Aged care advocates and MPs have grown increasingly frustrated over secrecy and delays shrouding reforms that are hoped to transform how people are cared for at the end of their lives. or signup to continue reading With less than eight parliamentary sitting weeks left in 2024, there are fears legislation to establish a rights-based aged care act will be sidelined until after the next election. There are also concerns over the government's deferred response to , that will ultimately map out how people pay for their care.
Chief executive of the Older Persons Advocacy Network Craig Gear told ACM, publisher of this masthead, advocates were not looking for "perfect" but urgently wanted a package brought forward for public view. "If you delay this out by another couple of years, and as the population gets older, we're just going to have people stuck in hospital," Mr Gear said. "The fundamental thing is getting the funding model right because we want a sustainable aged care system but at the same time not giving up the rights or the support at home program because they [the government] can't come to an agreement on funding.
"We've got to fund aged care and we can work that out over time - so we are saying, you've got to put it in now." It's understood the government is still trying to secure bipartisanship with the Coalition over key measures put forward by its taskforce, including a proposal to increase lifetime contributions for residential aged care. A spokesperson for Aged Care .