HAMISH MACDONALD, HOST: Well, the aged care system’s new Support at Home program is starting on 1 November. If you were listening yesterday morning, you heard from the Shadow Aged Care Minister, Shadow Health Minister, Anne Ruston, in the federal Parliament who expressed concerns about the latest data which indicates the waiting list for Home Care Packages has in- fact grown.
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ANNE RUSTON, SHADOW AGED CARE MINISTER: Well, over the last just over two years it has grown from 28,000 people waiting on the waitlist for an average of somewhere between one and three months. As we sit here today, Hamish, it is over 120,000 people waiting on average ten months, and some people waiting between 15 and 18 months to get a Home Care Package. So it has been an incredibly serious blowout, not just in waitlist but in wait times.
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MACDONALD: That's the Shadow Aged Care Minister, Anne Ruston. Sam Rae is the Federal Aged Care Minister. He's here this morning. Good morning to you.
SAM RAE, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SENIORS: Good morning, Hamish. Thanks for having me on.
MACDONALD: Can you just address the blowout in wait times that your opposite number is describing there? Do you agree? Do you contest what she's saying?
RAE: I don't contest what she's saying in terms of the concern. I've certainly got my own concerns about these issues. What we know, Hamish, is that demand for aged care services across all of the different types of services has been growing extremely fast. And I have raised this issue repeatedly in the Parliament. In terms of home care specifically, in the last five years, we have doubled the number of people across Australia who are receiving home care. We're now above 300,000. And as you probably know, in this financial year, we're going to be allocating an additional 83,000 Home Care Packages to try and keep up with that demand. And in terms of expenditure from the federal government's perspective we've invested significantly and we continue to do so, but in the last decade, in the last ten years expenditure from the federal government has grown by 800 per cent in this area. So we know that with an ageing population, we have really significant challenges to make sure that every Australian can get the care that they need and deserve.
MACDONALD: Anne Ruston raised questions about how many packages have actually been delivered since July of this year. Are you able to tell us how many have been delivered?
RAE: Yes, Hamish, I am. Can I just say, I think with the greatest of respect to Senator Ruston, whom I do have a deal of professional respect for, I think she has perhaps been a little misleading in the way that she has presented this. When we were passing the latest aged care bills through the Parliament, we worked closely with Senator Ruston. We always wanted the aged care reforms to be bipartisan, and so we have kept her abreast of all of the updates along the way. Since the aged care bills were passed most recently through the Parliament - these are the amendment bills to the Aged Care Act from last year - we have released an additional 16,667 of the fast-tracked Home Care Packages. We said we would release 20,000 ahead of 1 November and we'll well and truly meet that. We'll knock over the 20,000 ahead of 1 November.
But more importantly, we're on track to release the 83,000 additional Home Care Packages before the end of this financial year. Now, does that solve all the problems? No, I don't pretend that it does. But these are the significant lengths that we're going to make sure that every single older Australian gets the care that they deserve.
MACDONALD: Sam Rae is here, the Aged Care Minister. Can you describe for listeners what will change as of 1 November? When we mentioned this story again yesterday, we were just flooded with questions from people asking what this means for them. Either they already have a package, does this change anything, they're in the process of applying, what will it mean? Could you simply describe what will be different as of 1 November?
RAE: Well, to make this a simple description, Hamish, is a very serious challenge indeed because this is a very substantial set of reforms. We have been on a journey since the Royal Commission and since Labor was elected to federal Government to overhaul the aged care system. This is not the beginning of that overhaul and it is not the end, but it is a very substantial milestone. From 1 November, the new Aged Care Act will take effect. It was an act that was passed through in the last term of parliament. It was done with bipartisan support. And as I said earlier, that's very important to this, to ensure that these reforms are enduring and that they are meaningful for older people. In terms of the Act itself and what it means for people's care, I think a couple of things that are worth raising, although they're not exhaustive to the reforms. But the first thing is that we will, for the first time ever in our country, have a charter of rights for older people. And so the care that they are delivered, whether it be in residential care or in-home care, will be done so under a charter of rights. They will have a rights-based approach to the care that is delivered to them. We will increase the amount of care that's going out.
As I've said, we're already increasing our in-home care by about 83,000 packages by the end of this financial year. We're estimating that about one and a half million older Australians will need in-home care in 10 years' time. So there's a growth component built into the support of home changes as well.
MACDONALD: Just on that that point, if you already have a Home Care Package, does anything change? Will you be asked to be co-contributing or does your existing arrangement continue?
RAE: It depends on when you've got your Home Care Package, Hamish. So those people that were either receiving home care or who were in what we call the National Priority System, as in waiting to receive, they've been assessed and were waiting to receive home care by September last year, they have their arrangements grandfathered. In terms of co-contributions, we want our aged care system to be a sustainable aged care system so we are asking people who can afford to make a contribution to do so. But we’ve….
MACDONALD: Just because I'm aware people probably might be listening that have assessed since September of last year. So if you received your package or were approved for it before September last year, nothing changes. But if it was after September last year, you'll be asked to make a co-contribution payment.
RAE: That's broadly right, Hamish, and we've made sure that we've communicated that really clearly. In the last weeks, every single in-home aged care recipient would have received updated information from the government in the form of a physical letter that lays out what their co-contribution obligations would be in terms of the percentages.
For most people, the vast majority of people who are receiving this type of care are full pensioners. And of course, the Government will always cover all of the clinical care costs for everybody. So there's no cost for anyone on clinical care…
MACDONALD: But this has been a point of contention, hasn't it? That pensioners will, though, be asked to make a contribution to services like showering, assisted showering, gardening, other jobs around the home?
RAE: There are some services, and those ones that you've outlined are right. There are three broad packages of services. There's clinical care. The Government covers 100 per cent of the clinical care costs. There's what we call independence care, and I think that's the type that you're referring to there. And those are the types of services- they're things that people would have always done themselves and managed themselves, and showering is an example, but they now need some assistance, semi-regularly or regularly, with it. And so for a full pensioner, depending on when they entered the system, of course, and whether they are grandfathered, but for a full pensioner, a newer full pensioner entering the system, they are asked to make a co-contribution of 5 per cent of the costs of that care in that independence class only.
MACDONALD: 1300-222-702 is the number. Let me know your thoughts about the changes to the aged care system. Sam Rae is the Aged Care Minister. We heard from Margaret yesterday when we were discussing this topic. She called in, she works as a provider in the sector here in Sydney. This is her explanation of how prepared the sector is for the changes that are about to arrive
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CALLER: Look, we are 10 days out and we're sitting in webinars every day getting new information, stuff we haven't heard before. They're changing rules. We haven't heard how we're going to be doing our claiming for our funding. There's nothing concrete coming. I'm really worried it's just going to be a total disaster and the people that are going to pay for it are going to be people who need care.
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MACDONALD: Sam Rae, does it worry you hearing that from the sector?
RAE: I mean you never want to hear a provider indicating that they are lacking preparedness for a change but I respectfully don't agree with Margaret's characterisation there. The Aged Care Act was passed through the Parliament in the last term of Parliament in 2024, and we have worked really closely with the sector and the Transition Taskforce that represent the sector, the workforce, and, of course, older people themselves to ensure that there is really clear information. What the sector have been telling us very clearly is that they are ready to go for 1 November and you and I have discussed on this program previously that in fact, some parts of the sector were pushing for aspects of the reform process to be brought forward, which we have done in terms of fast-tracking the additional home care places. But there is a lot of support from the Government for the sector to get them ready. The rules have been in place for a significant period of time and have undergone a collaborative development with the sector over well over a year, Hamish. So there really isn't an excuse from any provider to not be prepared for 1 November, particularly given that we did defer the Act from 1 June in order to help them get prepared for 1 November.
MACDONALD: Sam Rae, thank you for your time this morning.
RAE: Thank you, Hamish.