In a further twist for Australia’s aged care sector, Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, has said the rollout of 83,000 new Home Care Packages – originally scheduled to commence on 1 July 2025 – will now be delayed until 1 November 2025.
The delay aligns with the newly announced postponement of the Aged Care Act and the Support at Home program, which were also pushed back four months to give providers and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing more time to prepare, as reported by The Weekly SOURCE on Wednesday (4 June).
However, what the Ministers failed to mention in their joint press conference and accompanying media release was that this delay would also affect the promised 83,000 Home Care Packages due to be released in 2025-26 – touted as the largest single-year increase in the program’s history.
A spokesperson from the Department confirmed to The Weekly SOURCE that “the planned growth in in-home aged care package availability” has been shifted to begin on 1 November instead of July.
As of 31 January 2025, 81,000 older Australians were still waiting to be assigned a Home Care Package. According to reliable sources, that number has now climbed to nearly 90,000.
Minister Butler faced pointed questioning from ABC Melbourne Radio host Ali Moore on Thursday afternoon (5 June) about the decision to delay the additional Packages despite the growing waitlist.
“We are having to add numbers every single budget,” Butler said in response.
“We’ve done it in December; they’re still rolling out those additional Packages. We’re still right now, as I speak, adding new Packages to the system from a decision we took five or six months ago in the mid-year budget review, and we’ll start doing that in the second half of this year again.”
Despite those assurances, the delay is likely to be a significant blow not only to the thousands of older Australians and their families still waiting for critical in-home care and support, but also to home care providers who had invested in expanding their workforce and systems in anticipation of the 1 July rollout.
