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. Australians expect us to get aged care right. Through our reforms, we're making sure that older people get the safe and dignified care that they deserve. Now, the decisions on the new Aged Care Act and the Support at Home program that accompanies it were made by this parliament—or, rather, the last parliament—here in this place in the last term. They were led by my wonderful predecessor, the now minister for communications, but they were supported by the opposition on a bipartisan basis. They were supported by the crossbench. There was once-in-a-generation cooperation across the parliament to ensure once-in-a-generation reforms. The Albanese government's reforms will deliver aged care of the highest quality for older Australians—those who've contributed so much to our nation and who deserve nothing less than the very best care.

At the heart of this reform is the Support at Home program, which will enable older Australians to live independently in their homes for longer, with access to higher levels of care, while staying close to their loved ones and connected to their communities. As the Australian population ages, demand for in-home care has also been growing very rapidly. There are currently more than 300,000 Australians receiving care under the home-care packages program, and this is roughly double the number of just five years ago. I've said before and I will say again that, right now, we are delivering more care to more people than ever before.

When the Support at Home program commences, from 1 November this year, the Albanese government will release more than 80,000 additional new home-care places in the first 12 months of the program. In the meantime, my priority, as I've said before, is ensuring that every older person across our country continues to receive the services they need. That's why we're releasing packages every single week to older Australians waiting for in-home care. At present, we're releasing more than 2,000 packages every week, ensuring the support continues to flow to those who need it most. And, as I've said before, we will continue to ensure that those who are assessed by the clinical assessment process as 'high priority' receive their home-care packages within a month.

The short deferral of the commencement of the new Aged Care Act is about ensuring that workers, providers, advocates and, importantly, older people are fully prepared for these generational reforms that will ensure that older Australians get the care they need and that they deserve.

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