In 2018, just before the ABC’s Who Cares? program aired and the Morrison Government announced the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the headlines around home care and aged care turned bleak.
Reading the papers this week, it’s clear: those days are back.
Last Saturday, The Daily Telegraph splashed the results of a United Workers Union survey, run through its Aged Care Watch portal, which claimed to lift the lid on a staffing crisis.
The previous day, The Australian ran a story echoing our own SATURDAY investigation into the home care mess – highlighting two older Australians left languishing on the waitlist, and quoting Australian Unity Home Health CEO Prue Bowden, who spoke powerfully about the human cost of delay.
Home care waitlist spirals back to crisis levels
The Federal Government has yet to release the long-overdue figures for the home care wait list.
But as we reported in SATURDAY, predictions are that 130,000 older Australians will be waiting for their approved Package by 1 November – a return to the peak crisis levels that triggered the Royal Commission in the first place.
That’s the stark warning from Ian Yates AM, former Interim Inspector-General of Aged Care. He says the Federal Government’s decision not to release any new Home Care Packages until the new Support at Home program begins in November will leave tens of thousands of older Australians waiting – and deteriorating – without vital support.
“The latest official figures are 83,000 on 31 December 2024, with official wait times of 9 to 12 months for Levels 1, 2 and 3, and 12 to 15 months for Level 4,” Ian told SATURDAY.
“If the Government persists, as announced, in not releasing any new Packages until Support at Home starts on 1 November, the waitlist then will be at least 120,000 – the equal highest it has ever been.”
Other industry sources say this figure could be 130,000 by November unless the Government takes urgent action.
Political pressure builds – but is it enough?
There is political pressure mounting. The Australian reports Senator David Pocock will move a motion in Parliament later this month to force the release of the latest waitlist figures.
That comes on top of his joint call with nine other independent MPs demanding the Government release at least 20,000 additional Packages to fill the growing gap.
But will it be enough?
The Government currently sits in an unassailable political position. There won’t be another Royal Commission. So the question is: what will it take to force real change?
The answer lies not just in media pressure – but in community pressure.
That means aged care providers and peak bodies stepping up and encouraging their clients and families to speak out, to demand better, and to show politicians that this issue can’t be quietly pushed aside.
Tell your local MP. Tell your family. Tell the media. Tell the Government.
Because if we don’t, the cycle of crisis headlines will just keep repeating – and so will the suffering behind them.
