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

I thank the member for her question. When I became minister a few months ago the first thing I did, the first focus I had, was to go around to speak to as many older people as I could and their families and their communities, to speak to people across the sector—to providers—and to speak to workers and their representatives. The overwhelming response I got from all of those groups was that they needed a brief deferral of the implementation of the new aged care act to ensure the implementation would be smooth and would meet the needs of older Australians. As I have previously referred to, the supported home program relies on the legislative framework that the new act heralds, and from 1 November we will be able to deliver more care to more people as we achieve the next milestone.

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