TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC
5 June 2025
Topics: NDIS reforms, aged care reform delay, rebuilding from the election
E&OE…………………………………
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: We are joined by the Shadow Minister for Health, Aged Care and the NDIS, Senator Anne Ruston. Anne, good morning.
ANNE RUSTON: Good morning, Stephen.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Look, this is, um - I don't know that fixing the NDIS is as hard as everybody seems to be making it out to be, but it just seems to go from bad to worse.
ANNE RUSTON: I think the point you made that I have been making publicly since I've been afforded the responsibility in the alternative government or the Opposition to the NDIS is that we just need more transparency. We just need the Government to be out there actually telling Australians, whether that be the people who provide the supports or whether it's the people who receive the supports, or the taxpayers who pay for the supports - just tell us what's actually going on. They make big headline announcements like they did. And we did need reform, I think everybody agreed that we needed reform. We needed the reform, and then they don't tell you how that reform is going to be implemented. They don't you who's going to do it, how it's going be affected. I mean, right now, with only a few weeks to go before supposedly the new foundational support system is about to come into place, Australians have got no idea what that foundational support system is going look like. I mean, it's just extraordinary. They seem to love a headline, but not so good at delivering it.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: But do you think they actually, when you say it's transparency, do you think they actually know what's going on in this system? Because it's been so complicated from the very beginning. And I mean, I talked to various advocates in the NDIS system and those that are providers, and they all say that it's very hard to work out what's going on there. So maybe the Government's not trying to cover anything up here. They're just not across the brief, so to speak.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, that could well be the case. I can certainly tell you from my experience in aged care - you know, the Government back-flipped yesterday on something we've been telling them for over six months was a problem, but they took six months to actually do anything about it, and it does appear as if they were really not aware of the complexity of what they were asking the sector to do and what they were asking older Australians to get their head around, with the changes to the aged care system. So whilst I haven't had the opportunity as yet to really get into the detail of the NDIS and the NDIA, I fear you may well be right.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Yeah, because I mean one of the things I see the biggest problem is the number of middlemen and the opportunities for corruption that, you know, and we all know that people are opportunists and if the opportunity is there, they'll take it. There's got to be a simpler way. But I want to talk about this aged care thing because it's interesting that you say that the Government might not have been aware what the problems were. There were so many people screaming about the fact that the aged care sector was not going to be able to prepare themselves for these changes in the short amount of time. And I think you and I have discussed before, and I always talk about this one particular aged care facility in the Hunter Valley that is not going to ever be able to afford to have their own full-time nurse 24 hours a day, but they've got a multi-purpose medical centre next door with a nurse that they can call on 24 hours day. It's those little nuances that need to be addressed in this system.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, look, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed and that is one, to make sure that Australians are actually getting access to the care that they need and not just being caught up in the bureaucratic demands of Canberra. But what we saw yesterday was the Government backflip on something that was actually of their own making. You know, they've been blaming the sector for not being ready to introduce these reforms on the 1st of July, but the reality is it was the Government that wasn't ready, because without the Government being ready and being able to give the information and provide the backroom support for the IT to enable the sector to be ready by the 1st of July, they never could be. So, I mean, this is a problem not only that the Government has caused, but it is the Government's fault, and I think Australians need to understand this is a government that is really quite happy to blame somebody else for something that they have caused themselves.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Well, look at the Treasurer yesterday. Is November 1 late enough though? Is that gonna give the aged care sector enough time to get their act together?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, the sector has been asking between 6 and 12 months and I think that probably depends because the aged care sector is not all the same, there're big providers, small providers, community providers, big corporate providers etc. So, I think it needed to have a sensible transition. We actually put forward amendments to the Bill in November last year and said it needed a 12 month transition plan that took into account all the different aspects and different sizes and shapes that the sector comes in, and the Government, along with their cohorts the Greens, voted that down. I think it probably needs a staged transition over up to 12 months, but obviously we're delighted that they've at least seen the light and given the sector another four months. And I hope the sector is able to get ready in that time, but the sector has been asking for longer. And so, I think the Government needs to be more flexible to make sure that older Australians who rely on the sector are not adversely impacted. Because, at the end of the day, they're the people that get hurt by this bureaucratic bungling, is older Australians - the uncertainty, not sure what their package is going to be, when they're going to get it, how they're gonna receive their care. I mean, it's completely unacceptable to be scaring older Australians the way this government has.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I've got to congratulate you individually that you're actually out talking about this stuff, because a lot of your front-bench colleagues seem to have gone to ground at the moment. But given the size of the majority that Labor now has, do you have to change the way you act in opposition?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, it's incumbent on all of us that are in the Opposition to make sure that we are having our voices heard, because we need to be an effective opposition because good democracy is afforded when you've got a strong opposition to hold the Government to account, and that's exactly what I intend to do, and I'll do it every day within the portfolio responsibilities that I have been asked to look after, because it is the most essential thing that we can do. We've had a terrible election result and nobody can deny that, but we need to pick ourselves up. We need to reassess, get on with the job of making sure that we are an effective opposition to this government, because the problems that we saw over the last three years haven't gone away. They're still there and Australians are still suffering under a whole heap of things that I believe this government has done wrong, and we've just talked about two very significant ones here, the NDIS and aged care.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Good on you for getting out on the front foot. Anne, great to talk to you this morning.
ENDS
@Anne_Ruston
/AnneRuston