Aged-care royal commission: political cowardice over crucial funding recommendations

The cowardice of major parties is already being exposed by the aged care royal commission. As the first witness hearings began yesterday, we heard again of the 20 reviews and inquiries in the past decade where crucial recommendations about funding were ignored.

Labor tried reform in 2012 following a Productivity Commission inquiry but key recommendations from this review, made again in the Tune Review of aged care handed to the Coalition in 2017, were ignored. They propose tighter means-testing of aged care, such as including more of the value of the family home in care. At the moment the threshold is $167,000 but, as consumer advocate Ian Yates says, this is the vast majority of a home in Tasmania but could be the difference between the bottom and the top of the quote the real estate agent gives you for a home in Sydney’s lower north shore. Make it a fixed proportion of the home’s value to protect the system for those who need it most.

But try selling that to the electorate. This royal commission will restate these recommendations in a way governments will no longer be able to refuse.

Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt is a well-meaning advocate for reform with runs on the board but he and Scott Morrison are quibbling over whether they cut $2bn from aged care in just six months. Labor cut $1.2bn from the same funding instrument, but it was funnelled back into the workforce and Wyatt has been briefed by his own department that the negative consequences under the Coalition were significantly greater.

Wyatt announced $662m for home and residential care at the weekend but it is just a speck compared to funds needed to slash home care waiting times.

These figures are a “down payment” on the numbers likely to be recommended by the royal commission.