Just one day after Labor was spectacularly forced into a backflip by the Greens, Opposition and the crossbench over its stubborn refusal to address the aged care waitlist, a new independent report has smashed Labor's aged care reforms and calls the entire system into question.
The Inspector-General of Aged Care report has unequivocally said that the Government's aged care reforms will not deliver the change recommended by the Aged Care Royal Commission four years ago.
The report has sounded the alarm on growing fees and co-payments, raising the prospect of older Australians being forced to forgo the care that they need due to cost.
The Greens have long supported an end to the 'rationing' of aged care, which has led to the current aged care waitlist.
Greens spokesperson for older people Senator Penny Allman-Payne has called on the government to come clean on how much older people will pay under the new system; and as the report has called for, to immediately commission independent modelling on the impact of aged care fees and co-payments on the ability of older people to access the care they need.
As stated by Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Greens spokesperson for Older People:
"This is a shocking wake up call for supporters of the new Act. This report has warned of a two-tiered system, where aged care increasingly becomes about the care you can afford rather than the care you need.
"I am scared stiff for older people under this new system.
"We have just managed to drag the Government to deliver more home care packages, but this report shows that there is a co-payment tsunami about to break on the older people in this country.
"The financialisation of aged care is terrifying.
"Labor needs to come clean about how much older people will pay under this new system and whether they will be able to access care.
"As the report calls for, the Government must immediately commission further independent modelling of the impact of co-payments on wait times, hospital bed block, and access to care, and they must not hide the findings like they have done throughout this entire process.
"Now more than ever, we need transparency for older people."
"The inquiry I chaired had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of information. I am warning the Government now that the Greens will do the same again if we have to, to expose this aged care debacle."
Extracts from the Aged Care Royal Commission Implementation Report 2025:
"The Royal Commission recommended the government create an entitlement to aged care. The government chose not to accept this recommendation and therefore the new Act retains a rationed system: the new Support at Home program will eventually aim to achieve average waiting periods of 3 months. This is not the model of timely access to care that the Commissioners called for." - page 7
"However, in this report, the Inspector-General queries whether particular reforms will have the inadvertent effect of both prejudicing access for those who need it most and potentially creating unnecessary expenditure at the tertiary level of aged care." - page 7
"The Inspector-General shares the fears of stakeholders that the manner in which co-payments and other aspects of the reforms have been structured, could potentially both prejudice equity of access to care and create inadvertent cost blow in other areas." - page 28
"It must be said that co-payments are contrary to the Royal Commission's intent. While the Inspector-General understands the reality of the budget constraints, she holds genuine fears that the manner of implementing co-payments may set up a scenario where vulnerable older Australians will forego care: either because they cannot afford it or because they are worried about the cost. This will be a keen area of monitoring for the Inspector-General going forward." - page 8
"…the current government funding model sees funding primarily focussed on clinical care, with 'non-clinical care' subject to significant co-payments. This leaves open the possibility that those with the least means will end up receiving the lowest level of care due to their inability to fund the co-payments, despite their entitlement to high quality care under the Act." - page 8
"However, from the primary legislation alone, there is a clear case for some concern. Outstanding recommendations from the Royal Commission are not being delivered. The transformational change Commissioners envisaged has not been delivered to date and will not be delivered by the Act. As outlined in Chapter 4, stakeholders and the Inspector-General are anticipating a range of unintended, and intended but undesirable, consequences to become evident following the Act's commencement." - page 51
"Stakeholder dissatisfaction and uncertainty with the new co-payment requirements has been one of the most striking features of the consultation process for this report. As one submission put it, co-payments will result in the Act 'establishing, if not outright endorsing, a system where continuity of care is increasingly tied to one's ability to cover out-of-pocket costs and co-payments. Rather than ensuring equitable access, such a framework risks marginalising those who cannot afford to bridge the financial gaps'. Such a notion was 'never part of the Royal Commission's vision.' - page 29
