Senator the Hon Anne Ruston
Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care
Shadow Minister for Sport
Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate

TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News
12 March 2024

Subjects: Aged Care Sustainability Taskforce report

EO&E

GILBERT: Back to the aged care reforms, and with me now is the Shadow Minister, Anne Ruston. Thanks for your time. Minister Wells has said she wants bipartisanship here. They’ve ruled out a levy. They’ve ruled out a tax. They they want to get you on board. Are you open to a bipartisan arrangement on this? Some agreement?

RUSTON: Well, I mean, we’ve been saying for the last 12 months that we want to work with the Government to make sure that we get sensible reform. And I think the Leader has again today said that we will support sensible reform. But if you want to be bipartisan, you can’t drop me a report on Sunday afternoon of a long weekend when you could have actually been including the Opposition and older Australians and their families, I must admit, in this journey right the way through this whole process. So, of course, I’m here in good faith. I’m happy to talk to the Government in good faith and and to work with them in good faith. But it’s really disappointing that I’ve had to wait until today to be able to have access to a report that the Government’s had for nearly three months.

GILBERT: When you look at the things they’ve ruled out - are they good? The fact that they’re not going to change the means testing on the home and various other measures like a levy and tax have been ruled out.

RUSTON: Well, we were very strong right up front that we didn’t think that a tax was the appropriate way to go for a sustainable aged care system going into the future. But what we’ve got before us today, I have to say, and I congratulate the Taskforce, they have identified the challenges that are before the aged care sector very, very well. But what we need to know, and I think what most Australians would have probably woken up this morning expecting to know from this report is, how much are they going to be paying for their aged care into the future? Who are the people who are going to be paying for it, and what are they going to be paying for? And I think whilst this is a good start, there’s a long way to go, and it would have been much more preferable that we had this conversation 6-12 months ago when the Government first said that they were going to set up this Taskforce. So not just the Opposition, but older Australians and their families could have come along on this journey and we wouldn’t be sitting here a few minutes before the budget, a few minutes before they’re intending to bring in the New Aged Care Act, having a discussion at this kind of level.

GILBERT: The Minister is the chair of the Taskforce now, had the report from the Taskforce of which she was chair for three months and then there were further delays. Is this just simply showing the complexity of what they’re dealing with here? It’s not easy. It’s not easy to fix.

RUSTON: Well, there is absolutely no doubt one of the great challenges of our aged care sector for people who have to navigate it is that it is incredibly complex. But as you rightly point out, the Minister actually chose to chair this Taskforce herself. So the Aged Care Minister has been embedded in this process right from the get go, and she and her government have been able to be part of this process. So the fact that they got this report in December, and they’ve taken three months to deliberate over what they already had in December, I mean, I would have liked to have thought that we would have actually had at least some broad outlines around what the government was considering in terms of its priorities for making the aged care sector sustainable, based on the recommendations of this report. What we’ve had is a three month hiatus when we all could have been considering it, and we’ve actually got the report from December, but we’ve just got it in March.

GILBERT: Do people need to, and do Australians need to accept that as we get older, we’re just going to have to pay more for our care if we can, if we have got the dollars in the wherewithal to do it. Is this a recognition that we just need to deal with?

RUSTON: The reality is we do need to have a sustainable aged care sector, because we need to make sure that older Australians that are not older Australians now, but will be older Australians into the future, can rely on a sector that is sustainable. We certainly -- that absolutely underpins the reason why we, as the Opposition, offered to work with the Government to try to work through the issues and we said we’d support sensible reform. But as I’m sitting here today, Kieran, I have got no idea about the details that sit behind this report, what is being considered and what sort of mechanism the Government may be prioritising. But most particularly, you know, what is the quantum of the problem we’re solving for here? And what of these measures are going to be able to provide some of that funding that needs to be provided going forward? Is it going to come from the taxpayers? Is it going to come from people who are receiving care? You know, these are some really fundamental questions that the Government has just basically thrown out a really fabulous discussion paper, but with no response to it at all. I’m a little disappointed that we’re sitting here in March having this conversation because, as I said, I would have liked to perhaps have had it last March.

GILBERT: And just finally - Do you think that a deal can be done? The politics of this is as complex as are any solutions, but can you bring yourself to see a deal being done where this is on a sustainable footing, as you said? Reform is needed to make it sustainable.

RUSTON: Absolutely commit to working with the Government and we will support sensible reforms. But I would say to the Government, you need to provide us with all of the information. You can’t expect us to be bipartisan in our approach to this if you won’t give us all the information. You give us the information, you act in good faith, and I will too.

GILBERT: Sounds reasonable. Anne Ruston, appreciate it.

RUSTON: My pleasure. Thanks, Kieran.

ENDS