‘People are dying waiting’: Fury erupts over aged care crisis

Older Australians are dying while waiting for basic support to help them stay in their own homes, and the growing backlash against the Albanese Government’s aged care system is turning into a political firestorm.

Broadcaster and columnist Steve Price has launched a blistering attack on Labor’s handling of aged care wait lists, calling the situation a “national scandal” and accusing the government of forcing vulnerable elderly Australians through a cold, computer-driven system that strips away dignity and common sense.

Speaking on Sky News, Price said the aged care reforms introduced under Labor were “falling apart” and described the process as “a disgrace”.

At the centre of the controversy are shocking figures revealed during Senate Estimates, showing nearly 198,000 Australians are currently waiting for either an aged care assessment or a support package.

Even more confronting was the revelation that more than 4,800 older Australians died in the past year while waiting for home care support they had already been deemed eligible to receive.

Price didn’t hold back.

“What a national scandal that is,” he said.

‘Assessed by a computer’

Price also criticised the government’s assessment process, claiming elderly Australians are increasingly being reduced to data points inside an algorithm-driven system.

He revealed his own 92-year-old mother had recently undergone an hour-long assessment, only to be ranked “Level 3 out of Level 8” after answers were fed into a computer-generated system.

Under the new model, introduced as part of Labor’s aged care overhaul, assessors reportedly have limited ability to override the computer-generated ranking system. Price compared the process to the Robodebt disaster.

“He, (Minister) Rae, or whoever takes over, must immediately drop this madness of assessing someone’s needs based on a tick and flick interview and fed into a computer algorithm,” Price said.

“Have these people ever heard of Robodebt? Clearly not.”

Calls for minister to go

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae has come under mounting pressure as criticism intensifies from both the Coalition and media commentators.

National MP Darren Chester raised the issue directly in Question Time, demanding to know whether the minister accepted responsibility for thousands of elderly Australians dying before receiving support.

Rae defended the government’s position, saying it was “incredibly distressing” when people were not provided appropriate care before passing away.

But for critics, that response has done little to calm concerns.

Price argued Rae was “out of his depth” and called for him to be replaced by a more experienced senior minister capable of dealing with a crisis affecting some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

Shadow aged care minister Anne Ruston also unloaded on the government’s handling of the sector.

“This government has completely lost control of aged care,” Ruston said. “They came into promising the world in 2022 saying they’re going to put the care back into aged care. All they’ve done is put the wait back into wait lists.”

Check out Aged Care System Close To Breaking Point

‘Proud Australians left stranded’

For many families, the debate is deeply personal, and no longer political.

Price said older Australians who had “worked hard, paid taxes and played by the rules” were now being left stranded in bureaucratic limbo while waiting months — and sometimes years — for support that could help them remain safely in their homes.

The broadcaster warned the system was creating a dangerous logjam, with elderly Australians “fretting daily about their care” instead of being allowed to live out their remaining years with dignity.

And with Australia’s ageing population growing rapidly, critics say the crisis is only going to worsen unless urgent action is taken.