Transcript: Interview with Stephen Cenatiempo, 2CC - 15 October 2025

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC

15 October 2025

Topics: aged care wait list blowout, the Prime Minister’s Medicare false promises, GP out-of-pocket costs, Socceroos win

E&OE…………………………………

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: The Federal Government talked a big game in the lead up to the election about improving the age care sector. We had a Royal Commission into aged care, and many of the recommendations highlighted what we need to do to fix it. But we're now hearing that the waiting list for aged care in home packages is over 120,000, so the additional funding that has been allocated by the Government won't even touch the sides. To talk to us about this, we are joined by the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Anne Ruston. Senator, good morning.

ANNE RUSTON: Good morning, Stephen.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 120,000. The Government committed to funding an additional 83,000 home care packages this year, so we're not even going to get to the backlog if the Government releases all of these. The 20,000 that they agreed to release immediately won't even touch the sides. Has that happened yet?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, most distressingly, despite the fact that we are now six weeks after that promise was forced out of the Government in the Senate, we found out last week that barely half of those additional 20,000 to be released by the end of this month had been released. So we've got no real confidence at all that they're going to be able to release the 83 that, or they will release the 83,000. Because, quite frankly, Stephen, this government has been withholding care purposely from older Australians. Not one package was released for the first three months of this financial year. Not one older Australian got a new package in that period of time.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Why do you think that is, is it just about improving the budget bottom line – we haven't got the money to spend on what they've committed? What, what is the rationale behind it in your view?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I don't know what the rationale is because it's a false economy. Because what happens is, if people don't get the care that they’re assessed as needing, they deteriorate very significantly, and then end up needing much higher levels of care, and end up blocking our hospital beds because they can't actually go home because the care is not there for them. So, you know, I do not know what the Government is thinking here, but it is so disrespectful to older Australians that they'd assess them and tell them that they need care, and then tell them they can't have it.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: So, Senator, let's say, for instance, the Government released all of those 83,000 packages tomorrow, what happens to the 37,000 on the waiting list that don't get the 83,000?

ANNE RUSTON: This is the question the Government needs to answer. Look, we were really pleased to force them kicking and screaming, and it was a small victory for older Australians that have been on the wait list, some of them for 15 or 18 months, that they were released. But the Government now needs to address the issue of, what is it going to do with the ongoing demand for age care home care packages? Because they seem to think they can make a statement about a great big number and then walk away as if there's no more work to be done. This is a continuous program of support that needs to be delivered to Australians, and the Government is just completely and utterly ignoring their responsibility on this.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Because the new program starts on the first of November. There's also been a commitment for an additional 63,000 Support at Home places to be rolled out after that. Does that, if that happens, does that alleviate some of the problem? Or are these 120,000 we're talking about require a different kind of care package to what these 63,000 packages are?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, no, these people have been assessed as needing a level of care, and that care will be assessed by their health professionals, and these are what these packages actually are. We don't know what level of packages the Government is releasing, because different people need different levels of care. Obviously, those people that need higher levels of care, it's very, very important that they get that, because these are the people that end up in hospital and block our beds, which is causing the ramping that we're seeing at our hospitals. But the reality is that 121,000 people are on our wait list because the Government withheld care from older Australians over the last three years. That's why we seen the wait list blowout. And the only way that they remedy that is making sure that those care packages are now available. 83,000 goes quite a way, but as you rightly point out, at 121,000 as we sit here today, doesn’t go the whole way.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Last time you and I spoke, we talked about the fact that somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 older Australians had died while they were waiting for these packages. The CEO of St Basil's Aged Care, who are one of our sponsors, her father was one of those people. And from what I'm hearing from the industry, is the industry is ready to go. But unless the Government releases these packages, they can't actually do anything. 

ANNE RUSTON: Look, absolutely, and we heard through the Senate inquiry into the Bill and the Senate inquiry into this actual wait list, that the sector are more than capable of gearing up very, very quickly. They just need the certainty from the Government, but because the Government has been withholding - they're changing, they were going to start on the first of July, now they're gonna start on the first of November - the sector has no certainty about how they prepare the resources that they need to deliver these packages, including getting the staff to be able to deliver them. So the sector's ready to go, but the Government just has to give them the certainty of when the packages are going to be released, where they're going to be released, what level they're going to release, so that they can actually get their resources in place. This is a crisis completely of the Government's making. 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Let's talk health for a moment. Senator Estimates last week was quite a revelation that the the Prime Minister was very keen in the lead up to the election to pull out his stunt Medicare card and tell everybody that they wouldn't need their credit card, all they need to see a GP is their Medicare card. But here in the ACT we knew that was never going to be true. But estimates revealed that whilst the average gap is now $49.14 nationally, it's somewhere about $103 here in Canberra, that's likely to go up. 

ANNE RUSTON: Yeah, it was incredible that the officials - because of course the officials aren't going to lie and put spin on it like the Government does - when they were asked a question had to answer it that the likelihood is that we'll continue to see the out of pocket costs for Australians when they visit their family doctor will continue to go up. We also heard from officials that they didn't believe that the effects or the impact or benefits of the Government's package of measures in relation to Medicare, the effects or the benefits would be seen for up to four years. So this is looking awfully like another one of those Labor promises that they have no intention of delivering, a bit like their energy bill promises at the 2022 election. 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: So is it time to look at a two-tier system where those that need to be bulk billed can be bulk billed and those that don't can pay a small gap fee? I mean, the previous Liberal Government's policy of an eight dollar gap fee is looking pretty good now. 

ANNE RUSTON: Well, what we need to do is to make sure that Australians who need it are able to get access to the care that they need. We need to have a system that is accessible. I mean, the biggest issue we've got at the moment is people aren't going to see the doctor because they say they can't afford it. And once again, if you don't get the care when you need it in a primary care sense, you end up in our emergency departments in our hospitals. So you know, the Government has got to understand that if they want a health system that's focused on health, they have to focus on primary care, which means they have to make sure people can get access to their family doctor when they need it, so they don't end up in an emergency department. 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Now I should also point out you're also the Shadow Minister for Sport, and I know you're a mad football fan. The Socceroos have had another win over Canada, one nil. They go into a game against the US today. Seven games in a row, they're looking pretty good. 

ANNE RUSTON: It's fantastic to see it and as you and I both know we're big fans of the round ball football. And especially coming out of the grand finals that we've seen over the last few weeks, it's great to see our Socceroos doing so well, particularly as we, in the lead up into the World Cup next year and hopefully this is a role they'll continue right the way through and we can be up there cheering for them again like we did four years ago. 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Indeed. Senator, great to talk to you this morning. Thanks for your time. 

ENDS