Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

A week's a long time in politics, and we live in interesting times. After two days of sustained questioning in parliament, the coalition forced the Albanese Labor government to, very belatedly, release tens of thousands of home-care packages for older Australians who have been left waiting for far too long.

Labor promised 83 new packages from 1 July 2025 but, instead, decided to withhold the support, despite the sector and the department being ready to deliver them. Because of Labor's delays, not a single new home-care package has been released this financial year. As a result, the priority waitlist has blown out to more than 108,000, a 400 per cent increase in just two years, while wait times have tripled. And, tragically, almost 5,000 older Australians died in the past year while waiting for their home-care packages. Thanks to a coordinated pressure campaign from the coalition, led by shadow health and aged-care minister Senator Anne Ruston in the parliament, the government has caved to pressure and will agree to the immediate release of 20,000 home-care packages. This is despite the government voting against this requirement in the Senate earlier in the day. It's a huge win for older Australians. These older Australians, who built this country, desperately needed this assistance and weren't getting it. We were asking question after question of the minister. He wasn't answering the questions. I was even disciplined for interjecting to try to get an answer out of him. But it was worth it because we forced Labor to at least start doing the right thing, which is to release these home-care packages.

We expect the government's decision to now support the release of 20,000 home-care packages by the end of the year. We want the full 83,000 promised by the end of this financial year and we want them as soon as possible. When I say 'we' want it, I mean the people who represent and are fighting for these older Australians, who built this country.

People ask, 'What can you achieve an opposition?' This week, the coalition achieved something in opposition. It helped the government to account, it called out a minister who was delaying what should have been released to the Australian people, to older Australians, and at least some of those aged-care packages are going to go out the door immediately. There need to be more. If we hadn't piled on the pressure, this government would not have released those compare packages until 1 November. It's a government that's very good at campaigning, not so great at government and needs to lift its game in implementation.

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