Rebekha Sharkie asks Sam Rae:

85,000 older Australians were assessed and waiting for home care. Today, the figure is estimated to be over 100,000. Older Australians are dying while waiting for aged care. What justification does the government have for delaying the promised home care packages from July to November this I give the call to the year?

Rae:

I thank the member for her question. I acknowledge her legitimate interests and commitment to ensuring that all older people across her community can access safe, dignified and high quality aged care. In the last term of Parliament, my predecessor, the now Minister for Communications, worked across the Parliament to pass the new aged care act.

With bipartisan support from the opposition and constructive contributions from the crossbench. We’re prepping to implement that new act on 1 November, along with the supportive home program, the updated program replacing the current Home Care Packages Program. These are once in a generation reforms.

And they will deliver world class aged care services to the older people who work so hard to build our country and to whom we owe the very best care. Support at home will deliver a system that helps older people to stay at home for longer, by making a higher level of care available in the home. This is an entirely reformed program, it’s not an extension of the current program, it is an adapted model of care in the home. As our population ages, we have seen demand for in-home care grow very, very fast.

There are now more than 300,000 people accessing home care packages today, compared to just 150,000 people back in 2020. Mr Speaker, as I said before, we’re currently delivering more care to more people than ever before.

When support at home starts on 1 November, we’ll roll out an additional 80,000 home care places in the first 12 months. Until then, my number one priority is ensuring that older people continue to have receive care and services, and until November, we’ll continue to assign packages every single week. The average since September last year is – the weekly average is 2700 packages a week.

I can assure the member people who are assessed as high priority will continue to receive their packages within a month. Mr Speaker, the brief deferral of the commencement of the new aged care act is to ensure that programs like support at home are ready for older Australians and their families. The Labor government continues to deliver more care for more Australians, and we have given aged care providers more time to prepare their clients, support their workers and get their systems ready for these historic changes.