Senate debates home care waitlist

Senators continued discussing the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 yesterday following last week’s Senate inquiry hearing investigating the impact of delaying the start date of the new Support at Home program.

A vote to bring forward the stalled rollout of home care packages through amendments to Labor’s aged care bill is due to take place on Wednesday, which the Labor Party is expected to lose.

The Australian Greens has also indicated it will move in the Senate today to order the government to release any communication between Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing Mark Butler’s office and the Department of Health Disability and Ageing, to determine whether the minister’s office interfered in how the department answered questions at the inquiry on whether it modelled the impact of the closure of the Commonwealth Home Support Program.

Addressing the Senate yesterday, Deputy Opposition Whip Leah Blyth called the delay in home care packages a “national crisis” and called on Minister for Aged Care and Seniors Sam Rae to urgently deliver the promised 83,000 packages and “provide certainty to providers planning for workforce demands.”

She said the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 was proof the government was not ready for the upcoming reforms and confirmed that without the legislation, critical elements of Aged Care Act 2024 could not be enacted – as heard in the Senate inquiry.

Ms Blyth added that the Coalition would not seek to delay the passage of the bill as without it, the Aged Care Rules could not be registered, and the reforms could not proceed.

Also addressing the Senate, Greens Spokesperson for Older People Senator Penny Allman-Payne said she had serious concerns that “we will soon be bearing witness to more mistreatment under a system that prioritises profit over people.”

Senator Allman-Payne, who was the chair of last week’s Senate inquiry hearing, said the aged care royal commission found legislation focused too much on the funding requirements of aged care providers rather than the care needs of older people.

“The royal commission’s final report recommended that a new Aged Care Act be developed to put the rights of older people at the very centre of their care. It is the view of the Greens that the government has chosen to pursue a new Act without due regard for the myriad other aspects of the royal commission report, specifically those that relate to the dangers of financialisation of care and the prioritisation of providers’ interests over those of older people.”

Senator Allman-Payne said the Australian Greens welcomed some aspects of the bill, but she said the Greens were also concerned that other aspects appeared to be designed to optimise the abilities of providers to charge aged care recipients’ fees rather than ensure vulnerable older people were not facing unreasonable costs.

“I am also deeply concerned at the fact that this government has refused to release any further home care packages, despite the overwhelming evidence that this is harming older people. The government’s decision to delay the commencement of the new Support at Home program until 1 November 2025, while also withholding the release of any additional home care packages, is unconscionable,” Senator Allman-Payne said. 

“Under this system, you have to wait for someone else to die or move into residential aged care before you can get support at home. That is unconscionable. The Greens are calling on Labor to urgently release enough home care packages for everyone who needs one, and they could do it this week,” she added.

Senator David Pocock – who put forward a motion in June to release 20,000 home care packages prior to 1 November – was also among those who addressed the Senate, saying that everything the minister said about why the government couldn’t release more packages has been debunked by experts, the sector and department.

Referencing stories shared with him by people in the community about their experience waiting for home care, Senator Pocock said the waitlist numbers “just don’t square” with some of Minister Butler’s talking points about 2,000 packages being released every week.

“Those are recycled packages. Those are people who are either dying or going into aged care,” he said. 

“The talk about ‘everyone who’s a high priority being seen very quickly,’ we know just how hard it is to actually be classified as a high priority when you have people who are a medium priority, and their primary caregiver has cancer themselves.”

He joined Senators from the Coalition, the Greens and crossbench in saying he wouldn’t delay the bill but added the Senate had the right to make amendments and that he would be moving an amendment that would see the release of 20,000 new packages.

“We all know it can be done. The department has said as much, and we know that they can be provided, providers have said that publicly, that they have capacity, and we know that there is need,” he said.

“This is urgent. This is the opportunity for the government to change the lives of 20,000 older Australians, and in most cases, change the lives of their families and so I would urge the government – this is an opportunity to do the right thing. 

“It’s to do the thing that the evidence suggests we need to do leading up to November 1, and to do the thing that is in the best interests of older Australians, and you’ll have an opportunity when myself and other Senators move amendments to this bill.”

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