News Corp follows The SOURCE on aged care reform issues

The global media giant has published several articles across its mastheads this week on issues that will seem familiar to our readers.

The issues on the refroms to aged care being raised have been reported regularly by The Weekly SOURCE for several months.

• HELF: the aged care fee was always going to explode
• The three problems with aged care reform
• “No shower for three months”: Morrie, 79, and Letitia, 89, on the long wait for home care
• StewartBrown warns Govt on home care price caps
• States cry poor as over 3,100 people wait in hospital for aged care

The News Corp campaign ‘Care Repair’ features stories of consumers cutting back on essential services such as meals and showers after being slugged with higher fees under Support at Home, and high rates of concern amongst older Australians about being able to afford care as they grow older.

“We want prices to be reasonable so that basic care, which every Australian deserves is not a luxury,” says their website.

“We don’t want our grandparents, mothers and fathers, aunties and uncles – who fought in wars, built our cities, worked hard and paid taxes their whole lives – to suffer in their twilight years. This is where we start the conversation to make their lives better.”

Higher fees are an essential component of the recent aged care reforms, as a way to help the Government manage escalating costs from the demand boost driven by ageing Baby Boomers. But the transition to the new system has been painful.

The coverage follows The Weekly SOURCE's reporting on the Government’s Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), an algorithm-based tool that standardises how Government-subsidised care is allocated.

Controversially, from 1 November 2025, manual override for Support at Home decisions was removed and the IAT has reportedly been generating lower-than-expected outcomes. As with the News Corp reporting, the The Weeekly SOURCE has repeatedly highlighted consumers are being held back from accessing care.

This week’s News Corp campaign is not the first time the media giant has picked up on aged care. Last November, they launched the ‘Sick of Waiting’ campaign highlighting the thousands of patients stranded in state-run hospital waiting for aged care and NDIS support. The campaign coincided with the Premiers’ health funding agreement negotiations over Federal Government funding of hospitals. News Corp has also targeted aged care star ratings, aged care funding, and meals served in aged care facilities over the years.

This latest drive comes as 21 politicians from across the political divide uniting, urging the Government to fix changes introduced under the new Aged Care Act last November that they say are leaving older Australians worse off.

Top doctor shares aged care reality

Also in the news this week was Deputy Chief Health Officer during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nick Coatsworth, who shared his family's challenges keeping his mother, who has dementia, out of hospital.

On a panel at the Australian Financial Review’s Healthcare Summit sitting alongside NSW Health Minister Ryan Park, Coatsworth was clearly emotional.

He said, “My family is currently trying to keep my mother out of your (NSW) hospitals. She has dementia and I left her crying this morning. 65% of her funding came through – that’s only 3.5 hours and we’ve waited six months for that funding.

“She needs a nursing home yesterday. She’ll probably be in St Vincent’s at some time in the next two weeks. This is the reality of the situation.”

Coatsworth said the cost of the NDIS is disproportionate to the small number of Australians it serves, and NDIS funding should be distributed more broadly to the health system, including aged care.

“We have to address the elephant in the room,” he said. “When are we going to transfer some of that NDIS funding into people who have paid taxes all their lives and are stuck now in your public hospitals?”

That even one of the nation’s most senior doctors and public servants cannot secure aged care for their mother underscores just how deeply entrenched, and complex, the aged care system’s failures have become.

As media scrutiny intensifies, political pressure is mounting. The Government is trying to balance the fiscal challenge of increasing demand for aged care while also meeting community needs and expectations.

There are currently three Senate Inquiries underway – Support at Home, the review of legislative instruments, and the transition of the CHSP to Support at Home.

While these processes are likely to drive policy refinements, there is pressure on the Government to act soon. Watch this space.