Government caves to demands, will release more home care packages

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The federal government has caved to political pressure and will support a Coalition amendment to release an additional 20 thousand in-home aged care packages between now and November. The Coalition, Greens and Independents have been lobbying the government to commit to bringing forward the packages for older Australians. Health Minister Mark Butler and Aged Care Minister Sam Rae discuss the new in-home aged care packages at a press conference.

Transcript

00:00I'm pleased to announce that I think we've reached a position where we can support the

00:07position of Senator Rustin in the Senate when it comes to a vote over the course of today,

00:14I think. I don't really speak Senate, but I think the vote will be over the course of

00:19today. We will be supporting the position that Senator Rustin has outlined. That's

00:24something we think is very consistent with the approach we've taken to build a New Age

00:29Care System. That will mean there will be 20,000 additional home care packages released between

00:37now and the end of October, which is the last date before the New Age Care System comes into effect.

00:44From the 1st of November, the start date of the New Age Care System until the 31st of December,

00:50there will be an additional 20,000 support home packages put into the system. And in the first

00:57six months of next year, the remaining 43,000 of Labor's support at home packages will be put

01:05into the market. I think that that reflects an agreed position between the two major parties,

01:11the two parties of government. I hope now that means we can get this legislation through the Senate.

01:17I am very happy that we now have a bipartisan pathway to passing these bills. The bills,

01:23as Minister Butler has outlined, are critical for the commencement of the new Aged Care Act and the

01:30accompanying support at home program. Throughout this reform process, we've taken a principled

01:36approach, a commitment to the bipartisan nature of these reforms. It's how we ensure that they are

01:42enduring and meaningful. And we've taken a pragmatic approach to always making sure that our focus remains

01:48on getting as much care to as many older people as possible.

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