Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

We've now had the new aged-care system for five months. This was supposed to make life better for older Australians, but for so many this has done the absolute opposite. We have long waiting lists. We have robo-assessments. We have fewer services at higher cost. We have no cap on fees, which allowed many providers, as soon as it turned over to 1 November, to very significantly increase their fees. We have packages allocated at a fraction of what they should be. This whole system is an abject failure. When we look at Senate estimates from February this year, as at 31 December 2025, we had 230,000 older Australians who were waiting for an assessment or waiting for care for simple care at home—230,000 older people, 103,000 waiting for an assessment, and 131,000 who were waiting for approved funding.

The government are rationing out, eking out, that funding. Thirty-six thousand people have received interim funding of 60 per cent, and only 129 cases out of those 131,000 the government have deemed as urgent. I would say every single older person who has been assessed as 'needing care in the home' is an urgent matter. What happens is that people get sick. They end up in hospital. They end up malnourished. They end up having a fall. They end up not eating properly or not having a shower. We must turn our attention to this. If the job of all of us in this place is to take care of Australians, with respect to older Australians, we are failing abysmally.

I'm receiving emails every day. Just this morning, I received an email from an elderly lady who said:

Albo's Support at Home is an absolute joke, which would be funny if I was not part of it. I have been in receipt of a home care package … I was "upgraded" to a level 4 … and have recently been informed that I am only receiving 60% of the advertised annual amount, namely $36,000 out of $63,000. This means that I miss out on vital services, such as hydrotherapy, social support, and meal preparation. I also do not receive necessary assistance with technology and home modifications, which are … necessary.

Why is the government doing this to older Australians? Please do better.

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