PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Ms RYAN (Lalor—Chief Government Whip) (11:55): In the time remaining for this debate, I'd like to make a contribution. I want to talk about the latest Support at Home quarterly data, which shows wait times for care have continued to come down since the program began, with tens of thousands more older Australians now receiving care in their own homes as the Albanese Labor government continues to deliver its aged-care reforms.

While demand for aged care continues to grow, what matters to older people is how quickly they can access care, and we're making significant progress in driving these times down and will continue to invest so every older Australian can access the care they need sooner. While we know there's much to do, these numbers are encouraging signs, and methodical work to secure more care for more older Australians than ever is making a material impact.

Older people told us they want care they can trust close to home, and we've listened. Labor's getting things moving in the right direction to ensure every older Australian can get the care they deserve sooner. Since our generational reforms and the Support at Home program began on 1 November last year, estimated wait times for an ongoing place have again fallen across all priority categories.

As of 30 June this year, every person classified as urgent continues to get their funding within a month. High priority is now one month, down from 1.5 to two to 2.5 months, and the medium priority is now five to six months, down from eight to nine months. Standard priority is now seven to eight months, down from 10 to 11 months at 1 November 2025.

The median wait for an assessment remains consistently under one month, and the time for in-hospital assessments remains under one day. This is down from as high as 10 months under the previous government. Demand for the program remains unprecedented.

The government is responding by releasing 32,000 new Support at Home places this financial year, on top of the 83,000 additional places released in 2025-26. Once delivered almost three times as many older Australians will have a Support at Home place compared to those with a home-care package in 2020. Last week, the second Aged Care Act 2024 wait time report was also published on the department's website, showing elapsed times for Support at Home dropping by around 50 days and elapsed times for other forms of aged care being relatively stable.

This is important reform that's been conducted by the Albanese Labor government in an area that we all care so deeply about—ensuring that aged Australians are looked after at home as a priority and then supported into aged care if that is what's required. I know that my family, like families around the country, are pleased to see the wait times coming down, particularly that in-hospital assessment, because that's when families are worrying most.

I'd like to thank Minister Rae for the work that he's doing. I know that his intention is to continue this work to ensure that we have an incredibly positive aged-care system in this country, with as many Australians needing Support at Home as can get it. It's a government that cares about this issue, and we want to see it continue.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Georganas ): There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour.