Australia’s outgoing aged care watchdog has warned the rollout of Labor’s new system is harming older people and deterring them from getting care at home. Source: The Age.
In a pointed intervention before leaving her role next month, aged care inspector-general Natalie Siegel-Brown used a speech to argue that user co-payments, long wait times and system complexity for home care packages were undermining the Albanese government’s reforms.
She called for a rethink of the new user co-payment model in home care – which charges users for services such as cleaning, gardening and social activities – and argued the government’s emphasis on building more aged care beds was misguided.
“I see us keep trying to build our way out of a problem we are designing our way into,” Ms Siegel-Brown told the National Press Club yesterday.
In her opening remarks, Ms Siegel-Brown said Labor should be commended for introducing a new Aged Care Act built on the powerful idea that every older person is entitled “not just to care, but to dignity, respect, connection, individuality and cultural safety”.
“But a promise on paper is not the same as a promise realised,” she said. “And this is what I want to share with you today: As Inspector-General of Aged Care, I cannot see how our system is geared to deliver that promise.
“In some cases, I would go further: the way aged care reform is being implemented is causing harm. And that doesn’t just cost people their rights, it costs the taxpayer as well.”
Labor’s new aged care system came into force last October, acting on many of the recommendations of the 2021 royal commission. Funding was overhauled to make wealthier Australians pay co-contributions for their care to meet the growing budget pressures of an ageing population.
“At the heart of the aged care reforms is a very defensible idea: Those who can afford to contribute should, to ease the burden on those who cannot,” Ms Siegel-Brown said. “But that is not the system we have built.”
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae defended the government’s handling of the $47 billion sector, saying it had given more access than ever to in-home care, tripling the number of older Australians with a package since 2020, and putting people’s rights at the centre of a system that had been neglected.
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Labor’s reforms harm the people they’re supposed to help: aged care watchdog (By Natassia Chrysanthos, The Age)
