'Buried' report shows Australians waiting 12 months for aged care support

The federal government released the data while journalists were in budget lock-up on Tuesday. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito) New figures show it takes 12 months on average to get a spot in an aged care home or secure at-home support. The government has been accused of releasing the data on budget day to avoid scrutiny from the media. The government says it released the data as soon as it was practicable and the budget's $3.7 billion investment in aged care will build a fairer system. Link copiedShareShare articleThe federal government has been accused by its political opponents of burying "confronting" new figures showing Australians are waiting an average of a year for aged care services, quietly dropping the report while journalists were in budget lock-up on Tuesday. The report found that between November and March, people waited on average 12 months to access ongoing care in a residential aged care home or support at home. The report was the first after the new Aged Care Act made it mandatory for the government to publicly release wait times every quarter for funded aged care services. The government was obligated to release the data as soon as practicable after April 28, but instead it was published on Tuesday, when many political journalists were in the tightly controlled budget lock-up, which strictly prohibits access to the internet or phones. Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston has accused the government of trying to bury the data with the release of the budget. (ABC News: Matt Roberts) "Labor tried to bury this historic blowout in home care wait times by quietly dumping the data in the middle of budget lock-up, hoping Australians wouldn't notice older people are now waiting a year for care," Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston said. Independent senator David Pocock also slammed the timing of the report's release, describing it as "pretty cynical". We're launching an investigation asking you — staff, insiders, those navigating the aged care system and their supporters — to help the ABC understand if the government's promise of reform has been delivered. "We all know there are huge challenges in aged care in Australia, but trying to bury bad news like this on budget day is massively disappointing from the Albanese government," he said. While there is no data directly comparable as the report is the first of its kind, health department data shows that in October, the average wait time for a support-at-home package was eight months. Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) director of policy, education and systemic advocacy, Samantha Edmonds, said the figures were "confronting". Samantha Edmonds says there are detrimental impacts on older people who have to wait. (Supplied) "There's the potential for people maybe to not eat properly because they're not getting assistance to help cook meals. There could be potential for falls or other issues because, you know, we haven't got the assistive technology in there to make those changes. "So there's a range of ways it can impact." A Senate inquiry into aged care services last year heard of people dying while waiting for support, including one Hobart man with Parkinson's and cancer who waited over 12 months for a home care package and was approved three days before his death. "People are literally dying while they wait," Greens older people spokesperson Penny Allman-Payne said. Federal budget 2026: Stay up to date with the budget aftermath in our live blog. "Labor's treatment of older people is appalling. It is simply shameful that they're making people in their 80s or 90s wait the better part of a year to get the care they need at home." Senate estimates figures show that in December, there were more than 230,000 Australians currently on the wait list for aged care, either for an assessment or a package at their approved level. Beyond that, the report also revealed there were more than 48,000 people on the triage waiting list, which Senator Pocock described as "the waiting list to get onto the waiting list to get an assessment for a package". Senator David Pocock slammed the timing of the report's release. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson) "People are, on average, waiting a full year to get a support-at-home package. This is far too long, and it's little wonder why the states and territories are reporting that there are now over 3,300 people stuck in our public hospitals, who need aged care services," he said. This week, the ABC revealed the number of aged care patients stranded in hospital because they had nowhere suitable to go — like an appropriate support-at-home package or aged care bed — had surged by 35 per cent in about six months. The number of aged care patients stuck in hospitals has jumped by 35 per cent in less than a year, fuelling fresh demands for the federal government to stem the crisis. Industry bodies argued Australia needs an estimated 10,000 additional residential care beds each year to keep up with demand, and there has b

'Buried' report shows Australians waiting 12 months for aged care support

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