Ageing Australia CEO Tom Symondson had the audience in the palm of his hand as he urged providers to take pride in how far the sector has come – and to hold onto optimism – as the countdown to the 1 November aged care reforms enters its final month.
Speaking at the 2025 Ageing Australia National Conference on the Gold Coast yesterday, Wednesday 1 October, Tom reflected on the extraordinary year since last year’s event, when the new Aged Care Act was first introduced to Parliament.
At the time, its passage was far from certain. “We thought the battle was won once the Act passed – but the real challenge has been implementation, with 666 pages of rules that followed,” he said.
Initially one of the Act’s strongest advocates, Tom admitted the sector had to make an abrupt pivot to argue for a delay when it became clear a 1 July start would risk serious system failure.
The announcement of a new 1 November start date was met with relief, pride – and concern about sustaining staff through months of additional uncertainty. “It won’t be perfect on 1 November, but it will be far better than July, and a step forward from the last decade,” he stressed.
Home Care Packages victory
One of the sector’s proudest achievements, he added, was uniting to insist the Government not delay releasing Home Care Packages alongside the Act.
“That push wasn’t for our benefit – it was for older Australians,” he said. As we reported, Senate inquiry subsequently revealed 230,000 people were waiting to be assessed or placed on a Package, sparking rare crossbench, Greens and Coalition unity.
Within weeks, the Government agreed to release 20,000 new Packages by 1 November – a moment Tom described as a career highlight.
He also noted a cultural shift in the sector, with greater collaboration across unions, advocates, First Nations leaders and providers, and public trust slowly being rebuilt after the Royal Commission. Staff, he said, no longer felt the same stigma in saying they worked in aged care.
Tom closed by sharing lessons from his experience at the International Federation on Ageing conference in Cape Town, highlighting the importance of “Vitamin G” – gratitude – and urging the sector to stop “doing ourselves down.”
“Ageing is a journey up a mountain,” he concluded. “It’s hard, you risk falling – but if we do our job right, when you get to the top, the view is amazing.”
