Thank you, PM. Thank you, Treasurer. Thank you to the Health Minister, Aged Care Taskforce members and the shadow Health Minister, Senator Ruston, for her bipartisan support.
Today is a historic moment for aged care, for older Australians and those of us who love them.
Just over a year ago, I went to the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Press Club to map out the stark cliff facing aged care if we did not take drastic action.
And I said, I don’t want Australians to be scared about the care that they will be provided later in life.
To accomplish that, we had to answer the question Royal Commissioners could not agree upon: how to make aged care equitable and sustainable?
Today, we answer that question. Today we announce a needs-based arrangement that makes financial sense, a system that helps more homes, have more services for older Australians.
Our reforms will create better and safer care, help reduce the fear of a system neglected for far too long.
I’ve always been ambitious for aged care and today, with the support of so many, we amplify our ambition with these measures representing the greatest reforms to aged care in 30 years.
We will introduce a new Aged Care Act to parliament today.
This reform is a $5.6 billion package, including $4.3 billion in a new system of home care called Support at ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾.
This new home care program will come into effect from the 1 July 2025 and will reduce wait times for in home care, with a target of three months by July 2027.
Several principles underpin these reforms. Australians will get the support they need and make a reasonable contribution according to their means, as the task force recommended.
A no worse off principle will provide certainty to people already in aged care, and they won’t make a greater contribution to their care.
The government will pay one hundred percent of clinical care costs, with individuals contributing to the kinds of costs they would typically pay throughout their lives.
The government will continue to pay the majority of aged care costs. Without structural change, we will not be able to sustain the level of care older Australians deserve. It is that simple.
The government has already made significant investments to improve aged care, $11.3 billion to lift the award wage for workers by fifteen percent, 24/7 nursing legislation that sees registered nurses on site 99% of the time and care minutes increasing to an extra 3.9 million extra minutes of care every single day for residents.
These reforms are the next step in lifting the quality of aged care. Many things will change, but some important things won’t.
The family home won’t be treated any different than it is now.
There will not be a levy. Government investment in aged care will rise year on year.
So, what will change?
Australians will have an entirely new way to receive care – support at home.
Some of the benefits of the $4.3 billion Support at ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ package include 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 almost $78,000 a year. Support for home modifications with up to $15,000 to make your home safer, and faster access to assistive technology like walkers or wheelchairs.
On 1 July 2025, everyone with a home care package or on the national priority system will move to the new Support at ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ program, maintaining their level of funding and retaining any unspent funds.
The no worse off principle will ensure everyone with a home care package on the national priority system, or assessed as eligible for a package as of today, will make the same contributions or lower as they would have under home care arrangements.
By 2050, the residential aged care sector will need $56 billion in capital funding to upgrade existing aged care rooms and build new rooms for growing numbers of older Australians.
Providers have repeatedly told us they have new facilities, they have new wings, they have renovations costed and ready to be built once they have sustainable funding.
So, we are implementing a series of changes.
As recommended by the Aged Care Taskforce, these measures include new means tested contributions for new entrants, a higher maximum route price indexed over time and the retention of a small portion of refundable accommodation deposits by providers.
From 1 July 2025 providers will retain 2% of each new refundable accommodation deposit each year for up to five years. The government will review the accommodation supplement settings over the next two years and consider phasing out RADS from 2035, subject to an independent review. There will be no change to the contributions or RADS for those already in residential aged care before the 1 July 2025.
Our generational reforms are a major element of the new Aged Care act that will modernise a byzantine system to be future facing.
The 1997 Aged Care Act was put in place with the primary focus of how to fund aged care providers. But our new Act was going to put the people at the heart of care.
The Aged Care bill implements a number of election commitments, such as mandatory aged care, food standards, statutory duty of care for registered providers of aged care workers, screening and stronger investigative powers for the regulator.
When we came to government, the PM wanted to put the care back into aged care, and so he appointed a former aged care worker to be the Minister. And it was 20 years ago now, but I still remember Peg and Dorothy and the people on my tea trolley rounds. I remember how it made their day if I had their preferred afternoon tea. I remember the effect that it had on them if a loved one cancelled a scheduled visit.
And I wish I could have told them that everything they said to that teenager in a dish cap would one day contribute to generational care reforms for their children and their children’s children. Because it is a real privilege to work in aged care, it is some of the most meaningful work you could ever hope to do and it’s been an honour to return to this sector and to have this opportunity as a Minister to bring it out of the shadows and into the light, and to prepare it for a future that all older Australians can rely on without any more fear.
