The Thursday SOURCE

Lowest number of aged care beds on record added in 2024-25

Residential aged care bed growth is being rapidly outpaced by demand, with resident numbers increasing by about 5,000 per year versus just 800 net new beds in 2024-25.

Click here

Lauren Broomham

17 Oct 2025

Opinion

Our big idea: co-located retirement villages can solve hospital ‘bed occupancy’ in 16 weeks

Across Australia 2,000 hospital beds now hold 2,000 older Australians getting sicker, waiting for an aged care bed. The cost: $1,500 to $2,000 per day. Could co-located retirement villages offer a solution?

Click here

Chris Baynes

16 Oct 2025

Development

St Jude’s Health Care Services’ Perth residential aged care expansion

Perth-based St Jude’s Health Care Services has been named as developer of the aged care facility to be built alongside Providence Lifestyle Wattle Grove retirement village, and the operator has also lodged plans to build a two-storey extension of its existing Midlands Nursing Home.

Click here

Caroline Egan

16 Oct 2025

Aged Care

StewartBrown’s Grant Corderoy: Time for courage – and a new rental model – to make aged care investable

At StewartBrown’s 2025 Sydney Finance Forum last week, Senior Partner Grant Corderoy set a clear challenge to residential aged care providers: show courage, reset business models, and force the policy conversation toward investability, not just viability.

Click here

Lauren Broomham

16 Oct 2025

Mergers & Acquisitions

Only in SATURDAY: Respect’s quiet empire – 39 homes, one sale enquiry a week

Respect CEO Jason Binder says consolidation is “coming to us,” not the other way around – with boards approaching weekly as the regional NFP scales a 39-home network through selective acquisitions, a 90-day integration playbook, and a “profit for residents” philosophy.

Click here

Lauren Broomham

16 Oct 2025

Government Policy

The three aged care bombshells from Senate Estimates

Last week’s Senate Estimates hearing – held just three weeks before sweeping reforms roll out – gave politicians the chance to ask Government heavyweights the questions they’re getting from constituents and to interrogate the once-in-a-generation changes.

Click here

Caroline Egan

15 Oct 2025

Government Policy

Aged care’s remoteness tool “not fit for purpose,” consultation finds

The Government’s review of the Modified Monash Model (MMM) – used to allocate rural, regional and remote aged care funding – has found the tool is “useful but limited” and, in its current form, “not fit for purpose” for aged care.

Click here

Caroline Egan

15 Oct 2025

Government Policy

Aged care visa deal brings just 249 overseas workers in 2.5 years

The Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement (ACILA) program – central to the Federal Government’s plan to ease aged care workforce shortages – has fallen well short, with only 249 overseas recruits arriving since May 2023, according to a new report from the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).

Click here

Caroline Egan

15 Oct 2025

Sector Moves & People

Columbia Aged Care CEO Lucy O’Flaherty steps down

Lucy O’Flaherty will step down as CEO of Sydney-based private operator Columbia Aged Care at year’s end to become Chief Executive of Not For Profit Primary Health Tasmania.

Click here

Caroline Egan

15 Oct 2025

Government Policy

“Three whole wards” can’t be discharged: Premier ramps up call for aged care funding

Tasmania’s Premier Jeremy Rockliff says the number of hospital patients medically cleared but unable to be discharged would “fill three full wards,” intensifying pressure on the Commonwealth to lift investment in aged care and disability supports.

Click here

Caroline Egan

15 Oct 2025

Government Policy

Under the hood of Services Australia’s new aged care systems – and good news

When a leading WA provider told The Weekly SOURCE they couldn’t see Support at Home contribution rates by 1 October – the Reform Roadmap deadline – we asked Services Australia for comment.

Click here

Caroline Egan

15 Oct 2025

Government Policy

Home care wait list surges past 120,000 ahead of 1 November

The number of Australians waiting for a Home Care Package has jumped to 121,909 – up 26% in just three months – as fresh data reveals the full scale of the home care backlog.

Click here

Lauren Broomham

10 Oct 2025

Sector Moves & People

Treasure Jennings appointed Aged Care Complaints Commissioner

Treasure Jennings, the current head of Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, has been appointed Aged Care Complaints Commissioner, effective 1 November 2025, just as the new aged care reforms take effect.

Click here

Caroline Egan

09 Oct 2025