SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE

SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

TRANSCRIPT

RADIO NATIONAL BREAKFAST INTERVIEW WITH SALLY SARA

16 July 2026

Topics: Aged Care Inspector-General's speech, aged care reform, pharmacy agreement

E&OE……………………………………

Sally Sara: To Federal Politics now and the Independent Inspector-General of Aged Care, Natalie Siegel-Brown has used a speech at the National Press Club to warn that the way the government's overhaul of the aged care system is being implemented is causing harm to some.

Inspector General Natalie Siegel-Brown: In human connection and meaning is not only more humane it's the only one that makes economic sense and for that the government deserves real credit. It's one of the most important shifts in the history of aged care reform but a promise on paper is not the same as a promise realised and this is what I want to share with you today. As Inspector-General of Aged Care I cannot see how our system is geared to deliver that promise. And in some cases, I would go further. The way aged care reform is being implemented is causing harm.

Sally Sara: That's Aged Care Inspector-General Natalie Siegel-Brown speaking yesterday at the National Press Club in Canberra. Anne Ruston is the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care and joins me now. Anne Ruston, welcome back to Breakfast.

Senator Ruston: Good morning.

Sally Sara: You voted for the government's aged care reform, so do you regret any of that decision now?

Senator Ruston: Well, I think the thing that the Inspector-General raised yesterday was that, and she was very clear about the fact, that the goals of the Act were and intent of the Act are very, very solid and they remain solid. What she was being critical of is the way the Act has actually been implemented. And I think the government needs to be big enough to admit that they have got a lot of this wrong. And she outlined what that was yesterday. And as the Coalition and a party of government, we are absolutely prepared to work with the government to make the changes, to make sure this Act is working as it was intended.

Sally Sara: Where and how, not where as in geography, but in what circumstances is this reform package doing harm?

Senator Ruston: Well, I think just as a starting point, if the government actually accepted the will of the Senate a couple of weeks ago that said that we should have human override built back into the system that determines the care needs and priority of older Australians instead of having a computer algorithm make that decision, an algorithm that quite clearly is not operating as it should, would be a really good place to start. To actually start putting the person at the centre of the decision making. But also the heavily bureaucratic system that the Inspector-General outlined yesterday is causing incredible price inflation. So we need to make sure that we have a system where Australians are getting access to the care at a rate that is reasonable and affordable in terms of mainstream decisions. I mean, she gave an example yesterday where an older Australian was recommended a pair of crutches by their doctor, which would have cost $50 and been able to be collected that day. But because of the way the aged care system demands that it happens, that person needed to wait three months, go through an assessment from an occupational therapist, and eventually the crutches ended up costing $1,800 - 36 times more than they would have cost if a simple system of access was able to be used. So I think those are the kinds of things that are really easy to fix if you get the system infrastructure right.

Sally Sara: Is it possible to save money and deliver high quality care at the same time?

Senator Ruston: Well, that's what the Inspector-General said yesterday, and I think the main premise of her comment was, if you can give people care when they first need the care, their need levels are usually much, much lower. And if you're much lower, they're invariably much cheaper. So they're better for the person because they're getting the care when they need it and they're better for the b=Budget because the care level and needs are lower, which makes them less expensive. So I think there is a very strong argument for that primary care model for aged care, the same way as there's a very good argument for a primary care for health care. If you can keep people healthier, active, more mobile, and not require the acute care that you need when people become less able and less well, then that is a savings to the Budget, as well as a savings to the person's wellbeing.

Sally Sara: What other changes do you think are needed to aged care now?

Senator Ruston: Well, as I said, I think we need to have a look at the infrastructure through which the Act is being delivered and we need to be looking very much at making sure we're getting people the care they need as quickly as possible. To have a situation where 200,000 older Australians are either waiting for the care that they've been assessed as needing or waiting for an assessment means that's 200,000 older Australians whose health conditions are deteriorating while they're waiting to get care. The fact that only 129 of 100,000 assessments were classified as urgent, which means instead of getting your care almost straight away, you're waiting 10 to 12 months. And we're talking about people who've been assessed as needing very high levels of care, you know, level seven and level eight packages, being told that they need to wait 12 months, I mean, if you're 93 years old, you've got very, very high care needs to be told that you've got to wait 10 to 12 months, it's an awful long time in the life of that person. So there are some quite obvious places that I think we should go to make the reforms, to make this system more fit for purpose, and actually deliver the outcomes for the older Australians that it is designed to do.

Sally Sara: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast, you're hearing from the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Anne Ruston. The Grattan Institute wrote a report this week arguing that pharmacy policy is controlled by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which it calls, quote, a powerful lobby group. The authors say it means competition is limited and prices are too high. In what they describe as a shakedown, do you agree with those views?

Senator Ruston: Well, I mean, I think that we should always be looking at ways that we can get improved access for Australians and cheaper access to Australians for medications and our health care system in general. But any changes we make, we need to make sure that we're not going to create a perverse outcome. And I think the Grattan Institute did state in their report that we need just be very careful, because often the trusted health professional in the community in rural, regional, or remote Australia, the only one is your community pharmacist. So I think we need to be very careful when we make, you know, we embark on these reform changes to think things through so we don't end up having one sector of our community, which often in the health sector ends up being our rural, regional and remote people are not adversely impacted by decisions that may well work better in the city but aren't going to work in the country.

Sally Sara: Anne Ruston, thank you for joining me this morning.

Senator Ruston: Thanks, Sally.

ENDS