ACT Independent Senator Dave Pocock has welcomed today’s announcement from the Albanese Government that it will amend the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP).
The move to the new Support at Home system had locked older Canberrans and their families out of using the Burrangiri Aged Care Respite Centre as they had been previously, despite it being home to half of the ACT’s available respite beds.
Senator Pocock has been raising the issues with the Federal and ACT Governments and also during Senate Estimates as well as working with community advocates and Independent MLA Fiona Carrick to push for a solution.
“Today’s announcement isn’t a guarantee of support but it does open up a pathway and shows that pressure from our community can pay off,” Senator Pocock said.
“I commend community advocates on their efforts but we shouldn’t have to fight so hard to get Canberrans access to basic, federally funded services like respite.
“While I welcome this announcement, it is a temporary fix and we need to keep working collaboratively on a long-term solution for Burrangiri and the provision of respite and aged care in the ACT more broadly.
“There is so much frustration across the ACT and around the country that governments aren’t meeting the demand for aged care supports to reduce hospital bed block, enable more older Australians to age more independently at home and delay entry to residential aged care as long as possible.
“I’ll keep pushing for things like a fair tax on gas exports in order to fund additional aged care supports and train more aged care staff to meet workforce shortages.”
Independent Candidate for Bean Jessie Price said, “Community pressure works. This much-needed and much loved facility has been saved by the community coming together to fight for it.”
Currently more than 200,000 Australians are waiting to either be assessed for a Support at Home package or to receive one post-assessment and the government has only been funding 60% of approved packages. More than 3,100 people are stuck in hospital waiting for an appropriate discharge opportunity.
