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The extension of the Commonwealth Home Support Program is “incredibly welcome,” but does not signal the work is over, says Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Senator Anne Ruston.
Kicking off Monday’s afternoon session at the Invox CHSP National Conference 2026, she said that the decision to extend CHSP was not one the government made willingly but was the result of sustained sector advocacy.
“The reality is that the implementation of Support at Home has been completely botched,” she told delegates.
“I don’t think anybody would be able to prove me wrong on that one – and the idea that the government was going to think that they were going to force 835,000 older Australians on CHSP into Support at Home in June 2027 is just completely insane,” she said.
She credited the evidence that delegates and others gave to the Senate CHSP inquiry and the “powerful advocacy” of the CHSP Alliance as significant in the government’s decision. “It was the failure of Support at Home,” she said.
Government almost ‘strangulating’ release of care
Ms Ruston praised CHSP’s role in providing local, flexible and preventative care, and praised the flexibility that block funding allows in ensuring older Australians receive the care that best suits them.
“And its value in rural, regional and remote Australia cannot be underestimated because in some instances, CHSP is the difference between a community having aged care services and not having aged care services,” she said.
But she was scathing in her description of Support at Home, calling it “a complete and utter unmitigated disaster,” where the government has built a program around a budget.
“That’s not a demand-driven system, that’s not recognising the care needs of older Australians, that’s actually putting the budget before the people,” she said.
“So I don’t want to say that it’s an intentional design feature of what the government is doing but it is a design feature.
“We have a government [that] is rationing care to older Australians but not only rationing care, it’s almost strangulating the release of that care.”
Now is the time for action
Ms Ruston also urged the sector to keep the momentum going now that CHSP will remain a standalone program.
“While the announcement came very late – as I said, I want to acknowledge every single person in this room and in the sector who played a role, it was your advocacy, collectively and through many means, that made the decision. But we can’t just sit back and let the next two years go by like we’ve seen the last two years go by,” she told delegates.
“Right now is when the rubber needs to hit the road and we need to start work, because the job wasn’t done last Thursday. That was the firing of the starting gun for the work that we need to do over the next – well, not two years, we need to know sooner than two years about how block-funded, community-based support services are going to be embedded into Australia’s aged care system.”
Ms Ruston also warned against implementing “reform for reform’s sake,” saying the retention of CHSP is not an argument against reform but “an argument for getting reform right.”
“The government’s decision to retain CHSP is an important opportunity for us all for the next two and a half years to three years to make sure that we don’t put this issue on ice, [that] we actually address the issues that we need to to make sure that older Australians are getting the care when they need it, particularly early on in their journey of ageing,” Ms Ruston said.
“But first we need to address funding – last week’s announcement provides an extension of the program but it comes without any additional funding. This means there’s the very real question about whether current funding arrangements are sufficient to meet the costs of ongoing demand for the program.
“And if the government wants CHSP to remain strong and sustainable it needs to properly understand the cost of delivering a program that does that.”
CHSP can only help if accessible
Ms Ruston also flagged the need to seriously look at home care demand.
“Keeping CHSP does not help an older Australian if they’re not able to get access to the services they need. We need to know where the waiting lists are, where the services are unavailable and where the viability of providers is currently under pressure,” she said.
“And thirdly, we need genuine consultation,” Ms Ruston said.
“Policy made without the people that it affects in the room is bad policy. We need the people, the providers and the older Australians and their advocates in the room when policy is designed.”
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