A-Z Index | Contact the Department | Search Advanced Search

Home > Ministers > The Hon Nicola Roxon MP - Minister for Health and Ageing > Media Hub > Building an Australian Aged Care System: Commonwealth to Take Complete Responsibility for Aged Care

View by date:

• April
  • January
  • February
  • March
  • April
  • May
  • June
  • July
  • August
  • September
  • October
  • November
  • December

• 2010
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004

Previous Ministers

PDF printable version of Building an Australian Aged Care System: Commonwealth to Take Complete Responsibility for Aged Care (PDF 22 KB)

Joint Release

Prime Minister

Minister for Health

Minister for Ageing

12 April 2010

As part of the Rudd Government’s $739 million investment in aged care to better support older Australians, for the first time the Commonwealth will take full policy and funding responsibility for aged care.

This will allow the Government to build a nationally consistent aged care system allowing people to seamlessly move from basic help at home through to residential care as their care needs change, assisted through improvements to aged care information and assessment services.

Currently, the aged care system is fragmented, with divided responsibilities between Commonwealth and state governments. This makes it difficult for older people and their carers to find and access the care that best suits their needs.

Split roles and responsibilities for aged care have resulted in:

• Overlap between services provided for different programs run by different governments, with different cost structures and eligibility requirements.
• Older Australians, their families and carers finding it hard to access the services they need and often do not know what services are available.

This has led to cost shifting and blame shifting.

The reforms to aged care build on the Government’s commitment to take majority funding responsibility for Australia’s public hospitals and help to address the care needs of Australia’s growing number of elderly are met.

These reforms will help to provide:

• Seamless transition of care for clients allowing people to move from one level of care to another as their needs change
• Simple access to service for clients
• Single level of government with funding and regulatory responsibility for aged care
• Simplified accountability of governments to the community through clearer responsibility for policy and service provision

This includes a transfer of resourcing for aged care services currently provided by the states under the Home and Community Care Program to the Commonwealth, from July 2012. The Government will invest a $34 million for the transition of the Home and Community Care Program.

The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission recommended this reform would enable more simplified and integrated assessment across all forms of aged care and more integrated aged care from low level care at home through to high level nursing home care.

To ensure older Australians are served as best as they can, the Government will improve access to information and assessment for aged care services.

Over four years, the Government will invest $32 million so that older Australians and their families can:

• More easily access information and assessment for aged care services, through establishing one-stop shops across the country.
• Be linked to assessment services, including through the Commonwealth purchasing some more complex aged care assessment services directly from aged care assessment teams.
• Be assisted to access services in the place that best suits them.

These changes are important if the Australian Government is to successfully meet the needs of the growing population of older Australians.

Reform is critical to ensure that over time the aged care system can respond to increasing demand for services and resources to deliver a simple integrated system on which that the community can rely.

To set out the path for further structural reforms, the Government will also provide terms of reference to the Productivity Commission to undertake a major inquiry into the aged care system to ensure that it is equipped to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

The terms of reference will be released at COAG following consultation with the states and territories.

Australia’s aged care system provides targeted, affordable and high quality care.

These measures build on the Government’s existing investments in aged care which have resulted in a nearly 20 per cent increase in funding and the addition of more than 10,000 aged care places.

In building the National Health and Hospitals Network, the Government is determined to get the hospital and aged care systems working together to ensure better health and better care for older Australians.

Press Office (02) 6277 7744
Minister Roxon’s Office (02) 6277 7220
Minister Elliot’s Office (02) 6277 7280