In 2022, then-Shadow Health Minister Mark Butler condemned the Morrison Government for the 50,000 older Australians who died waiting for Home Care Packages, calling it “a national disgrace.”
Now, as Health and Ageing Minister, Butler is facing his own reckoning.
Last week, the Government quietly confirmed that the rollout of 83,000 new Home Care Packages – due to start 1 July 2025 – will be pushed back to 1 November. The reason? The delay to the new Aged Care Act.
The move has triggered a backlash, with independent MPs writing to Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae, calling for at least 20,000 Packages to be released from July to ease pressure on the 85,000-strong national waitlist.
Currently, wait times for high-level Packages are 11 to 13 months for medium-priority recipients –worse than in 2022, when Butler was slamming delays of six to nine months just prior to the Albanese Government’s election.
Back then, he didn’t mince words:
“Most Australians want to age in their own home, but the system that’s supposed to help them do that is in crisis… 50,000 have died waiting since July 2017. This is a national disgrace.”
Now? The Minister is downplaying criticism, saying the Government will still deliver the promised 83,000 Packages in 2025-26 and another 24,000 in 2026-27.
Here’s the problem:
If 27,000 Packages were expected to go live on 1 July, dumping them all into November will create chaos for providers – particularly in onboarding and care planning.
More likely? The release will be quietly staggered, pushing wait times out even further.
And that raises the real question: does this pass the pub test?
It doesn’t.
A four-month delay can be a lifetime for someone waiting for care. As our coverage shows, pressure is mounting across the aged care and health systems – NSW surgery wait times being just one example.
If the Government has already committed to the biggest Home Care Package release in history, why delay now?
I’ll give the last word to Bolton Clarke Group CEO Stephen Muggleton:
“Long waits for home care mean more pressure on families and carers, more hospital visits, and more premature entry into residential care,” he told The Weekly SOURCE this week.
“Last time, we had more than 80,000 people in the queue – in 2020/21 – we had 8,000 people die while waiting for their approved level of support. Let’s not have this happen again.”
