Elderly ‘dying while waiting for home care’, Labor warned

Labor’s $4.3bn aged-care reforms ‘will be set up to fail’ without ­immediate intervention to ­address the surging number of people waiting for a home-care package.

ACT independent senator David Pocock. above, is planning to move a motion when parliament returns this month to demand the government release the latest figures on home-care waiting. Picture: Martin Ollman

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Labor’s $4.3bn aged-care national reforms “will be set up to fail” without ­immediate intervention to ­address the surging number of people waiting for a home-care package, with the waitlist widely suspected to have now ­exceeded 100,000.

But despite calls from within its own aged-care transition taskforce and members of the crossbench to urgently release 20,000 additional aged-care packages as a way to reduce the waitlist, the government has stood firm on its plan not to begin the roll out of extra packages until November.

Anglicare Australia, a member of the taskforce advising the government on the transition to the new “support at home” system, said it was “deeply concerned” about waitlist and the failure of the government to act.

Maiy Azize, above, says ‘people are waiting up to 15 months from the time they first register for aged care’. Picture: supplied

“Our Life on the Waitlist report shows that people are waiting up to 15 months from the time they first register for aged care,” acting executive director Maiy Azize said.

“That’s not just a number. It’s time that many older people simply don’t have. While we welcome the government’s long-term ­reforms, we need urgent action to ensure that older people are not left in limbo.”

Ms Azize warned that some people were “dying while waiting for care they’ve already been ­approved for”. “There is a real risk that we are heading down the same path as we did under the previous government,” she said.

“These delays have a real human cost. That’s why we’re urging the government to release enough packages to ensure that no older Australian is left waiting.”

She said the government ­needed to start fixing the issues facing the sector by being more transparent, referring to the ­absence of any updated data on the waitlist for 2025.

As at December, 83,000 people were waiting on a home-care package, with sources in the sector confirming they expected that number to have exceeded 100,000, in levels not seen since the Morrison government.

Out of frustration over the ­absence of data and transparency over the current waitlist, ACT independent senator David Pocock is planning to move a motion when parliament returns this month to demand the government release the latest figures.

It follows Senator Pocock and nine other crossbenchers writing to the government last month calling for it to heed demands for 20,000 packages to be released immediately. However, Labor has not acted on those calls, with one of the signatories – Helen Haines – describing the government’s ­behaviour as “disappointing”.

“It is deeply disappointing that the government has failed to act on the clear and reasonable request – backed by peak advocacy groups – for an additional 20,000 additional home-care packages to bridge the gap,” she said.

“While the sector has accepted that delaying aged-care reforms until November is a frustrating but necessary step, we risk making a bad situation worse if the waitlist blows out to 100,000 people.”

Labor was initially due to begin rolling out 80,000 more packages as of July 1, in time for the worst of the winter season that sees so many elderly Australians hospitalised due to illness.

However, under pressure from the sector over the rushed nature of its reform package, Labor delayed the start of all of its promised policies, including the release of additional packages, until November.

OPAN chief executive Craig Gear said the sector welcomed the delay more broadly, but urged the government to recognise the need for additional packages to be ­released. “The release of 20,000 is not the panacea, but at least it would be an interim approach to maintain the waiting list and not let it increase,” he said.

“This will make that… goal to have waiting times down to three months by 2027, harder to reach.”

Catholic Health Australia, another member of the taskforce, said “as many home-care packages as possible should be made available to meet demand from older Australians”