MINISTER MUST COME CLEAN ON PLAN TO FIX HOME CARE CRISIS

Last night the Minister for Aged Care admitted the Government had to do more to reduce the number of older Australians waiting for aged care at home but he is yet to reveal one new plan to do so.
 
It’s simply not good enough that while 16,000 older Australians died last year waiting for this care, the Government is delaying further action.
 
“Well, we obviously need to continue to reduce the waiting lists… I think we can activate a lot of money that's locked up within the system that's not being utilised at the moment. I'm looking at that.”
 

 
If the Minister has a plan to reduce waiting times he should reveal it and he should implement it without delay.
 
It is completely unacceptable that in a wealthy country like Australia there are 120,000 older Australian waiting for aged care at home.
           
It is even worse that these older Australians are waiting almost two years to get the care they have been approved for and need urgently.
 
Scott Morrison has called the funding of more home care packages a ‘priority’ but with 120,000 older Australians waiting for this care, why won’t he act now?
 
The distressing number of older Australians waiting for care underscores the failure of Scott Morrison’s response to this ongoing crisis.
 
Labor has been calling for action on reducing the waitlist for years since the first release of data revealed too many older Australians were waiting for care.
 
Scott Morrison and his Government must do better to ensure older Australians get the quality aged care services they deserve now – older Australians and their loved ones can’t afford to wait any longer.