Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the My Aged Care system is broken, causing widespread hardship and distress for ageing Australians;

(b) the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing recently confirmed that the current wait time for an older person of standard priority for a Support at Home package is between 300 to 330 days;

(c) a recent report by KPMG found that 96,709 people are still waiting in the National Priority System for a Home Care Package at their approved level; and

(d) residents in rural and regional parts of Australia are finding that once they finally get services approved, there are no available service providers to deliver the required supports; and

(2) requires the Minister for Health and Ageing to:

(a) immediately explain and address the ongoing and increasing delays with the My Aged Care and Support at Home programs; and

(b) outline what specific measures the Government will take to address provider scarcity and workforce issues in outer-metropolitan and regional electorates, where approved funding is currently failing to translate into actual bedside care and support at home.

On a daily basis, my office receives call after call from residents and their families who are at breaking point because of the My Aged Care system. Labor promised four years ago a simpler, fairer and more responsive aged-care system. Four years on, our older Australians are waiting longer, receiving less care and, in many cases, dying before help arrives.

The coalition's position is simple: if an older Australian has been assessed as needing care, they should receive the care that they have been assessed as needing—not a fraction of it, not after months of waiting and certainly not after they have died. As it stands, there are over 100,000 older Australians waiting for a Support at Home package on the national priority system. The median wait times for the Support at Home package have blown out to more than 10 months, compared with between 30 and 90 days under the coalition.

But this is about so much more than numbers; it's about people, and it's about lives. It's about Australians who have worked their entire lives, paid their taxes and contributed to this country and who are dying while their name sits on a waitlist. It's about the families and carers carrying the burden of care alone because the government system is failing.

Don't take my word for it; I want to read from an article in my local newspaper written by Oliver Winn. The article begins:

A Warburton man with stage four cancer and three months to live was given a six-month wait time for aged care payments.

Three months to live—a six-month wait time under this government. It continues:

79-year-old Tony … fears he will die from stomach cancer before getting access to $59,660 for domestic and personal care services.

Mr Rostron was diagnosed with stomach cancer in October last year and after exhausting all treatment options, he was given three months to live.

He was assessed for a Level One package before being reassessed to Level Seven, which gave him access to $59,660 for domestic and personal care services.

But the package was then designated medium priority …

Stomach cancer and three months to live—and this government have said that is of medium priority, with an estimated wait time of six to seven months. Could you be more out of touch than the Prime Minister of this country and the minister, who say stomach cancer and three months to live is of a medium priority? In his own words, Mr Rostron said:

"I could die the next day," …

The reality is that almost 5,000 older Australians died in 2024 and 2025 while in priority waitlists for their home-care package. When people are dying before the system delivers the care they have been assessed as needing, there is no longer an administrative failure. It is a policy failure overseen by this prime minister.

The other issue that has been raised with my office is the inability to find services. Tom from Gruyere is up for reassessment and he's been waiting for nine months. He's 91 and needs assistance. My Aged Care says there is no occupational therapist available to come out. Now, my office has been contacted by numerous residents who have been given a list of providers by My Aged Care and who have taken on the task of calling them, but they've been told there are no services available in the Dandenongs or Healesville or Warburton. Elderly Australians are being told the books are closed. Providers don't have funding or they don't serve particular areas. It is an absolute disgrace and shame that the Labor government and Anthony Albanese are treating Australians like this. The elderly should not have to fight the system to get the care that they have been assessed as needing. It is common decency. It is a basic right. This government continues to fail these older Australians.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The first thing I'd say to the member for Casey is that all of us, as local members, hear stories from constituents about what's happening in aged care. It is truly heartbreaking to hear of what people are battling in a time where they are at their most vulnerable. I know that the Minister for Aged Care has asked for those sorts of stories to go to him directly, because we want to do what we can to help people. So I encourage the member for Casey to send that through.

But let's remember. When we look at the motion that he's moved saying that the My Aged Care system is broken, I think it just shows a spectacular lack of self-reflection to call this a broken aged care system when the very system which the now opposition presided over was summed up in a report by the royal commission called Neglect. And so, with all of the difficulties that exist in the system today, they really do pale in comparison to the sort of problems that I've been dealing with over the years with people in the community—people that really should have been treated a lot better.

I also remind the member for Casey that the system that we have in place now was a system negotiated in good faith with the opposition and supported by the opposition. So, when the opposition criticises this system, they are actually criticising a system which they have supported but are now using as an opportunity to politicise for their own personal reasons.

There are also gross misrepresentations going on around there. They managed to put it in writing in their motion about median wait times. But, if you actually look at the median wait times now, you see that, for the standard priority, it's now down to seven or eight months 10 to 11 months as it was just in November last year. Again, I know from personal experience—I was elected only last year, but I've been working in the community for a long time—that sometimes it would take people up to a year just to get an assessment, let alone actually get approved for a package and end up on the waiting list. And now those assessment times have come down to around a month or below. And so I think that what we have seen is that we were given a broken system, we worked with the opposition to try to fix this broken system and now we've got an opposition that wants to politicise it even though we are clearly making gains, even though we are clearly seeing the wait times down for packages and the wait times really coming down for assessment.

The government doesn't pretend this system is perfect; in fact, we've said that we are open to change. Just recently, we made a massively significant change in—I'm going to forget the categories, but I think it's these—independent living, where showering, continence care and wound management attracted a co-payment for people newly coming onto the to the Support at Home program. We listened to the community, and we moved that into clinical care, where people can get those essential services without having to attract a co-payment. I can't think of any clearer example than that to show the government's willingness to listen and to make changes. I'd encourage the opposition: rather than making those political points in here and using an individual's plight to score some cheap point, continue to work with the government, continue to improve the system and continue to advocate for the individuals that we all come across as local members.

I just finish up by saying that I think there needs to be some comprehension of the scale of the problem, which gets lost in all of this. These figures aren't exact, of course, but something like 15,000 Australians turned 80 in 2011. Next year, 90,000 Australians are turning 80. We have to build a new residential aged-care facility every three days in Australia for the next 20 years to meet the demand that's out there. I think the scale of this problem is reflected in the willingness of the government to invest $47 billion this year, to listen, to make the changes and to give people the care that they have thoroughly deserved and worked hard for.

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) | Link to this | Hansard source

After a lifetime of working, raising families, paying taxes and contributing to our communities, older Australians should be able to expect that, when they need help, help will be there for them. But today, too many Australians are finding that the aged-care system is broken, and it is causing real hardship, distress and uncertainty for aging Australians and their families. It's not just about statistics and a government report; it's about people who are trying to remain independent in their own homes but cannot get the support that they've been assessed as needing. It's about families who are desperately trying to navigate a very complicated system while watching their parents, grandparents or loved ones struggle.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has recently confirmed that an older person assessed as a standard priority for a Support at Home package is currently waiting between 300 and 330 days—almost a year. For someone who is healthy and independent, 300 days might not sound like that long of a time, but for an 80- or 90-year-old who cannot safely shower without assistance, who struggles to prepare meals or who is at risk at falling, who needs help simply to remain living independently, 300 days is an eternity.

A recent KPMG report found that almost 100,000 Australians who have already been assessed as needing a particular level of care are still waiting for that care to become available. These people just want the government to deliver the support that they have been assessed as requiring. Even when an older Australian finally gets their funding approved, that does not necessarily mean they will receive the care that they're expecting. Many families are increasingly finding that there simply aren't enough providers or workers available to deliver the services that they've been approved for.

This is something I've heard directly from many of my constituents within the Redlands. A few months ago, I conducted a My Aged Care survey to hear from local families about their experiences within the system. The response was deeply concerning: 52 per cent of respondents reported waiting nine months or more for their approved aged-care package to become available, and 62 per cent of respondents reported facing issues with a lack of supplier providers once their package was provided.

In particular, one constituent, an 82-year-old man living alone after suffering a stroke, told me about his experience. He has a level 2 Home Care Package, but it is completely inadequate for his needs. He cannot stand without a walker. He's scared of falling when he showers, when he shaves and even when he gets out of bed. Two years ago, he requested a reassessment, for which he said he is still waiting. And, because of the limited support he receives, he cannot visit his wife, who's currently living in a nearby nursing home. Another constituent who tried to arrange care for her mother was given a list of 116 providers and told to contact them one by one to compare services, cost and availability. Imagine being an elderly person or the child of an elderly person and being told that after finally navigating the very complex assessment process you must now call more than 100 providers yourself to find out whether anyone can actually help. The system isn't just difficult; it's exhausting, and it is failing the people it is designed to support.

We need to remember what aged care is supposed to be about. It is supposed to provide dignity, independence and security for older Australians. It is supposed to give families confidence that when their loved ones need help they will not be left to navigate an endless bureaucratic maze. And it is supposed to make it possible for older Australians to remain safely within their own home for as long as they possibly can. Instead, too many Australians are being left waiting, too many families are being left frustrated, and too many approved home care packages are failing to translate into actual care for older people within our communities.

The government cannot simply announce another reform and declare the job done. The Minister for Health and Ageing must immediately explain why these delays continue, what specific action is being taken to reduce them, and what they are doing to make sure that when an older Australian receives an approved package there is actually someone available to deliver these services. These are all reasonable questions and are the questions being asked by people within my electorate. We cannot accept a system where an older person can be approved for care but cannot access it. We cannot accept a system where someone can wait nearly a year for support. And we cannot accept a system where families are left to pick up the pieces where government bureaucracies fail.

Older Australians have spent their lives building this country. When an older Australian needs care, waiting almost a year is simply not good enough. The government must fix My Aged Care, address these growing concerns and take the action required.

Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently had the privilege of standing with the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors at Amber Aged Care in the suburb of Paradise in the north-east part of my electorate of Sturt as this government announced significant funding for new aged-care beds in Adelaide. The announced funding totalled an additional $34½ million of federal money and, importantly, went towards unlocking $134 million of investment in metropolitan Adelaide to deliver 268 residential aged-care beds. At Amber Aged Care the $10.4 million allocated will deliver 48 new aged-care beds. Planning is already underway, and construction will commence in December of this year. These new aged-care beds will go towards ensuring that every older Australian receives high-quality, dignified aged care, which is what they deserve and what their families expect.

I've seen firsthand that the team at Amber Aged Care, under the leadership of CEO Dominique Evele, have already been providing this high-quality, dignified care over a long period of time. With this investment they will be called upon to do it on a much larger scale, because the facility is more than doubling. And what do we need if a service offering is more than doubling in size? We need more qualified people to provide these critical services. We need to provide an environment where aged-care workers, including nurses, are valued, where they are paid fairly and recognised for their work and where the criticality, urgency and immeasurable impact of their work are valued.

The Albanese Labor government recognises this. To the aged-care workers and nurses out there: This government values you. This government does not dismiss your work as being of low value because it forms part of the care economy. This government does not accept that the care economy has exploded in an adverse or unproductive way. This government does not accept that workers in the care economy have been disproportionately awarded hefty pay rises or that the taxpayer funding used to underwrite these fair and justified pay rises is wasteful spending. We don't accept any of that.

That is why, on 1 August this year, aged-care nurses got their fifth pay rise under this government. This means that a registered nurse on the most common classification is now more than $36,000 a year better off than in 2022. An enrolled nurse on the most common classification is almost $32,000 a year better off. That means they'll stay in their profession. That means there will be workers to provide care to the elderly Australians who will take up a place in one of the 48 additional aged-care beds at Amber Aged Care. Extra beds are only one piece of the puzzle; qualified workers are another.

So I'm tired of hearing the care economy dismissed as unimportant. Getting older and becoming elderly is a blessing, and, with a bit of luck, every single member of this place and the other place will get old, be elderly and need aged care. When you need it, you won't dismiss it. You'll be deeply, deeply grateful for it, and so will your family. So to those who dismiss it as reckless spending I say: change your attitude because, although you might not need it now, other Australians do and you owe those Australians your support.

In South Australia we have seen elderly Australians staying in hospital longer than necessary when they should be in an aged-care bed. That is what this recent funding announcement is about. It is about making sure that when a hospital is no longer the appropriate clinical setting and an aged-care bed is that the aged-care system is equipped to respond to that demand.

There is no single answer to the challenge of reforming the aged-care system, which is a generational challenge. Sustainable, effective and efficient investment in the aged-care sector is a key pillar of the Albanese Labor government's agenda. We will continue to invest in residential aged-care capacity such as at Amber and across Adelaide. We will continue to invest in in-home care and we will continue to invest in workers in order to overturn the neglect that characterised the aged-care system when we came to government in 2022.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) | Link to this | Hansard source

There are many times that I've got up in this House or in the Federation Chamber to address this issue of aged care and the failures that our elderly Australians are experiencing under this government. The incompetence is mind-boggling. We have 100,000 people waiting to be assessed. We have 100,000 people who have been assessed, albeit with the failures within that system, who are now waiting to actually receive the care they have been approved for. So we have 200,000 people. The waiting times are blowing out for those who are sick, who are frail already and who have waited to be assessed on the phone in the regions and then had an algorithm applied to see what level of care they need and then waited until there is a service provider in the region who can actually provide that care.

I hear over and over again tragic stories from people in my electorate who cannot find a provider. We're talking about the Commonwealth Home Support Program and we're talking about Support at Home, just to be confusing for everybody to understand. Then the end of the road is residential aged care. By 'the end of the road' I mean that most Australians want to age safely in their homes. That is not unreasonable. But what we have is a government that is slow to act and slow to implement. Even when they do implement, it might be 60 per cent of an actual package that is delivered. A person may be assessed for a package and the government think they're playing very cute by providing only 60 per cent of that package. So people might be able to have an occupational therapist come to their home. They might be able to go to a physiotherapist. But that funding is going to run out. The pressure that has been put on those elderly to pay additional out-of-pocket costs then is frankly outrageous.

We have a government who are happy to spend additional dollars or, in fact, rip out funding from those in private health insurance so they can apparently spend an additional $11 billion on residential aged care that people largely don't want to go to and would not need if they were provided with the care they could have at home and therefore costing the taxpayer a huge amount of money. Every aged-care bed in a residential aged-care facility costs a whole lot more than a Commonwealth Home Support Program package or Support at Home. So we have a government and a minister who are flailing around at the edges pretending that they're acting and dealing with the wait times. Instead, they are dealing with algorithm assessments that mean people are not getting the care they need. The delays between being assessed and having a package approved mean people's actual needs can go from a level 2, which is some support, to a level 4. Guess what happens then? They have to go through the assessment process again.

I happen to have an elderly blind man in my electorate who was assessed over the phone. I want to know which bureaucrat can actually make an assessment over the phone of what a blind man is able to do in his home. Most of the people in my electorate are pretty tough, I can tell you. There are a lot of men who are pretty tough, and this is an elderly blind man. If he's asked if he can do X, Y or Z in his home, if he's asked if he can shower, I guarantee you his answer would be, 'Yes, I can do that.' It's because he doesn't want to be weak. He doesn't want to be in need. But the fact of the matter is that, if an occupational therapist had done that assessment, they would have seen very clearly that he does need additional care. I've got to say that this government is out of touch. They're fantastic with the headlines, they're fantastic with the marketing—go them! That is not governing for Australia and it's not governing for elderly Australians' needs and rights as they age.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government is delivering the most significant aged-care reforms in a generation. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety laid bare a broken system that had been neglected for years under successive coalition governments. This won't be fixed overnight. Our government is working to make sure that every Australian can age with dignity through a $5.6 billion investment, delivering on 58 recommendations of the royal commission.

Over our first term, the Albanese Labor government invested $35.2 billion to improve safety, dignity and quality in the aged-care sector. We've delivered historic pay rises for aged-care workers, with a registered nurse now $430 a week better off under Labor, and there is now a registered nurse onsite in aged care more than 99 per cent of the time, with older Australians receiving an extra 4.8 million minutes of care every single day. At the same time, there has been a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of residents experiencing chemical and physical restraint, falls that cause major injury, and significant unplanned weight loss.

We've provided $53.2 million for states to deliver aged-care assessments faster, and last financial year we rolled out 83,000 new Support at Home packages, with a further 32,000 additional packages due this financial year. The recent budget invested $3.7 billion for more aged-care beds, more home-care packages and better care for older Australians. We're making personal care services like showering and continence management free under Support at Home so older Australians can stay in their homes safer for longer, and we'll deliver an additional 5,000 aged-care beds every year from 2029.

I'm really pleased to see that investment is also being delivered locally in my electorate. The Illawarra has been suffering from a critical shortage of aged-care beds for years thanks to significant underinvestment by both state and federal coalition governments. It has put enormous pressure on our local hospitals and led to poorer outcomes for local families. Since I was elected, I have worked closely across all levels of government, industry and the community sector to drive innovative solutions that work for our region. I have been so heartened by the collaborative approach of the New South Wales health minister and member for Keira, Ryan Park; the member for Wollongong, Paul Scully; Lord Mayor Tania Brown of Wollongong City Council; and the local health district under the leadership of the incredible Margot Mains. This has only been possible thanks to passionate aged care and community sectors with advocates like Val Fell, the Illawarra Aged Care Taskforce and the Community Industry Group. Together we have secured substantial state and federal government investment into our local health and aged-care systems, which is really making a difference.

In May this year we brought all of these sectors together with the Regional Development Australia Illawarra Shoalhaven with a clear focus on solutions to develop shovel-ready aged-care projects for our region, building on the work of the local Aged Care Taskforce. The member for Whitlam and I worked closely with the Minister for Aged Care, Sam Rae, to ensure that the Illawarra was named as one of four priority areas under a special round of the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program for projects that would build new aged-care beds within two years. I am absolutely thrilled that we have now announced $25.9 million for investment to build 73 new aged-care beds across our region.

The projects include expansions and upgrades at Hillside at Figtree, Uniting Farmborough in Unanderra, IRT in Woonona and Tarrawanna, Marco Polo Woonona and Warrigal Mount Terry. That's 73 more beds to take pressure off Wollongong Hospital. Importantly, it means that more older people in our community can age with dignity close to home and close to their families. These new aged-care beds come on top of a number of really important local aged-care investments that I worked closely with the previous minister, Anika Wells, to deliver. We've delivered $15.8 million for IRT's Marco Polo facility in Unanderra, supporting 48 additional beds due in early 2027. In 2023 we delivered 20 transitional beds at Figtree Hospital under the Transition Care Program to help ease pressure on Wollongong Hospital. We also supported Community Industry Group's Illawarra— (Time expired)

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd really like to thank the member for Casey for bringing this motion to the House. The baby boomer generation is beginning to turn 80 in 2026, and Australia's aged-care system is not equipped to handle the current demand, let alone the approaching silver tsunami. There are several actions that I'd like this government to take immediately. Once a person is approved for Support at Home, they lose access to equipment and home adjustments through the Commonwealth Home Support Program, the CHSP. This measure is intended to stop double dipping, but it can leave some people facing gaps in their access to technology while they wait for their new Assistive Technology and Home Modifications funding. I wrote to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors about this on 25 May. I've not yet received a substantive response to this concern. We need to make sure that older people aren't left without the equipment that they need or forced to pay for it out of their own pocket because of gaps in our system.

I'm pleased to see that older people living with motor neurone disease now have priority access to ongoing support at home and immediate priority under the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme. I raised this issue in my recent Support at Home submission. But the fact remains that there are countless other Australians with other neurodegenerative and progressive medical conditions which are associated with rapid changes in their functional capacities. Our aged care needs to recognise and act when people's circumstances demand immediate access to therapies.

The government is now allowing use of AT-HM funding for equipment obtained through private rental arrangements. Rental models work under the NDIS. We've seen that equipment rental is estimated to save the scheme as much as 85 per cent of the cost of purchasing new equipment outright. Permitting clients to use their funds for aged care is a start, but I call on the government to invest in existing equipment loan services, like MND Victoria's assistive technology equipment loan service, to deliver a complete and robust national assistive technology loan scheme.

I'm also calling on the government to take action on data collection in aged care. Fast healthcare interoperability resources, or FHIR health record standards, are an international standard for exchanging health information. FHIR was actually created by an Australian, yet our country has not yet adopted these standards widely in aged care. The fact remains that about 6,000 Australians every year move between residential aged care and our hospital system. If we're serious about reducing bed block, we need to ensure that functional assessments and other health data follow older Australians to whatever healthcare setting they find themselves in. This would reduce costs, it would reduce wastage, and it would reduce resource requirements across our healthcare and aged-care systems.

I also ask the government to urgently address the gaps between Support at Home and the Commonwealth Home Support Program. I ask the government to ensure Support at Home and ATHM funding are made synchronous to fund proven equipment loan programs for services like assistive technology home modifications, and to urgently adopt interoperability standards to improve the supports provided to older Australians and to reduce the costs of delivering them.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

In the time remaining for this debate, I'd like to make a contribution. I want to talk about the latest Support at Home quarterly data, which shows wait times for care have continued to come down since the program began, with tens of thousands more older Australians now receiving care in their own homes as the Albanese Labor government continues to deliver its aged-care reforms. While demand for aged care continues to grow, what matters to older people is how quickly they can access care, and we're making significant progress in driving these times down and will continue to invest so every older Australian can access the care they need sooner. While we know there's much to do, these numbers are encouraging signs, and methodical work to secure more care for more older Australians than ever is making a material impact. Older people told us they want care they can trust close to home, and we've listened. Labor's getting things moving in the right direction to ensure every older Australian can get the care they deserve sooner.

Since our generational reforms and the Support at Home program began on 1 November last year, estimated wait times for an ongoing place have again fallen across all priority categories. As of 30 June this year, every person classified as urgent continues to get their funding within a month. High priority is now one month, down from 1.5 to two to 2.5 months, and the medium priority is now five to six months, down from eight to nine months. Standard priority is now seven to eight months, down from 10 to 11 months at 1 November 2025. The median wait for an assessment remains consistently under one month, and the time for in-hospital assessments remains under one day. This is down from as high as 10 months under the previous government.

Demand for the program remains unprecedented. The government is responding by releasing 32,000 new Support at Home places this financial year, on top of the 83,000 additional places released in 2025-26. Once delivered almost three times as many older Australians will have a Support at Home place compared to those with a home-care package in 2020.

Last week, the second Aged Care Act 2024 wait time report was also published on the department's website, showing elapsed times for Support at Home dropping by around 50 days and elapsed times for other forms of aged care being relatively stable. This is important reform that's been conducted by the Albanese Labor government in an area that we all care so deeply about—ensuring that aged Australians are looked after at home as a priority and then supported into aged care if that is what's required. I know that my family, like families around the country, are pleased to see the wait times coming down, particularly that in-hospital assessment, because that's when families are worrying most. I'd like to thank Minister Rae for the work that he's doing. I know that his intention is to continue this work to ensure that we have an incredibly positive aged-care system in this country, with as many Australians needing Support at Home as can get it. It's a government that cares about this issue, and we want to see it continue.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour.