00:00:02
Speaker 1: Well, there's a surprise announcement yesterday from the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler. The government has been working on all of the dramas and we've chronicled them well, particularly in the segment over the years with Rebecca Sharky with these My Age Care packages. Now, the government had said that by July it was going to bring in price caps on services that are provided. This can be things like gardening or showering, people cleaning, all sorts of different services that are provided to elderly Australians. Well, the government has now announced that it has indefinitely deferred those caps. To get a sense of why they're doing that and what it will mean for those of you who are reliant on these My Age Care packages, we've got the CEO of Kota Australia, Patricia Sparrow, the peak body advocating for older Australians, on the line. Patricia, good morning, good morning. What's your reading of why the government has done this and what sort of impact do you think it will have on older people?
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean my understanding is they've deferred it, not indefinitely, and we certainly want to see action on this in the next year. But the decision yesterday is based on the fact that there are concerns about constructing price caps now that would include some short term or one off costs that might artificially push prices up, and we were concerned about that. But what we've been advocating for in the interim is that there should be stronger pricing protections that are going to help older people while a really well constructed price cap is developed that doesn't making costs that shouldn't be there.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: This whole system has really been a shamuzzle the number of people who are still waiting to get into these packages. Do you think that the government has done enough to really get on top of that waiting list?
00:01:55
Speaker 2: Look, I think what the numbers showing, and there are people who are hundreds of thousands of people waiting to either be assessed or to get a package, and they're going to wait for up to a year. So that there's not enough investment in the home care packages for older people, which is what older people want most. They want to stay at home and be supported. Government has been increasing the number of packages, but we don't think it's enough. Government's also introducing a target that people will be assessed within ninety days, and while that will be a vast improvement on or have a package within ninety days. While that would be a vast improvement on people waiting for a year, we still think that needs to be brought down to thirty days. Older people don't put the handoff for support until they really need it, and so then if you're waiting for three months, or as is the case now, you're waiting for a year, it's really not enough to support people.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: We've done stories about people who actually died while they were waiting to be assessed, or others who were assessed and they were told, yeah, you're going to get a level four care package, but then it just never arrived. There seems to be so many pressure points on it.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: It's shocked, isn't it, And that shouldn't be the case. We also know for another person who's living on their own, you know, the stress of trying to manage and keep themselves well means that sometimes people end up in a hospital or end up going into residential care when the support that they could have got at home might have stopped that. And we hear stories of careers who sometimes have to give up their job to be able to care for their loved ones. So all round it's not where it needs to be and there needs to be much more done to have more packages in place and people to get them more quickly.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Patricia Sparrow, thank you so much for that, The CEO of Coda Australia.
00:03:37
Speaker 3: Some great texts coming through on trusts at the moment, I just want to read out a sampling of those. So since we've had that conversation with David Kosh, small business owner here earning less than turnerd ka, we've got a family trust to protect ourselves.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: Spot on.
00:03:50
Speaker 3: There are a lot of small business cafe owners with trust to protect their home if things go the wrong ways. As another text, James says, I've got a small business and use a family trust. I'm far from wealthy. Call it us know what they're talking about. This person says I have a family trust and a gardening business, three employees, works seventy hours a week and when I checked my bank account this morning it said I'm not rich. Thank you for that to there's in fact there's more coming through even as we speak.
00:04:17
Speaker 1: David in Port Lincoln says, guys, FYI, most farmers have trusts so they can hand their farms onto the family. You know, where's the crime in there? Yeah? One here we use a family trust for our small business, which we were advised to set up when we bought it seventeen years ago to protect our house, which we borrowed against. One hundred percent of trust profits are distributed to the two people who work in our business. Then they pay tax according to the normal tax schedule. Why should they be tax more than a pay as you earn taxpayer? Not to mention, there is no super or leave entitlements, plus a sizeable debt we're getting.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: As you were reading, you paused for a moment because three more stories came in about people using trusts that aren't exactly gena Reinhardt.
00:05:02
Speaker 1: Like this is we shouldn't get sucked into this class well rubbish, Like it's just it's just not the way our country should operate. And you know, I think one of the really nice things about Australia unlike the UK, like we we are culturally indebted to the UK in a lot of ways, but we do not have the stultifying class system where England.
00:05:24
Speaker 3: You know, we're.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: Working class and we're lower lower middle class, and we've always been loved you carry on like that In Australian people go, what are you doing here? That's not the Australian way, So like any attempts to inject that into our our political discourse should be totally rejected.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a surprise announcement yesterday from the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler. The government has been working on all of the dramas and we've chronicled them well, particularly in the segment over the years with Rebecca Sharky with these My Age Care packages. Now, the government had said that by July it was going to bring in price caps on services that are provided. This can be things like gardening or showering, people cleaning, all sorts of different services that are provided to elderly Australians. Well, the government has now announced that it has indefinitely deferred those caps. To get a sense of why they're doing that and what it will mean for those of you who are reliant on these My Age Care packages, we've got the CEO of Kota Australia, Patricia Sparrow, the peak body advocating for older Australians, on the line. Patricia, good morning, good morning. What's your reading of why the government has done this and what sort of impact do you think it will have on older people?
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean my understanding is they've deferred it, not indefinitely, and we certainly want to see action on this in the next year. But the decision yesterday is based on the fact that there are concerns about constructing price caps now that would include some short term or one off costs that might artificially push prices up, and we were concerned about that. But what we've been advocating for in the interim is that there should be stronger pricing protections that are going to help older people while a really well constructed price cap is developed that doesn't making costs that shouldn't be there.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: This whole system has really been a shamuzzle the number of people who are still waiting to get into these packages. Do you think that the government has done enough to really get on top of that waiting list?
00:01:55
Speaker 2: Look, I think what the numbers showing, and there are people who are hundreds of thousands of people waiting to either be assessed or to get a package, and they're going to wait for up to a year. So that there's not enough investment in the home care packages for older people, which is what older people want most. They want to stay at home and be supported. Government has been increasing the number of packages, but we don't think it's enough. Government's also introducing a target that people will be assessed within ninety days, and while that will be a vast improvement on or have a package within ninety days. While that would be a vast improvement on people waiting for a year, we still think that needs to be brought down to thirty days. Older people don't put the handoff for support until they really need it, and so then if you're waiting for three months, or as is the case now, you're waiting for a year, it's really not enough to support people.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: We've done stories about people who actually died while they were waiting to be assessed, or others who were assessed and they were told, yeah, you're going to get a level four care package, but then it just never arrived. There seems to be so many pressure points on it.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: It's shocked, isn't it, And that shouldn't be the case. We also know for another person who's living on their own, you know, the stress of trying to manage and keep themselves well means that sometimes people end up in a hospital or end up going into residential care when the support that they could have got at home might have stopped that. And we hear stories of careers who sometimes have to give up their job to be able to care for their loved ones. So all round it's not where it needs to be and there needs to be much more done to have more packages in place and people to get them more quickly.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Patricia Sparrow, thank you so much for that, The CEO of Coda Australia.
00:03:37
Speaker 3: Some great texts coming through on trusts at the moment, I just want to read out a sampling of those. So since we've had that conversation with David Kosh, small business owner here earning less than turnerd ka, we've got a family trust to protect ourselves.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: Spot on.
00:03:50
Speaker 3: There are a lot of small business cafe owners with trust to protect their home if things go the wrong ways. As another text, James says, I've got a small business and use a family trust. I'm far from wealthy. Call it us know what they're talking about. This person says I have a family trust and a gardening business, three employees, works seventy hours a week and when I checked my bank account this morning it said I'm not rich. Thank you for that to there's in fact there's more coming through even as we speak.
00:04:17
Speaker 1: David in Port Lincoln says, guys, FYI, most farmers have trusts so they can hand their farms onto the family. You know, where's the crime in there? Yeah? One here we use a family trust for our small business, which we were advised to set up when we bought it seventeen years ago to protect our house, which we borrowed against. One hundred percent of trust profits are distributed to the two people who work in our business. Then they pay tax according to the normal tax schedule. Why should they be tax more than a pay as you earn taxpayer? Not to mention, there is no super or leave entitlements, plus a sizeable debt we're getting.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: As you were reading, you paused for a moment because three more stories came in about people using trusts that aren't exactly gena Reinhardt.
00:05:02
Speaker 1: Like this is we shouldn't get sucked into this class well rubbish, Like it's just it's just not the way our country should operate. And you know, I think one of the really nice things about Australia unlike the UK, like we we are culturally indebted to the UK in a lot of ways, but we do not have the stultifying class system where England.
00:05:24
Speaker 3: You know, we're.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: Working class and we're lower lower middle class, and we've always been loved you carry on like that In Australian people go, what are you doing here? That's not the Australian way, So like any attempts to inject that into our our political discourse should be totally rejected.
