Media Release: Labor's Aged Care Reforms Driving Up Costs for Older Australians - 29 March 2026

Reports today have revealed the alarming cost increases for meals under Labor’s new Support at Home program, raising serious concerns about the affordability of essential aged care services.  

Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Senator Anne Ruston said the stories highlighted how the Albanese Labor Government’s reforms were failing the very people they were meant to protect.

“The Albanese Government promised no older Australian would be worse off, but these reforms are clearly driving up costs,” Senator Ruston said.

“These increases are being driven by excessive red tape and rigid regulations that are making it harder to deliver services efficiently.

“The Albanese Government chose to design a system where every single service transaction, including basic meal delivery, now carries its own administrative burden. It has essentially copy and paste the same structural issues of the NDIS into aged care and now costs have exploded.

“Organisations like Meals on Wheels – who are not-for-profit - even warned the Government that the cost of delivering food to older Australians would be driven up by these new layers of compliance and bureaucracy.”

Meals on Wheels has shown that the cost of delivering its services are up to 50 per cent higher under the new Support at Home program, in comparison to the Commonwealth Home Support Program.

Senator Ruston said that it was unacceptable for the Minister for Aged Care Sam Rae to refuse to accept responsibility for the consequences of his own government’s program design.

“These cost blowouts are not provider failures, they are policy failures,” Senator Ruston said.

“Telling older Australians to complain to the regulator is not accountability. Minister Rae owes older Australians more than a referral to a complaints line.”

The Coalition will continue to hold the Albanese Government to account for its aged care crisis and advocate for system that provides older Australians the choice, quality, and affordability they deserve from their aged care system.

ENDS