Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for the question and I acknowledge her genuine interest in ensuring that every older Australian can access safe, dignified and high-quality aged care. In the last term of parliament my predecessor, the Minister for Communications, passed the new Aged Care Act with support from the opposition and constructive contributions from the crossbench. The parliament was able to come together on this work because care for older people should be above politics.

These once-in-a-generation reforms will deliver world-class aged-care services to the older Australians who worked hard to build our country and to whom we owe the very best care. Alongside these reforms comes Support at Home, to which the member's question refers, which will simplify current in-home care arrangements and deliver a system that will help older people stay at home for longer.

As our population ages, demand for home-care packages has grown very fast. It's now operating at record levels. We have more than 300,000 Australians accessing home-care packages, compared with about 150,000 people accessing them five years ago. Last financial year, the federal government spent over $8 billion on the Home Care Packages Program, compared with just $1 billion 10 years ago. The important point here is that we are delivering more care to more people than ever before, but we are going to do it better.

Last month, Minister Butler and I announced, after extensive consultation with older people, with providers and with workers, that we would briefly defer the act through to 1 November, and that includes the introduction of the Support at Home program. This will make sure that all operational, digital and legislative pieces are in place so that the new system is a genuine success. When Support at Home comes into effect on 1 November, we will roll out an additional 80,000 packages in the first 12 months.

See this speech in context