Albanese government to bring forward home care packages in major backdown
- Written by Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The Albanese government has announced 20,000 home care packages will be brought forward to be delivered before the end of October – immediately after opposing doing so in the Senate.
The Coalition, Greens and crossbenchers passed an amendment to aged care legislation moved by ACT independent David Pocock.
The vote went through without a division, but the government recorded its opposition.
The new Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae, had been under pressure in the House of Representatives this week over the huge waiting lists for packages, a position made worse by the delay of the implementation of the new aged care system from July to November.
According to the latest figures, there are 121,000 people waiting to be assessed, and nearly 109,000 waiting for packages. The government admitted to the latter figure in the Senate on Wednesday.
Minister for Ageing Mark Butler announced soon after the Senate vote that there would be 20,000 home care packages brought forward for release between now and the end of October, after which the new aged care system starts.
Between November 1 and December 31, 20,000 packages would be put into the system, he said. In the first six months of next year, the remaining 43,000 packages would be rolled out.
Butler said this reflected “an agreed position” between the government and the Liberals, “the two parties of government”. He said there would be some additional cost in bringing the rollout forward.
He flagged this cleared the way for the government’s legislation to get through the Senate this week.
The opposition said Rae had repeatedly claimed the figure was “around 87,000 people waiting” at the end of March, rather than providing the updated figure.
Oppositon leader Sussan Ley and aged care spokeswoman Anne Ruston said in a statement, “Labor promised 83,000 new packages from 1 July 2025, but instead decided to withhold support – despite the sector and the Department being ready to deliver them. Because of Labor’s delays not a single new home care package has been released this financial year.
"As a result, the priority waitlist has blown out to more than 108,000, a 400% increase in just two years, whilst wait times have tripled.”
Pocock said: “The government should have never delayed these additional Home Care packages. My amendment to release additional packages got support in the Senate today despite the Aged Care Minister’s opposition.
"Now the Health Minister has stepped in and announced the government will release the 20,000 additional home care packages the crossbench has been calling for since June.
"This is a huge win for community advocacy and will make a huge difference to older Australians but there is still so much more to do.”
The opposition said Rae was excluded from the government-opposition negotiation over the changed arrangements.
Asked at question time why he had not given the updated 109,000 number to the House of Representatives, Rae pointed to a longstainding process of verification.
Authors: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
