Aged Care Minister Sam Rae claims yesterday’s sudden change to the government’s timeline for rolling out more home care packages to keep elderly Australians in their homes was not the result of this week’s political pressure.

After the crossbench, Greens and coalition teamed up in the Senate yesterday, the government announced it would immediately fund 20,000 more home care packages – rather than wait until broader reforms were introduced in November.

The minister’s been grilled on RN this morning, but insists yesterday’s deal is the result of weeks of negotiation in a long-running aim to make reforms to the sector bipartisan – rather than a cave-in.

These decisions are decisions of government, and so the Senate certainly had a position which they could and, as I said, over the last weeks, we’ve been engaging in ongoing discussions, because bipartisanship is the most important way that we can ensure that these reforms are enduring and meaningful.

So why did it take so long?

We needed to reach a bipartisan agreement about how this was going to be done. That was a key principle that we have pursued all the way through. As of yesterday, we have reached a bipartisan agreement about how that that roll-out occurs.