Government’s ‘next big front of attempted reform’ to be in the aged care sector

Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says the “next big front of attempted reform” from the Albanese government appears to be around the aged care sector. Labor has commissioned a review on the sector – the big debate is whether or not there will be a change to means-testing for paying for aged care or to the refundable deposits, which are currently capped at just over half a million dollars used to pay for people to be in aged care. “The government’s view is it will be difficult to get reforms up in this space if the Opposition opposes it,” Mr Clennell said. “The Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, indicated in his budget reply speech that he would support sensible reform in this space, but there are concerns in the Opposition about the approach of the government on aged care. “There was a briefing on Friday afternoon from Aged Care Minister Anika Wells to her opposition counterpart Anne Ruston, which was said to be short on detail.”