TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH HAMISH MCDONALD, ABC SYDNEY MORNINGS
2 September 2025
Topics: Skyrocketing home care wait list, Labor’s refusal to release new home care packages
E&OE…………………………………
Hamish McDonald: The Shadow Health Minister in the Federal Parliament is Senator Anne Ruston. Good morning to you.
Anne Ruston: Good morning, Hamish.
Hamish McDonald: What are you doing today, what are you moving to do in relation to these home care packages?
Anne Ruston: Well, we know that the sector has capacity to roll out packages right now. They told us that on Friday, quite uncategorically, at the inquiry. So we'll be forcing the Government's hand to deliver what they promised to deliver, and that is 83,000 packages in this financial year. We want some released immediately, we want at least 40,000 of them released before Christmas, and we want the commitment of the Government that they'll release the whole 83,000 packages before the first of July 2026. This is what the Government promised and we will be seeking to legislate, in conjunction with hopefully the Greens and certainly David Pocock and maybe others of the crossbench, to force the Government into actually keeping its promise.
Hamish McDonald: When we first started covering this on 702 some time ago, hearing from Sydney residents waiting for these packages, the written response that we received from the Federal Government suggested that the industry had requested this because the industry needed more time and wasn't able to deliver on this. Was that true?
Anne Ruston: No, that was absolutely not true. We have spoken to so many providers, big providers, small providers, regional providers, city providers, and every single one of them say they have capacity to deliver more packages. When we asked them on Friday about being able to deliver 40,000 packages between now and Christmas, they all said that they would have the capacity to do so. Many were ready to start delivering these packages on the 1st of July, and then the Government just pulled the rug and withdrew these packages and they were left having staffed up to be able to deliver for these older Australians who have been assessed as needing the care and then were left in limbo. So I think the Government's just got to stop blaming the sector and accept responsibility itself that the reason that these packages are not going into the market is because they are choosing not to release them. The Department is ready, the sector is ready, it is the Government who is not releasing the packages.
Hamish McDonald: The suggestion has come from the sector that there is a difference between someone receiving a home care package now and after November 1 in terms of the funding arrangement. We've heard it here on mornings. Is that analysis correct? That if you receive your package, even though it's already been approved after November 1, you would then be means tested and be potentially paying a co-payment?
Anne Ruston: There is a difference between a home care package and a Support at Home package in terms of some of the structural elements of it. But in terms of the care that the person is receiving, there will be no difference. So if somebody is on a home care - [Interrupted]
Hamish McDonald: Understood. I guess I'm just trying to help listeners understand maybe why the Federal Government would be doing this, given that all of these people have already been assessed, have been approved. Why would it be in the Government's interest to hold back these home care packages until after November 1?
Anne Ruston: Well, maybe that's a question you should be asking the Government, because I can see there is no reason why any humane government would seek to withhold care from older Australians that they, the Government themselves, have assessed as needing that care, and then for the Government to choose to not give them that care. You know, this is up to the Government to make sure that they are explaining to older Australians why many of them are waiting 15 months. I mean, when you're 97 years old and you're told you've got to wait for a year to get your package – I mean, when you're 97 years old, you may not have time to wait for that package. So I think, you know, the idea that the Government's going to hide behind some reform changes that are going to happen on the 1st of November for withholding packages for over four months – and we're seeing people waiting, you know, as I say, over a year to get a package – I mean, I just think that's unacceptable. The Government should have the capacity and if they put transition arrangements in place like we asked them to do last November, this would not have happened. And now we know over 200,000 older Australians are in limbo waiting for the care that they need.
Hamish McDonald: 1-300-222-702 is the number. As always, you're welcome to join the conversation. Senator Anne Ruston is here. She's the Shadow Health Minister in the Federal Parliament. Mark Butler, the Health Minister, so he's not the Aged Care Minister but the Health Minister, this morning suggesting that actually the reason in part that they are having to roll out these reforms is because in government the Coalition wasted time, were not preparing for the massive number of Australians that were going to need care and that they've actually worked in quick time to come up with these changes and implement them.
Anne Ruston: Well, once again, that is just factually not true. Obviously, following the Royal Commission, the Coalition invested a massive amount of money to make sure that we were addressing the challenges that were identified by the Royal Commission, not the least of which older Australians who were wanting to live in their own homes longer. So home care was becoming a very big part of our aged care effort. In the time - [Interrupted]
Hamish McDonald: I think the point he makes is about scale, to be fair. There's been this demographic cliff, if you like, facing Australia for a very long time and I think whichever way you cut it, Australia has looked somewhat underprepared.
Anne Ruston: Well, as a result of the reforms we put in place and the packages that we released in the last term of our government, the last three years, over 120,000 packages released, we saw the wait list come down to under 30,000 and the wait times come down to an average of between one and three months. In the last two years alone, we've seen a tripling of the time people are waiting and a tripping of the waiting list. That is on Mark Butler and his government's watch. So coming on your program and trying to blame the previous government for the failings of his own government – The facts just do not stack up in Mark Butler's favour. The facts speak for themselves. We had definitely started to get a really good trajectory. We certainly still had further to go. Until when you get assessed for a package, you receive the package then, we will not have achieved the outcome we were seeking. But Mark Butler is actually telling you things that are factually not correct. This disaster, right now, has happened entirely on his watch.
Hamish McDonald: Senator Anne Ruston, thanks for your time this morning.
ENDS
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