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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. In the last term of parliament, the now Minister for Communications moved the new Aged Care Act through the parliament with bipartisan support and, indeed, with cooperation from those on the crossbench as well. As part of the new Aged Care Act, which provides for a rights based framework for older people receiving care in Australia, we also see the Support at Home program, to which the Leader of the Opposition's question pertains. This is an entirely new program. It is an overhaul of the old home-care packages program. We've seen enormous growth in the demand for home care across our community. In fact, since 2020, the home-care program has grown from 155,000 people to over 300,000 people. In federal government expenditure terms, that growth looks like 800 per cent growth over a decade.

Now, the Leader of the Opposition is quite right. Support at Home, which will come into effect from 1 November, along with the new Aged Care Act, will deliver an additional 83,000 home-care packages in the form of Support at Home, which will mean that 83,000 additional older Australians, on top of the more than 300,000 who are already receiving care—

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