Delay in transfer of community aged care services from states to commonwealth
The planned revamp to eliminate gaps and duplication between state and federal governments in mental health, disability and aged care services will be delayed for months after COAG (Council of Australian Governments) put it in the too-hard basket, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.
On 5 December it reported that the hospital and health funding announcements “overshadowed a lack of action in redefining federal-state roles, leaving the future of the multi-billion-dollar community programs up in the air”.
Ahead of the COAG meeting in Canberra, the commonwealth was on the brink of taking over home and community care for the aged and handing full funding responsibility to the states for similar services for disabilities and mental health.
However, Health Minister Nicola Roxon has been quoted as saying these would instead be the subject of more negotiations.
“A decision was made with some reservations from the states and territories, some reservations of our own, and some reservations of the sector that this proposal needed more work before we made such an expensive change,” she said. “But it’s still very much in our (sights).”
A single paragraph in the 33-page COAG communique ruled out any urgent response to the problem. “COAG requested officials to bring back specific proposals in relation to community mental health, disability services and aged care in the first half of 2009,” it said.
Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive officer, Greg Mundy, said the delay had taken the sector by surprise. “Quite senior commonwealth bureaucrats were adamant that it was a done deal. It was going to happen at COAG,” he said.
