Today’s Health Ministers Meeting has again exposed the Albanese Labor Government’s failure to negotiate in good faith with the states and territories to deliver funding certainty that Australia’s hospitals desperately need.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese first promised that a new hospital funding agreement would be finalised by July this year. When he failed to deliver, he was forced to provide temporary tie-over funding to cover the shortfall.
Health Minister Mark Butler then promised the deal would be secured “by the end of the year.” Yet after the final Health Ministers Meeting before Christmas, the Albanese Government is still no closer to reaching an agreement, leaving hospital systems facing serious uncertainty during the busiest time of the year.
Anthony Albanese made a clear and unconditional commitment to lift the Commonwealth’s hospital funding contribution to “at least 42.5 per cent before 2030”. He has now walked away from that promise.
Shadow Minister for Health Senator Anne Ruston said the outcome of today’s meeting demonstrates a government out of its depth and a system that remains in deep trouble.
“Anthony Albanese needs to stop passing the blame and do his job,” Senator Ruston said.
“Hospitals across the country are overwhelmed, state and territory leaders are pleading for help, thousands of beds are blocked by older Australians who need aged care, and yet the Prime Minister has broken his promise on lifting hospital funding.
“This is a mess entirely of Anthony Albanese’s own making and it is has now left our hospital systems in unacceptable uncertainty over the holiday season, which we know is the busiest time of the year for emergency departments.”
At the same time, hospitals are facing increasing pressure as more than 3,000 older Australians are stuck in hospital beds because they cannot access the aged care system – a crisis directly caused by the Albanese Government’s aged care failures, including:
- Withholding the release of any new home care packages for three months and then short-changing older Australians by funding only 60 per cent of their packages,
- Leaving 220,000 older Australians waiting for aged care support – either on the home care wait list or awaiting an aged care assessment.
- Delivering only 578 additional residential aged care beds last financial year, just 5 per cent of the beds needed to meet demand, and
- Overseeing serious uncertainty in the sector, resulting in a net reduction in operational aged care beds projected for this decade.
“If the Government wants to demonstrate it is willing to work in good faith, Minister Butler should have promised to begin tracking and publicly reporting the number of older Australians stuck in hospital because they cannot access aged care,” Senator Ruston said.
“You can’t be serious about fixing a problem if you’re not even measuring it.
“It is time that the Albanese Government takes responsibility for the impact of its aged care crisis on our hospitals, its broken promises, and its failures to negotiate this critical hospital funding deal.”
ENDS
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