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Uniting NSW.ACT director of senior services Saviour Buhagiar has made clear that they “reject the notion that provider capacity is a problem” when it comes to what he describes as the “rationed” Support at Home system.
Appearing at the Canberra Senate inquiry hearing into Support at Home, Mr Buhagiar said that Uniting routinely commences services within eight to 10 days of an older person agreeing to be supported.
But this kind of service access is only possible through approved packages and even when funding is available, some older people remain unable to afford it.
“We understand it is a bold government that will future-proof home and community care while also picking up the tab for [a] historically underfunded aged care system,” he said.
“We are confident this government in this parliamentary term can act boldly. Frankly, it has no choice. If it doesn’t, we see the kind of confusion, we see the kind of hospital blockages, we see the kind of deterioration of older people that we see today.”
‘Bumpiness of supply’ a key barrier
Senator Anne Ruston asked Mr Buhagiar how long it would take to ramp up service provision if the government released all the packages needed to support people assessed and approved for a package. He reiterated that it currently takes around eight to 10 days once a person has agreed to receive support from Uniting NSW.ACT.
While in some cases, such as in regional areas, time to first service can be a bit longer, workforce is not an issue, Mr Buhagiar said.
“There’s been some great work done in terms of people’s wages and worker wages and that’s been brilliant over recent years, both for residential aged care and for community care. That’s made a difference in terms of our ability to attract workforce. It’s not easy, it takes a lot of work, but in terms of finding people to do work, we were able to find people to do work and therefore able to allocate those packages relatively quickly,” he said.
What has become more of a barrier is the “bumpiness of supply” in both Support at Home and the Commonwealth Home Support Program, he said.
“That bumpiness of that release has meant that your commitment to labour, to workers, has been episodic,” Mr Buhagiar said.
“So I would argue that if we can just get a regular supply of packages, our ability to recruit – as we’ve shown in recent times while packages have, relatively speaking, flowed better over the last six or nine months – I think we’ve shown that we can find the workforce, that’s not a barrier.”
UnitingCare Australia head of government relations Patricia Hepworth added that two weeks ago UnitingCare held its annual meeting where all 13 CEOs across the Uniting network came together for a face-to-face meeting.
She said that during the meeting, they all agreed there were no capacity issues, and that once the packages are online, they can provide them.
Ms Hepworth said all of the leaders want the government to provide certainty around the packages that are coming, end the rationing of care and indicate the geography and likely flow of packages so they can proactively build the resources where they are needed.
Mr Buhagiar and Ms Hepworth appeared alongside Cathy Thomas, who is group executive of BlueCare, an agency of UnitingCare Queensland.
The inquiry has published 263 submissions. It is due to report on 24 November 2026.
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