CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr PASIN (Barker) (10:18): I've previously risen in this place to speak about the Albanese Labor government's abandonment of older Australians who need support to stay independent in their own homes and who are enduring lengthy wait times for care they've been assessed as needing. Today, I rise to raise concerns from residential aged-care providers in my electorate of Barker.

Many of them are not-for-profit providers who are concerned about the ongoing sustainability of providing aged-care services in regional South Australia. Most recently, I've been inundated with requests to seek an urgent review of the Albanese Labor government's announcement of a 2.55 per cent increase to the Australian National Aged Care Classification, AN-ACC, for residential care from 1 October 2026.

I've heard their messages that this is a meagre increase and it doesn't come close to covering the cost pressures impacting residential aged care providers—pressures that have been outlined to me in the meetings I've had with providers over the last 12 months. This increase falls well short of the rising costs of delivering care and shortchanges older Australians.

You can't address the aged-care crisis in this country and provide the care older Australians deserve by making it harder for residential aged-care providers to stay viable. Provider costs increased by 5.17 per cent in the year to March 2026. Quite simply, the cost of providing aged care is rising faster than increases in government funding.

In real terms, government funding is decreasing. This has come at a time when standards and regulatory expectations of aged-care providers have been strengthened, and rightly so. Providers are also required to contact the Fair Work Commission's 4.75 per cent annual wage review increase for employees.

One provider in Barker wrote to me: Australia has set high standards for aged care. We now need funding that allows providers to meet those standards and ensures older Australians can access care when they need it. Another wrote: The Government is asking providers to increase capacity and deliver high standards of care while effectively funding services below their true cost.

These two objectives cannot be reconciled without a sustainable funding model. This is not simply a concern about provider margins. It is about whether regional organisations can continue employing local people, building urgently needed beds and delivering the standard of care older Australians have every right to expect.

I've now written directly to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae MP, about this latest failure to adequately address the issues impacting the aged-care sector. I ask: when will Labor stop short-changing older Australians?