Australia’s ageing population is growing faster than the systems built to support it, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. A co-designed, public–private aged care model offers a practical, humane and economically sound path to meet this challenge before crisis overwhelms the system.

Australia is facing an ageing population tsunami and we are not ready for it.

Across the nation, our older population is growing faster than the systems designed to support it. Among them are culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians, for whom language, faith, food, family structures, and cultural expectations remain central to wellbeing. Yet aged care continues to operate on a one-size-fits-all model – one that fits no one and fails too many.

Nearly one-third of Australians were born overseas. Many who arrived in the 1980s and 1990s are now entering their 60s, 70s, and 80s. More than one million Australians aged over 65 speak a language other than English at home. Across cities and regional centres alike, multicultural populations are growing faster than the national average.

These older Australians are far from a fringe group. Many are highly educated former professionals, business owners, and skilled workers. They are financially stable, socially connected, and eager to live with dignity in environments that allow them to practise their cultural, social, and spiritual traditions for as long as possible.

But ageing changes everything. As mobility declines and dementia emerges, many will no longer be able to remain at home. As dementia progresses, people often revert to their mother tongue, making English communication increasingly difficult. Without culturally aligned support, confusion, anxiety and distress intensify,  placing immense emotional and financial pressure on families, hospitals, and the public system.

The consequences are already visible. Older Australians from CALD backgrounds experience higher rates of potentially preventable hospitalisation due to language barriers, low health literacy, social isolation, and culturally inappropriate services. Each preventable hospital admission can cost roughly $6,000 and occupy around five hospital bed-days. Hospitals across the country, already under strain, will shoulder an even heavier burden unless we act now.

Aged care currently costs the Commonwealth around $36 billion per year. National capital investment needs are forecast to exceed $72 billion over the next seven years just to meet baseline demand. Without innovation, these billions will continue to prop up an inefficient, reactive, crisis-driven model rather than a preventative, person centred one.

Even a conservative 15 per cent reduction in preventable hospitalisations, achievable through culturally appropriate, co-designed aged care services, could save around $500 million nationally over a decade and free more than 430,000 hospital bed-days during the same period.

Multicultural communities are eager to be part of the solution, but they cannot shoulder the multi million dollar upfront costs alone. Constructing a modern 200-bed aged care facility is estimated at around $90 million, far beyond the capacity of community groups alone.

This is where public-private partnerships (PPPs) become transformative. By combining government support, private investment, and community engagement, PPPs can deliver high-quality, purpose built aged-care facilities quickly, efficiently, and sustainably.

A PPP funded, co-designed 200-bed facility would not only provide hundreds of older Australians with dignity, security, and culturally responsive care, it would also serve as a replicable model for other states and territories, scaling innovation across the nation. Through careful planning and genuine co-design, PPPs ensure that facilities meet growing demand without overburdening taxpayers or community groups, proving that economic prudence and social justice can go hand in hand.

Mainstream aged care homes often struggle to meet basic cultural requirements: halal or kosher food, prayer spaces, bilingual staff, culturally informed dementia care, gender-sensitive services, and faith-aligned end-of-life support.

These are not optional extras; they directly affect mental health, behaviour, trust, and clinical outcomes.

This is why co-design must sit at the heart of any new model. Co-design is not token consultation. It is a genuine partnership where older people, families, community organisations, faith leaders, health professionals, and policymakers collaborate from the outset to shape building design, services, workforce, food, language support, governance, and care practices. When people help design their own care environments, the result is safer, more dignified, more culturally intelligent and more cost effective.

Australia is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. Pilot projects can be trialled, evaluated, and refined in manageable scales before being scaled nationally. The diversity of Australia’s population reflects the future of the nation, and its long tradition of collaboration between government, community, and industry provides fertile ground for innovation.

A 200 bed, PPP funded, co-designed multicultural aged-care facility would be an important first step in helping hundreds of older Australians live with dignity, belonging, and security.

It would serve as a model of culturally responsive care that could be replicated in other states and territories to meet the growing needs of our ageing, multicultural population.

Economically, the benefits are substantial: conservative estimates suggest more than $24 million in annual savings or nearly $250 million over ten years through reduced hospitalisations and improved long term outcomes. At that rate, a $90 million capital investment could be effectively recouped in just four years.

But the true benefit cannot be measured in dollars alone.

It would mean less loneliness. Less confusion. Less distress for people living with dementia. Stronger family trust. Faith aligned end of life care. And the simple yet profound assurance that older Australians can age in environments where they are understood, respected, and valued.

This is not about special treatment. It is about fairness and foresight.

Aged care must evolve to reflect the Australia we are – multilingual, multifaith, multicultural, and ageing. The ageing wave is no longer approaching. It is already here. The only question that remains is whether we choose to act with foresight or wait for crisis to force our hand.

The solution is clear: co-design, co-fund, and co-build aged care facilities with the communities they are meant to serve now and in future and across Australia.

It is smart economics. It is good policy. And it is the right thing to do.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

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