Transcript: Interview with Stephen Cenatiempo, 2CC - 2 September 2025

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC

2 September 2025

Topics:  Skyrocketing home care wait list, Labor’s refusal to release new home care packages

E&OE…………………………………

Stephen Cenatiempo: 5,000 people died in the past year waiting for an aged care package. The number of people still waiting to receive care, nearly 90,000 as of March. I just find this extraordinary. To talk to us about this, we're joined by the Shadow Minister of Health and Aged Care, Anne Ruston. Anne, good morning. 

Anne Ruston: Good morning, Stephen. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: The Government talked a big game about getting these waiting lists down, but I mean these are just extraordinary numbers. 

Anne Ruston: Well, they are quite extraordinary if you add to the fact that on Friday at a hearing, we actually found out that in addition to those nearly 90,000 [people] you referred to, there's another 120,000 older Australians who are actually waiting in limbo just to get an assessment to go onto the waiting list to be able to get a package. So that's over 200,000 Australians who currently waiting for support in their homes, the care that they need. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: I almost get the 120,000 because assessing these packages, obviously - Well, we've got 41,000 extra public servants so one would wonder what they're doing, but once they've been approved - I mean, the Government suggests that it's allocated all of this money for in-home care packages. Why is it taking so long for them to actually be dished out, for lack of a better way of putting it? 

Anne Ruston: Well, that's exactly the question that we've been asking, because those 87 plus thousand Australians who were on the wait list back in March - And we believe it's probably much, much higher now, because they haven't released any new packages for, well, certainly in the last few months, they absolutely haven't - These people have been assessed by the Government as needing a level of care to be able to stay in their own homes, and the Government is actually choosing not to give them that care.

This is not a problem that the sector doesn't have capacity, this is not a problem that, you know, the Government departments don't have the ability to actually manage and put these packages into the field. It is simply that the Government is choosing not to release the packages, and I don't know anybody in this country that could explain why the Government would be withholding care to older Australians. And as you point out, some of them are actually dying waiting for that care. I mean it's just - [Interrupted]. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: 5,000 in the last year. 

Anne Ruston: Absolutely. And so, you know, we heard some incredibly harrowing stories at the hearing last Friday. I've had literally thousands of people have written to me telling me their stories of waiting. And, you know, it's not only that there's so many people on the wait list and the wait lists have blown out in the last two years by, you know, it's tripled, we've also seen a tripling of the length of time that people are waiting. So it's sort of a double whammy. And when you're a 97-year-old and you're told you've got to wait for a year for your home care package. I mean, when you're 97, you may not have the time to wait for a home care package. It's just, it is so, so distressing, Stephen. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: So Anne, what remedies do you have here? Because I know you've got the support of the Greens and some of the independents as well. What pressure can you put on the Government to actually make some moves here? 

Anne Ruston: Well, hopefully with the support of the Greens and certainly with support of David Pocock and possibly other independents in the Senate, we're going to move amendments this week to the aged care legislation to say that the Government must release at least 40,000 packages between now and Christmas, some of those we want released immediately, and we want the Government to commit to the timeline of delivering all of the 83,000 packages they promised in the election campaign. They went to the election telling older Australians, 'we're going to provide 83,000 packages in 2025-26.' Not one of those packages has been released. We believe that there's no, the Government appears to have no intention of delivering any of them for at least another two months. So, we're saying to the Government, if you want this legislation passed, you are going to have to release these packages to older Australians and make sure that the sector has the time to gear up to deliver them. Because, right now, the Government keeps blaming the sector for not being ready, but we know it's actually the Government that's withholding these packages. The sector is ready. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: So, this is money that has been allocated in the Budget, so it's not like they're trying to improve the budget bottom line by any stretch of the imagination. 

Anne Ruston: Well, I mean, it just beggars belief, to be honest. I mean, they made a big deal in the election campaign. They put the money into the Budget and they have spent not one cent of the money that's been allocated to these packages as yet. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: But even if all of the money is spent, there's still gonna be people in limbo, because you're saying 83,000 packages, there are 90,000 people on the waiting list and 120,000 waiting to get onto the list, so the maths doesn't add up anyway. 

Anne Ruston: Well, certainly, you know, we would like to see a situation where nobody was waiting for a package. I mean, that is the most sensible way that we should all be striving to achieve that. And certainly, the Coalition absolutely supports a situation where somebody who's assessed as needing care receives that care as soon as they've been assessed. But 83,000 packages, when they were announced, would have gone a very long way.

But one of the big problems we've got is that people are assessed and then they wait for 15 months. Very often, somebody's situation, circumstances and care needs will have changed dramatically over that period of time. So, unless you can actually allocate the package to somebody when they're assessed as the care that they need, often the package is no longer relevant or sufficient to be able to look after that person.

So, 83,000 packages will go a long way to having a significant impact. But you're quite right, more needs to be done and the Government needs to explain to older Australians and their families why they are withholding the care that they have said these people need. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: Absolutely extraordinary, and thanks for your time this morning. 

Anne Ruston: My pleasure. Thanks, Stephen. 

Stephen Cenatiempo: Senator Anne Ruston, the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care. 

ENDS