Press Conference, Parliament House 25 November

Read about the Parliamentary passage of the Aged Care Bill; social media age restrictions and gambling ads ban

The Hon Anika Wells MP
Minister for Aged Care
Minister for Sport

Media event date:
Date published:
Media type:
Transcript
Audience:
General public

ANIKA WELLS, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND MINISTER FOR SPORT: The Albanese Government's Aged Care Bill has now passed both houses of Parliament, making the new Aged Care Act a reality and transforming our Aged Care sector into one based around people and their carers. We have now delivered on the number one recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, while directly addressing 57 other Royal Commission recommendations. 

Starting from 1 July 2025, the new act will create a range of improvements, including a tougher regulatory model that will crack down on dodgy providers doing the wrong thing; strengthened aged care quality standards; a new statement of rights; and, a streamlined single assessment system. Under the new act 1.4 million older people will have access to the Support at Home program by 2035 to help them stay in their homes for longer. Support at Home will deliver support for 300,000 more participants in the next 10 years; shorter average wait times from assessment to receive support; more tailored support with eight ongoing classifications all the way up to around $78,000 a year; support for home modifications with up to $15,000 to make homes safer; and, fast access to assisted technology like walkers and wheel chairs, including a new Equipment Loan Scheme. 

The bill passing now means the Albanese Government can deliver 107,000 homecare packages in the next two years, a record number, the largest every homecare package release ever. Support at Home will create 83,000 additional packages in the 2025-2026 year, building on our existing announcement of an additional 24,000 packages in the 24-25 year. The Coalition's best effort was 80,000 packages over two years during the Morrison Government. We are delivering more than 80,000 packages in a single year alone.

Support at home is targeted to bring waitlists down to an average of three months by 2027, to make sure older Australians have flexibility and choice to meet their needs. There will be no caps to gardening and no caps to cleaning. Older Australians and their supporters will have a greater say and a more independent voice about the care and services that they receive. New funding measures will put the entire sector on a more sustainable footing for the long term as we deinstitutionalise the sector through ambition and through innovation. This process has been testament to the Albanese Government's unrelenting commitment to older people and to creating lasting change for them as they contributed to our country all of their lives. 

Since coming to government in May 2022, in addition to developing this new act, we have delivered star ratings to show the quality of aged care services; an extra 3.9 million minutes of care in residential aged care homes every single day; higher standards for people who work in aged care; more nurses in aged care homes; higher wages for aged care workers; improved information, transparency on provider finances and operations; and now we have delivered a new Aged Care Act and a new system of home care. This act means that people will be the beating heart of a strengthened aged care sector that replaces fear with trust. 

Are there any questions? 

JOURNALIST: Minister, I know you are introducing the transition [indistinct] tomorrow, but there are still a lot of providers who are a bit concerned about timelines and cost. Obviously, there are grants of about $10,000 you can get for this transition but, through the Estimates process, we saw some providers quoting figures like $4 million for some of the ICT and so on. Do you accept that this is going to be a challenge, or are you confident 100 per cent of providers are going to be able to do this by the time that you've set in place? 

WELLS: Yes, I've heard those concerns and that's why I've set up the Transition Taskforce off the strength of the Aged Care Taskforce that we used to settle on such huge structural and contentious reforms. So, the Transition Taskforce is going to be chaired by Anne Burgess, who's the Chair of Council of Elders, she's on the National Aged Care Advisory Council. She's independent and the point of the taskforce is to stress test these reforms. So, people, whether you are a multinational provider or you are an independent, volunteer board run cottage nursing home in rural Australia, you can bring your concerns to the transition taskforce and have them stress tested so that everybody who needs a heads up gets that heads up as soon as possible. 

You would have seen we're bringing together all the different Australian Government agencies who have a say in this, and they'll be as part of the taskforce getting this up and trying to work through those problems so that we can be ready for 1 July. And that Transition Taskforce meets on Thursday. 

JOURNALIST: And will that $10,000 grant- do you envisage there being further rounds of that if it's needed? Obviously, the taskforce will stress test this, but as the legislation goes through there might be more need for money, and do you think that's something that you'd be open to? 

WELLS: Look, it's the biggest reform in 30 years to a sector in crisis that we've been trying to bring back from the brink. We want to make it work. Older people are relying on us to make it work. So, we'll be keeping an active watch on this, and that's the whole point of having a taskforce to try and triage these problems as they arise. 

JOURNALIST: And just with the transition to the home care packages, obviously there's so many more levels so, how do you envisage people who are already on or getting into the new system, how is that transition going to work? Because it's going to be quite complicated, obviously. 

WELLS: So, as of the date of our aged care reforms, which was 12 September, everybody who was already on the national priority waitlist, who was already assessed or already on a package, will stay on their existing package. So there, the goalposts won't change for them. The new support at home system will be for the people who are coming into the system after 1 July. So that will be, I guess, where the 83,000 new packages come in. Because we are- you know, I’ll call a spade a spade here, we’re conscious of the waitlist, we’re conscious that there are people waiting on that waitlist. We have in the budget announced 24,100 home care packages. I think we’ll be at 15,500 of those rolled out by the end of this week, they’ll continue to roll out as we move through to 1 July, and then come 1 July, 83,000 new packages. Which is- compared to the biggest release previously, which is 80,000 across two years, to do 83,000 in one year recognises that people have been waiting, and we want to move as quickly as we can.

JOURNALIST: So, sorry, just the ones that are rolling out now, are they going to go on the - like, just the full levels or whatever there are now not sort of - yeah, for the eighth, yeah.

WELLS: Yeah, that's it. Because the ones we're rolling out now are probably people who've already been assessed under the existing rules, the existing package levels. 

JOURNALIST: There seems to be a bit of concern from pensioners about the co-payments expected. So, one person's commented: pensioners will now have to choose between food, rent, electricity, or having a shower, or going shopping. Why have you done this? What is your response to that person? 

WELLS: A couple of things. Firstly, the one of the guiding principles we had all along this very long journey and this grand bargain we've been trying to strike with everyone in the sector, was that you should never have to pay for the cost of your clinical care. So, if you need a nurse, if you need a wound dress, you should never have to worry about where that money is going to come from. The taxpayer will continue to cover the cost of your clinical care. The second thing I'd say is where you are asked to make a co-contribution towards the cost of your care in the new support at home system, the taxpayer will still be kicking in $7.80 for every dollar that you are asked to contribute. And I think that's important, because the third thing that I would say to that pensioner, is that we're conscious that there's 76,000 people on the waitlist waiting for home care packages as we speak. We know that there's not enough beds in residential aged care. If- I am worried, if we had not been able to take this drastic, once in a generation action, there would not have been anyone to care for that person, that pensioner, in their home, and there would not have been a bed waiting for them in a nursing home when the time came.

JOURNALIST: But in a cost of living crisis, is that going to force people to choose between these critical things? 

WELLS: No, because there are still a very strong safety net that we have enshrined in the New Aged Care Act, and there are still very strong provisions for financial hardship. So, we made sure that those still existed so that where people- and again, our guiding principle is people who can afford to contribute more to the cost of their care should. But if you can't afford to contribute more to the cost of your care, we've still got your back, we've got a safety net, and we've got financial hardship provisions. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, you touched on the workforce before. Are you confident that Australia will have enough people to service the home care packages? 

WELLS: Yeah. So, I mean, obviously we're in a global race for workers in the care economy, but we also know that the $15 billion pay rise that we have given to aged care workers has created really sharp improvements in staff retention and recruitment rates. So sharp, if you look at the most recent Estimates hearing that the opposition actually didn't believe how good those numbers were, they asked if the numbers were wrong. That's how good the new numbers are in terms of people coming both to the sector and back to the sector. And to give you a particular example, I met with a provider of rural and remote services. He said that his staff turnover has dropped 40 per cent. And this is in our most tricky markets, like rural and remote. His staff turnover has dropped 40 per cent since the pay rises. So, the pen is never down in social policy, I accept that, but the levers that we have pulled this term are genuinely making a difference.

JOURNALIST: Minister, when the government was elected, the Prime Minister made a point about proper process being a hallmark of the government. Why is the social media age restriction bill, which has bipartisan support, being rushed through in a couple of days? The Senate inquiry today was verging on farcical. People weren't given time to make opening statements, there's not enough time for them to take questions on notice, because the report's coming out tomorrow. No one understands how the bill works. Wouldn't it be better to have a proper process and do this thing right, so parents would have confidence that their children were being looked after online? 

WELLS: This is something that does come up at mobile offices for me when I do them, I just did one most recently in Zillmere, on the north side of Brisbane. People are really worried about this, and I do think people want to see action on this before Christmas. We're about to reach school holidays, schools breaking up for the year. In a way that we never experienced back in our day at school, they are still in touch with their friends and their enemies online outside of school holidays. 

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]… effect in time for the Christmas holidays?

WELLS: I think- no, I said I would like- parents would like to see action before the Christmas holidays. And this is something where, like you say, there is bipartisan support. So, I mean, this whole week is going to be a really tricky mix of moving where we can to try and deliver as much cost of living relief and as much measures that people want to see action on. But, knowing that, there's a huge amount of bills that we've got to try and work through. But isn't aged care a great example of where collaboratively we've created once in a generation reform? 

Yes, go Tom.

JOURNALIST: But aren’t you concerned that it being rushed means it won't be good? It looks like- people can't understand how it works in this- these are experts in the sector. 

WELLS: Well, you're entitled to your opinion, Tom, but that's not necessarily the opinions of everybody. I mean, like I said, I'm getting parents asking me to do something now, and that's what we're trying to do. And the nature of social policy, the pen is never down. You can always come back and improve things. And that's why we've instituted a number of reviews in our Aged Care Act to make sure that all of these things are on track and can be improved as we get feedback from people as it rolls out. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, has Anthony Albanese being too mild in his approach to tackling anti-Semitism? Do you have any concerns that he needs to more strongly condemn anti-Semitism in the community? 

WELLS: Not something that's come up at my mobile offices. And as the Aged Care Minister, I have been 100 per cent focused on a 555-page bill that represents the biggest reforms in a generation that have been much needed in a sector that has been in crisis for a long time, and coming out of the brink. So not-

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]… Jewish constituents talking to at the moment about [Indistinct]…

WELLS: Haven’t had a single incoming on that in my offices. 

Paul.

JOURNALIST: Minister, it's been almost 18 months since Peta Murphy's inquiry recommended that you phase in a total ban on all gambling ads. We're now- the year is completing with no legislation in sight, and if an election is called early next year, it might not be legislated on this side of the election. Was this caving in to lobbying from the sporting codes, or couldn't Labor get this through its own backbench because everyone wants the partial ban toughened up? 

WELLS: I think as both a friend of Peta and the Minister for Sport, I can- you know, I'm in a good position to tell you that this wasn't reform that was ready to go. And I say that as the Sport Minister. I've got concerns about how this is impacting sport integrity and how this is impacting our athletes who are being targeted by people because of this- the development in this space. But also on the same- on the flip side, I've got national sporting organisations and professional codes who are worried about how this will impact the viability of their financial models. So on both sides that I need to look at, I think it needs more nuanced work. And I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Minister Rowland on the 31 recommendations of the Murphy Report.

JOURNALIST: On gambling, though, you say that there's lots of parents that want action now on social media. There’s lots of parents, lots of other members of the Australian community that have been calling for action on gambling for a significant period of time. We're told today it's far too complex to bring forward before the end of the year. Yet social media is complex - no one even knows how it will work. Why is aged care any different? Why shouldn't it be brought forward. Gambling. Sorry, yes.

WELLS: Why is gambling any different? Well, like I said, from my position on the field on this, there is more work for us to do in the sporting integrity space and what protections we're able to take against athletes as they are targeted by the black market and by gambling. By the same token, there is more work to do to provide financial surety and to make sure that we're not breaking business models of both national sporting organisations who rely upon the Australian Government, through the Australian Sports Commission, for their funding and the professional codes that don't. So, as I said, from both sides, more work needs to be done, and I'm glad that we're going to have the opportunity to continue working on it because I think we need to do that one properly. And I know that's what Peta wanted. 

JOURNALIST: Why wasn't it ready to go, though? Why wasn't it ready to go? Why couldn't you just compensate the codes and the broadcasters? 

WELLS: I guess there has been a lot of consultation on this, but it wasn't ready to go. More work needed to be done. We hadn't landed on a model where all different people and all different stakeholders from all different parts of the sporting sphere were able to accept it and able to, I guess, enact it as quickly as I think what you're looking for. 

JOURNALIST: Just on- you know, putting aside this legislation or when it will pass or if it will pass, isn't it concerning if we're in a situation where our sporting codes are so reliant on gambling revenue and gambling ad revenue that it poses an existential threat to them if it's removed?

WELLS: What's the question? 

JOURNALIST: Isn't it worrying [Indistinct]- yeah?

WELLS: Yeah, well, I think hence the report, hence the inquiry. I think this is well identified as an issue that people want action on, but it's also one that has potential to have huge and significant unintended consequences if we don't do it properly. And as the Sports Minister, like I said, I've got arguments on both sides. I'm not confident that either of those had been landed in a way that we were ready to present to the Parliament, which we would then need to negotiate through both the House and the Senate. Because, like you've identified, the crossbench are particularly alive to this one. And I look forward to continuing work on it. You know, there's 31 recommendations for us to continue to work on. I think by the level of incomings that various parliamentarians, you know, questions in Question time, everyone wants to keep working on it. And now we're going to have the opportunity to do that. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, if Parliament doesn't return next year before an election, will Labor actually have a finalised position on this to take to voters, or is it something that you'll say: oh, we'll keep consulting and come back to you? 

WELLS: Well, I guess that would require me knowing the date of the election, and I don't, so I can't give you an answer. 

JOURNALIST: And when do you expect that we will have an answer? Because this is something that the Communications Minister said before the end of this parliamentary term. It's clearly not going to happen. So when can Australians expect…

WELLS: Again, that would rely on me knowing when the parliamentary term is going to end, and I don't. But like I said, we're trying to get as much done in the final sitting week. I'm so proud that we've been able, in the aged care space, to deliver once in a generation reform, that will outlast all of us in the Parliament, probably with the notable exception of Bob Katter, who celebrates his 50th anniversary in the Parliament today. Happy anniversary, Bob. But this is first out of the blocks in the final sitting week of the year, possibly the most significant reform I know I'll ever get to work on. And I think something that all parties who work together collaboratively on structural complex reform should be really proud of. Strong way to start the week. 

 

Tags: 

Help us improve health.gov.au

If you would like a response please use the enquiries form instead.