Budget aged care spend ‘a good first step’ but ‘it’s not all done’

National Seniors Australia Chief Advocate Ian Henschke says while the government has handed down a considerable spend for the aged care sector more still needs to be done to ensure the money is filtered through to help the people in need. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last night delivered his budget speech which included a $17.7 billion spend in aged care over five years. “This is a really good first step but they can’t say we’ve restored faith in the aged care system and walk away,” Mr Henschke told Sky News. “It’s not all done, there still has to be a lot there. “You’ve got make sure you get value for money out of this as well, so there’s a lot of reform that has to be done to make sure that money does get through to the people.” Included in the spend is an additional 80,000 home care packages, which Mr Henschke said would go a long way to help those people stuck on the waitlist. “On balance you’d have to say this has been wonderful in the sense that we’ve been talking about this home care waitlist. When the Royal Commission opened two years ago there were 128,000 people waiting for home care and as of today – if they hand all those packages out – the figure would be down around the 40 or 50,000,” he said. “So a huge change to that.”