TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC BREAKFAST
31 March 2026
Topics: Labor’s failed rollout of the new Support at Home program, new drivers licence requirements for older Australians
E&OE…………………………………
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Yesterday, we spoke about the campaign that News Corp are running called Care Repair. It's an investigation into the, well, some of the rorts that are going on in our aged care system. We talked about, you know, there was one provider that was charging $118 for seven smoothies that retail for 20 bucks. 100 federal politicians have now united to form an unprecedented alliance to fight this shambolic aged care reform that came into effect on the 1st of November. Senator Anne Ruston is the Shadow Minister of Health and Aged Care and was at the forefront of those 100 federal pollies and joins us now. Senator, good morning.
ANNE RUSTON: Good morning, Stephen.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Is some of these – you know, we talk about rorts in the NDIS, the aged care sector seems to be worse.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, look, certainly it's very concerning to see, and the example that you just gave I think would probably set everybody's mind running as to what's going on here, that something worth $20 has been charged out at $118. But I think the thing that really is annoying all of us here in Canberra is that the changes to the aged care system that the Government has put in place, they're requiring the most enormous amount of compliance activity and red tape. And so we're seeing, you know, when you compare two different programs, the cost of delivering the new program is in many instances 50%, 60% higher than the delivery of the previous program. No change in the services that are being delivered, exactly the same people delivering the services, but all this additional red tape and compliance is just adding all these costs. Not one spot of extra care for this extra money, no older Australians getting any extra care for this, it's just all this churn of red tape and compliance, and it really is ridiculous.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: So, one has to ask, what was the point of the Royal Commission into the aged care system, given that we're now years down the track and we're starting to see a system that seems to be more shambolic than it was beforehand, particularly with the rollout of these in-home care packages, which are way behind, the backlogs are huge, and now we're having older Australians having to decide whether they can get somebody in to give them an assisted shower or they eat.
ANNE RUSTON: Yeah, well, look, I think we were going a long way to actually addressing a lot of the recommendations of the Royal Commission and for some reason this government has just completely dropped the ball on this. We'd got wait times down to three months, we'd got wait lists down to 28,000 – still not good enough, but certainly on a trajectory in the right direction. We've seen that blow out to 131,000 people waiting more than 10 months for care. When they get that care, they're being offered packages at 60% of what they've been assessed as needing. I don't know what the Government is doing here, but it looks very much like they've got more of an eye on their budget bottom line than they are on delivering care for older Australians. And quite frankly, I think it's a false economy because if older Australians get the care that they need when they need it, their condition doesn't deteriorate, and when it does deteriorate which it's doing now, the care that they need is much more expensive. They're ending up in nursing homes, they're ending in our hospitals. I mean, this government really has got some big questions to answer in how they're handling this.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: So yesterday, we saw a fairly significant gathering to address these issues and yourself was one of the 100, or more than 100, federal politicians that signed this petition. That's a significant weight in the Parliament. What are you hoping that's going to achieve?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, first of all, we have been incredibly disappointed at the dismissive response we've received from the Minister. We have written to the Senior Minister Mark Butler, but we've also put in requests to the Junior Minister, Minister Rae. Minister Rae basically told older Australians who were having concerns about their access to care to complain to the regulator, like he has no accountability for what's going on. These are the reforms that he was charged with implementing and he's just saying, you know, don't talk to me, talk to the regulator. And we think that is incredibly dismissive and disrespectful to older Australians. So, we're calling on the Government to actually have a look at all of the concerns that are being expressed by older Australians, advocacy groups, the providers – and we are trying to support them in those concerns - and do something about it.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Is the problem here that the bureaucrats are running the show and not the relevant ministers? Because I'm hearing stories like this right across the economy that relevant ministers are saying, well, it's not my responsibility, talk to the bureaucrats.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, exactly, and we're seeing this across the board that whenever there's a problem, whenever there is a crisis, the first thing this government does is try and look for somebody to blame. And in this instance, Minister Rae is trying to put the blame or move the responsibility to the regulator so the blame is not focused on him, it's focused on somebody else. We saw exactly the same thing with the Prime Minister with this fuel crisis. He appoints a fuel tsar or coordinator or whatever he's calling it so that he can say speak to the fuel coordinator, don't talk to me. This is his fundamental responsibility, just like it's Minister Rae's responsibility. You cannot pass it off to the bureaucrat. As the Minister, you are ultimately responsible and they need to take responsibility.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Leadership seems to have taken on a whole new definition, unfortunately, but I want to touch on one other thing before I let you go. Today, we're seeing new driving regulations for senior citizens taking effect across the country. Now, this is supposed to be a harmonisation across states and territories, but reading between the lines, there's still a lot of variation here.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, look, certainly we'd like to see, obviously, consistency across the nation. I mean, because if you live in Albury and you live in Wodonga, you'd like to think you had the same rules apply to you. But one of the things that we are absolutely keeping an eye on is to make sure that older Australians who are perfectly capable of driving - and just because you become a certain age doesn't mean to say that you're not capable of driving a vehicle - to make sure that they are not affected adversely, because we know that your driver's licence when you're older, particularly in a rural and regional area, is your ticket to independence. So, we'll be keeping a very close eye on this.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Anne, I really appreciate your time. We'll catch up again soon.
ANNE RUSTON: My pleasure, thanks Stephen.
ENDS
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