Alex Hawke asks the next aged care question:
The minister justified the government’s decision to delay home care package rollouts from 1 July to 1 November by saying, ‘The legislative frame work didn’t allow for that start date.” If the government knew its own legislation didn’t allow for a 1 July start date this year, why did the Labor government mislead Australians and promise to deliver 83,000 home care packages in November last year for 1 July this year on a time line that it knew was impossible?

Sam Rae:

What I said was that the implementation of the new act provided the legislative framework for the support at home program. The implementation of the new act was scheduled for 1 July. On the basis of feedback from older people across our country and the sector themselves we made the decision to briefly defer the implement aches of the new act to 1 November.

From 1 November [we are] introducing an 83,000 packages in the first 12 months of support at home which will be the growth component of the more than 300,000 Australians who are currently receiving care under the Home Care Packages Program.