Additional Comments - Australian Greens

1.1The Australian Greens thank all participants in the inquiry process, particularly older people and their advocates. Understanding the lived experience of older Australians and their families is essential to good policy making and the Australian Greens value their contribution to this inquiry.

1.2The Australian Greens welcome the adoption of this majority report and support its recommendations.

1.3Australian Greens senators were the only senators to vote against the Aged Care Act 2024, after our attempts to amend the bill to remove the more egregious financial aspects of the legislation, as well as strengthen rights protections, failed.

1.4The Inspector-General of Aged Care’s 2025 Progress Report - Implementation of the Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety finds that aged care legislation continues to fail the genuine care needs of older people. This includes older people with a disability,[1] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,[2] and those seeking palliative care.[3] This inquiry surfaced a number of issues that are contributing to this ongoing failure.

1.5First, the Government’s new system of aged care continues the process of rationing aged care for older Australians. A demand-based system, as noted by theRoyal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, is what is required to ensure all older people needing support are able to access this in a timely and affordable manner.[4] By failing to adopt a demand driven approach to aged care, the Government is not delivering on the Royal Commission’s recommendation that a new Aged Care Act be developed to put the rights of older people at the very centre of their care.[5] Consequently, rationing of care needs to end.

1.6Second, the Australian Greens welcome the Government’s earlier release of home care packages following the public hearing for this inquiry and a related vote in the Senate. However, evidence gained through this inquiry demonstrated that the current slated roll-out of home care packages is wholly inadequate to support the over 200,000 older Australians who are either waiting for a package or waiting for an assessment for a package, as identified by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

1.7Third, the Australian Greens welcome the Committee’s recommendation to call on the Senate to refer to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry, the expected impact of the Support at Home Program. In particular, the impact of co-payments requires closer scrutiny, given the evidence heard in this inquiry that costly co-payments may act as a barrier or disincentive to people accessing necessary and timely care.

1.8As Professor Kathy Eagar AM’s submission notes:

Consumer co-payments are too high, assessment is a bottleneck, package wait times post-assessment then create a further bottleneck…It is inevitable that demand for both public hospitals and residential aged care will increase because the Support at Home program itself is so badly designed.[6]

1.9Furthermore, the 2025 Progress Report Implementation of the Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety states that:

…co-payments for non-clinical support are anticipated by stakeholders and the Inspector-General as highly likely to have an adverse impact on the most vulnerable older people. The introduction of co-payments is, as mentioned earlier, inconsistent with the Royal Commission’s vision of a rights-based, person-centred system which provides a universal entitlement to high-quality care.[7]

1.10The Australian Greens remain highly concerned that the introduction of the co-payment model will result in older Australians not being able to access essential care required for them to safely live at home. As it is currently designed, the co-payment system represents one in which, the worse your health is, the more you will pay. The Australian Greens have written to the Minister urging specific action to avoid older Australians paying up to $50 just for help with a shower or help taking medication.

1.11Fourth, the Australian Greens welcome the recommendation to inquire further into the impact of the $15,000 lifetime cap on home modifications, however, it is our position that the committee should have gone further and recommended that the lifetime cap be removed.

1.12As the 2025 Progress Report notes, the introduction of caps to home modifications:

…could foreseeably push people into transitioning into residential aged care and/or increased hospitalisations, both of which breach fundamental human rights and the aims of the new Act and impose greater costs on taxpayers.[8]

1.13Finally, the Australian Greens also welcome the committee's recommendation to inquire further into the End-of-Life-Pathway program. Again however, we believe the committee should have gone further and recommended that the program be modified to remove arbitrary time limits and funding be uncapped, to ensure that older Australians can receive appropriate palliative care at home.

1.14The Government’s aged care reforms have been made with constraining public investment in aged care in mind while maintaining a for-profit system of care. The increased financialisation of care is not in the interest of older Australians, nor in keeping with the intention of the Aged Care Royal Commission. The Australian Greens believe that in a wealthy country like Australia, we can and must do better to look after older people.

1.15This inquiry has been instrumental in holding the Government to account for consequences of decisions they have tried to keep buried. That it took a Senate inquiry and ultimately a defeat on the floor of the Senate to force the Government to deliver on their promises taken to the election is an indictment on the Government, and demonstrates a shameful disregard for the needs of older Australians desperately in need of care. The Senate and the Australian Greens will continue to hold the Government to account as the aged care reforms continue to roll out and their impacts become increasingly apparent.

Senator Penny Allman-Payne

Chair

Greens Senator for Queensland

Footnotes

[1]Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety | Inspector-General of Aged Care, September 2025, p. 39.

[2]Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety | Inspector-General of Aged Care, September 2025, p. 40.

[3]Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety | Inspector-General of Aged Care, September 2025, p. 41.

[4]Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety | Inspector-General of Aged Care, September 2025, p. 41.

[5]Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety Final Report - Care, Dignity and Respect: Volume 1, March 2021, p. 32.

[6]Professor Kathy Eagar AM, Submission 22, p. 4.

[7]Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety | Inspector-General of Aged Care, September 2025, p. 39.

[8]Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, 2025 progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety | Inspector-General of Aged Care, September 2025, p. 39.