Australians wait 12 months for aged care – and the latest budget funding is unlikely to change that |
Imagine your elderly mother needs help to get out of bed, shower and manage her medications – and then waiting more than a year for that support to arrive.
According to a federal government report released this week, that is no longer a worst-case scenario. It is now the national average.
Australia, like many developed countries, is ageing rapidly. By 2063, about one in five Australians will be older than 65. And the number of people aged over 85 is expected to more than triple in that same period.
That means many more Australians will soon need help at home or in residential aged care.
So what did this report – which some critics say the government “buried” in a busy budget week – actually say?
And will extra aged care funding announced in this week’s federal budget help shorten waiting lists?
In 2025, the federal government spent roughly A$40 billion on aged care services. That makes it one of the costliest items in the federal budget. And this figure is projected to keep rising in coming decades.
Despite this investment, the aged care sector is still plagued by concerns around neglect, understaffing and poor quality of care. This led the federal government to launch the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety which, in 2021, delivered 148 recommendations for reform.
So, what’s gone........