A Senate inquiry into the delayed aged care scheme has sounded the alarm on the potentially fatal consequences of what it has labelled a “calculated denial” of services as more than 200,000 elderly Australians remain on waiting lists.
The majority report of the Greens-chaired inquiry, released on Wednesday, said the system should be demand-driven, as recommended by the aged care royal commission, instead of offering elderly Australians a limited number of places.
The new system, which will begin funding its first 20,000 packages this month, provides elderly Australians with in-home care and services, such as cleaning, bathing, feeding, taking medications and transport, as demand for aged care services is expected to surge in the coming decades.
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About 122,000 people are waiting for an assessment, while 109,000 are waiting for a package, the government confirmed in August.
“[The royal commission] explicitly warned against ‘rationing’ care, where only a limited pool of government money is set aside for aged care and once spent, people either miss out or have to wait to get access to care,” the report warned.
“The calculated denial of service through waiting lists, and the rationing of care through the periodic release of packages, leads to significant and life-altering consequences for older Australians. These consequences can be fatal.”
Originally slated to begin in July this year before being delayed to November, demand for the aged-care support program has outstripped the government’s offering.
The federal government said 83,000 home care packages will be released by July 2026 with 40,000 of those to be offered by the end of the year.
The Greens accused the government of creating “deliberate shortages” in its new in-home aged care funding system, and leaving elderly Australians to die on waiting lists.
The ACT independent senator, David Pocock, who pushed the government to bring forward 20,000 places ahead of the program’s official start in November, said the government should move away from “rationing” aged care support, noting the wait lists for the program were “far worse than anyone was expecting”.
“While governments may argue it is about cost, we know that we all pick up the tab when people can’t get the help they need and end up in hospital or family members have to work part-time or even quit their jobs to support their partner or ageing parents,” he said.
The inquiry’s chair, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne, said while the committee – which included three Liberal and two Labor senators – agreed on ending aged care shortages, Labor had “voted to continue deliberately rationing the availability of aged care each year”.
“By mandating shortages of care, Labor will ensure people die on waitlists without the care they need. That should be unthinkable in a country like Australia, let alone deliberate government policy,” she said.
While not offering a specific recommendation, the report noted the inquiry was “gravely concerned” about the introduction of co-payments, which require pensioners, part-pensioners and self-funded retirees to pay between 5% and 50% of a service provider’s fee for “personal care”.
The report said personal care could include showering services, meaning some could pay up to $50 per shower.
The Labor senators on the committee, Dorinda Cox and Michelle Ananda-Rajah, pushed back on this claim in a dissenting report, expressing “regret” the inquiry had re-prosecuted this issue after clarification had been provided.
“The parliament made clear its agreement that implementing a co-contributions model is an important measure in making sure Australia’s aged care system would be rebuilt on a strong foundation,” they said.
“We note that protections have been put in place to ensure that only those who have the financial means to contribute to the cost of their care would be asked to do so.”
The inquiry’s report also recommended the government publish real-time reporting on the waiting periods for assessments and those approved for home care service packages. It urged the sector watchdog, the inspector general of aged care, to consider an urgent review into how elderly Australians are assessed for home care packages.
It also acknowledged evidence given to the committee and said there had been “confusion and desperation” about the delays for some elderly Australians in receiving an assessment or approval for a home care package, with some making “multiple calls” for clarification.
Cox and Ananda-Rajah said they agreed that “no older Australian should have to wait to get the care they need and that any wait time, however long or short, is frustrating”.
But the Labor senators warned that health department evidence had flagged there could be “unintended consequences for older Australians in the quality and continuity of care, and disruptions to market dynamics” if the number of packages increased substantially over a short period of time.
They said they were “disappointed” with the chair’s report and did not accept its recommendations.
