The Minister for Health, Aged Care and Sport, Sussan Ley, gave a strong speech at the ACSA National Conference in Hobart. Her major points were:

“The Aged Care Roadmap has not dropped off the radar”. It will be returning to the agenda over the next few months.

She is “pleased” with myagedcare and its progress. She wants people to feel comfortable with engaging with the sector, utilising the portal. And she wants myagedcare to be “market-based”, meaning friendly and intuitive.

She recognised that ACFI is “the big one”. Funding is currently $3.8 billion above trend of 5.1% aggregate growth. The government is committed to this ‘reasonable growth’ and dialogue with the sector, but Ms Ley said “I have to be clear – savings have to be made over the forward estimates”.