Media Release: Labor on the Backfoot after Home Care Failures

The Albanese Labor Government has failed older Australians who need support to stay in their own homes for longer.

Today, the Labor Government has finally acknowledged that they have ignored the needs of aging rural, regional and remote Australians by not addressing demand outside of the cities for home care support.

This funding is a clear admission that the Government's citycentric approach to aged care has neglected the needs of regional Australians and exacerbated home care waiting lists.

In MYEFO, only 7,615 home care packages were released for this year, despite the 78,000 older Australians waiting on the Priority Waiting List for support.

It is shocking that the Government is comfortable with leaving more than 70,000 vulnerable Australians without support this year - or without any plan to ensure when they will receive assistance.

Today’s announcement also comes 10 days after the Government was forced to backflip on their new home care system, because they had failed to plan for its implementation. This Government’s mismanagement has now seen it delay the pricing arrangement for the new Support at Home Program for an entire year.

The Albanese Government could have avoided this embarrassing retrospective change if they had supported the Coalition’s amendments during debate on their Aged Care Bill, which sought to ensure their changes could be implemented without adverse impacts for older Australians and the sector.

Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Anne Ruston said that this is a government that has already created massive stress and uncertainty for the aged care sector.

“For more than a year, we have been calling on the Government to provide adequate support to ensure older Australians can stay in their own homes if they choose to do so, especially because we know demand for home care is only expected to grow. Instead, they have overseen skyrocketing waiting lists and blown out wait times for vulnerable older Australians,” Senator Ruston said.

“This announcement today represents a government on the backfoot, who has realised that they have failed to provide adequate support regional Australians relying on the home care system.

“It’s time the Government starts listening to the concerns of older Australians and takes real action to bring wait lists down.”

ENDS