Labor accused of trying to hide blow out in home care wait times

Labor have been accused of trying to hide blowouts in wait times for aged care services but releasing a report while journalists were in the Federal Budget lockup.

The figures — which show that Australians wait a year on average for home care packages — had to be published for the first time on Tuesday after the reporting was made mandatory in the new Aged Care Act.

Under the changes, the government was required to published the data as soon as practicable after April 28.

Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston, independent senator David Pocock, and The Greens have questioned the timing of the report’s release while journalists were distracted and without internet connection in Budget lock up.

Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne said the Royal Comission was clear that everyone should “get aged care at the time that they need it” and that “the most they should wait is a month”.

“Under the cover of the budget lock up, they have quietly released their numbers, and we now know that aged care wait times have blown out to an average of a year,” she said.

“There are now over 200,000 people on the aged care wait list, and in the budget, there’s not a single extra Home Care place. This is appalling.”

In the report, WA’s median elapsed times for non‑specialist services were around nine to ten months which was lower than several other jurisdictions.

The State’s average number of days between application and commencement of services was 331 days.

The figures were close to the national median of 294 days and slightly better than the national average 360 days.

Victoria recorded the shortest median time at 273 days, while Queensland had the longest at 322 days.

The report also showed that where you lived in WA matters, with a person in the Wheatbelt and Pilbara likely to start services sooner than someone in the Great Southern and South West.

The longest wait is 386 average days in the Kimberley, followed by 364 days in the South West and then 358 days in the Great Southern. It compares to 258 days in the Wheatbelt and 285 days in the Pilbara.

“Anthony Albanese promised that no older Australian would be worse off — yet hundreds of thousands of older Australians remain trapped waiting for home care with no hope in sight,” Senator Ruston said on Thursday.

The Prime Minister, however, defended the timing of the report’s release and insisted his government was providing additional funding for aged care.

“The state of aged care isn’t good enough. That’s why we’re throwing everything at it,” he said.

“We have billions of dollars of additional funding in the Budget — both for home care but also for aged care residents.

“We inherited a system that was defined by one word in the interim report of the Royal Commission and that one word was ‘neglect’.

“We know that there’s more work to do. My Government is improving it and will continue to do so.”

The data in the report relates to access to ongoing care in a residential aged care home or support at home for the period between November and March.

Senator Ruston also accused the Government of releasing a Budget which makes it clear Anthony Albanese was making older Australians pay for Labor’s budget mess.

Senator Allman-Payne said accused Labor of presenting a budget which was “looking after the big end of town” rather than Australia’s most vulnerable.

“This government, like the Coalition before it, is continuing the rationing of aged care. This is unacceptable for older people. This is unacceptable for the people who care for them, and it is unacceptable for our hospital system and our communities,” she said.