confounding for older Australians, too, Thomson says.

"My dad was an intellectual and an academic, and my mum was a nurse, and they were so bloody stoic, they'll be fine," she ponders.

But they're not. 

"They'll say, 'My computer's really bad, it's not working'. But they're not using it properly. Or they've got arthritis in their fingers."

Government website My Aged Care is labyrinthine and difficult to navigate for even the most tech-savvy amongst us. Try phoning instead, and the wait time is gargantuan; hold music plays havoc with hearing aids, then the line drops out, so you start again.

"It's brutal," Thomson says. 

"They'd ask mum to type in a number, and she doesn't even know where to find that. So children take over the role of dealing with the enormous amount of technology."

Children at the younger end of the scale also feature in Careless. A Greek chorus of kids narrates it, with a hint of ABC TV's Old People's Home For 4 Year Olds.

"One of them is trying to do a fundraiser at her school for connecting older people with younger people," Thomson says. 

"We need to close the generational gap. Older people shouldn't be locked away by themselves. They have something to offer."

Many of us have no kids to rely on. 

"If my mum didn't have me, she'd be f**ked," Thomson says. "If you don't have children and you're growing old in Australia, Jesus Christ, I feel for you."

Pointing to solutions

Thomson points to Scandinavian countries with a better model and hopes we can catch up.

"With empathy, we can affect change in the smallest possible way," she says. 

"But at the moment, that ain't going to happen."

Careless is a cry for change, and a fitting tribute to Margaret Thomson.

"Mum is quite representative of women that age who have done it tough, who find the humour in it," Thomson says. 

"It was really important that this film was angry at the system, but I wanted to show that they're not just maudlin, bemoaning their lives.

"They're out there doing great things, trying to make the best of it, and often they're hilarious."

Careless releases in Australian cinemas on December 4