‘Failure’: Liberal senator Anne Ruston grills health department officials on aged-care crisis
A Greens senator has accused the health department of a “failure of policy” after states and territories flagged concerns of a devastating aged-care crisis.
The health department’s failure to take responsibility for Australia’s escalating aged-care support crisis is a “failure of federal policy”, a Liberal senator claims.
Speaking at budget estimates, Senator Anne Ruston grilled department officials over a national bottleneck that has left vulnerable Australians in public hospitals, after states and territories suggested it was due to chronic underfunding of aged care services.
Senator Ruston probed whether the department could verify figures provided by the states and territories, or provide a quantum of people on the National Priority System, that were occupying beds in hospitals around the country.
“We wouldn’t endorse that. We would say we have to establish that definition.
“I’m sure that is the data reported to (the Duckett) report by the states and territories, but we don’t have a common definition, and we don’t have a way of verifying it.”
Senator Ruston described the response as seeming “rather like head in the sand”.
She questioned the department’s position on “tracking people who have come under the care, in the sense, of the Commonwealth, after having been assessed or referred for assessment for aged care support”.
“You have no clear definition of who’s responsible,” she said.
“So this seems to me like a failure of federal policy and failure of the department to actually be on top of an issue that has been publicly described for quite some time.”
Health Department Secretary Blair Comley disagreed with Senator Ruston’s characterisation, saying the department had been working “very intensively” with the states and territories.
“I just don’t accept the characterisation that we’re not taking this seriously in engaging seriously with states and territories,” he said.
“I also just want to add that the characterisation that is made, that it is it is solely a result of Commonwealth policy, that this occurs, I don’t think is correct.”
‘Homeless’: Aged care crisis blasted
Earlier, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne referenced comments made by ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith and South Australia Health Minister Chris Picton, who previously described the situation as “urgent” and a “national tragedy”, respectively.
Quoting Mr Picton, Senator Allman-Payne described the people enduring these conditions as “effectively homeless’ and questioned the Health Minister’s response to his state colleague’s concerns.
“I would say that irrespective of the political persuasion of any state or territory government, our government is deeply invested in the health of all Australians,” Malarndirri McCarthy, representing the Health Minister, said.
“And I know that Minister Mark Butler is working through the negotiations with the department in regards to each state and territory.”
Earlier, Senator Allman-Payne asked whether the department would accept whether there was a high number of people who weren’t sick, but were continually hospitalised because they couldn’t get a bed in residential aged care, or support at home.
“We would accept that there are people, at the moment across Australia, older people, who are waiting for a placement in a residential aged care facility,” department official said.
“I wouldn’t accept that as a broad proposition, as much as I would with the residential aged care, because if they are assessed as a as needing urgent and priority care, that happens in a relatively shorter period of time.”
93 per cent of home packages below full value
Since November, almost every Support at Home package released by the government was funded at 60 per cent of its total value, a department official revealed.
93 per cent of the released packages were classified as “interim”, with individuals on this type of package staying on for anywhere from three to 17 weeks, he said.
The health minister was responsible for deciding who would get an interim package, the official added, which was done in consultation with the finance minister, not the department.
Senator Ruston then asked: “So when the Senate made the determination that 83,000 packages were to be released in the 2025-26 year, and that was voted on in the parliament, do you think that the average Australian would have thought that they were only going to be released at 60 per cent of their full value?”
In response, Senator McCarthy said the department was complying with the Aged Care Act, including the commitment for thousands of additional packages.
‘Disrespectful’: Department lashed
Ms Ruston has repeatedly rebuked health officials for the way they have provided information during the hearing, which she says leaves the committee unable to effectively prosecute the department.
Earlier, the health portfolio grilling kicked off with a tense standoff after department officials said a “short window between the last and this hearing” and a “large volume of questions” meant Senator Ruston’s 28 questions on notice remained unanswered.
“Well, we might take this to the floor of the Senate, because I think withholding information that’s been requested by legitimate members of this committee … I don’t think is good enough, but obviously is the case today,” she said.
Later, Senator Ruston requested a tabling of documents related to federal supported home packages, which was delayed by the fact that there were no printed copies available.
“Can I just put on the record? I find this manifestly unhelpful … This is very serious information,” she said.
“It goes potentially to broken promises by the government in terms of commitments, and you do not have that information in the format that would allow me to interrogate it.
“So I find that quite disrespectful to this committee.”
Originally published as ‘Failure’: Liberal senator Anne Ruston grills health department officials on aged-care crisis
