The column this week documents concerning trends in the allocation of health funding. The latest national data on health spending shows that while spending on hospital services increased in real terms by four percent in the year to 2024-2025, spending on primary care, including public health, increased by just 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the health expenditure gap between rural and urban Australians is widening, according to a report released by the National Rural Health Alliance. Each rural Australian is receiving, on average, $1,218 less in healthcare funding each year than city residents, with the gap increasing to $6,368 for people living in small rural towns of less than 5,000 people.
Developments in global health, aged care, mental health and oral health are also covered, as are concerns about women being shackled or otherwise physically or chemically restrained during labour and childbirth.
The quotables?
Aged care pressures are spilling straight into emergency departments and, by 2030 nearly one in five Australians will be aged 65 and over. Our health system and its workforce are just not equipped for this demographic change.”
AND
Cancer prevention cannot rely on individual choices alone.”
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
Private health insurance was in the news during the week covered by this column.
On 12 October, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists (ASO) supported a motion from independent MP Andrew Wilkie, seconded by Dr Monique Ryan, calling for the Government to establish an independent statutory Private Health System Authority within the health portfolio to:
- monitor and report on the sector’s financial sustainability, from premiums and benefit payouts to regional hospital viability
- ensure fair insurer-hospital and insurer-practitioner contracting, including sustainable payment arrangements given bargaining power discrepancies
- safeguard against managed care by assessing arrangements on their actual effect, not stated intent, where they restrict patient choice, interfere with clinically appropriate care, or distort clinical decisions, including in emerging hospital-in-the-home care
- advise government on policy levers, including premiums, rebates, product tier design and risk equalisation, to lift coverage and reverse the drift to exclusionary products
- oversee safe, clinically led expansion of out-of-hospital care that is properly funded and benchmarked, without shifting cost or risk to patients and families.
The proposed functions do not include oversight or regulation of medical gap payments, which are a major issue for many policyholders when they use their insurance.
AMA President-elect Dr Michael Bonning said the authority would “bring together stakeholders to enact urgently needed reforms to safeguard the viability of private healthcare”.
(This Panglossian approach ignores the fact that the interests of for-profit hospitals, insurers, and for that matter doctors, will never be aligned.)
On 14 October, the Senate voted to discharge from the notice paper the “government business order of the day relating to the Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026” – i.e. not consider the bill reducing the premium rebate for people aged 65 and over to the same level as younger people on the same income.
Private Healthcare Australia (PHA, the lobby group for private health insurers) took a victory lap, with CEO Dr Rachel David declaring the move was “a powerful demonstration of how much older Australians value their health insurance and the security, choice and access to care it provides”.
Health Minister Mark Butler condemned the vote by the Senate in a doorstop interview and on ABC TV Afternoon Briefing, saying “the Senate’s responsibility… is to do its job and debate bills, not just discharge them from the paper”.
He reintroduced the bill into the House on 15 October.
National Seniors Australia issued a statement Kill (the) Bill: Volume 2, welcoming the Senate’s move and urging the Greens to “show leadership as the Government negotiates the new bill”.
“In this regard, we need the Greens to say no. Enough is enough.”
The AMA called on the Government to “work with the Senate on amendments to protect older Australians on lower incomes in line with the Australian Medical Association’s proposal”.
Meanwhile, health economist Dr Luke Slawomirski argued in an article at Croakey that the Government had done a terrible job of explaining the merits of the reforms.
The Australian Private Hospitals Association cogently pointed out that exempting full pensioners from the reduced rebate, but not other elderly people on low incomes, amounted to “means testing the means test” and “would be intrinsically unfair”.
If paying people of the same income a differential rebate according to the source of their income is “intrinsically unfair”, I’m sure the paying people of the same income a differential rebate to according to their age is just as bad!
Ministers and government
Following months of criticism of the aged care Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) – and numerous statements by Aged Care Minister Sam Rae defending the IAT – the Government finally buckled and sent Rae out to announce an independent expert review.
Rae described it as “the latest step in a series of refinements the Government is making to ensure older Australians can have confidence in the assessment process”.
He said to “ground the review in clinical expertise”, the reviewer would be assisted by “an expert advisory group”.
This would bring together experts in gerontology and assessment, geriatric medicine, dementia care, allied health, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and First Nations health expertise, alongside assessment organisations, aged care providers, unions and advocates for older people.
Rae also welcomed Parliamentary approval of the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026, including provisions establishing an escalation mechanism for some IAT decisions.
His statement on the legislation said the “Government is listening to the experiences of older Australians and taking the necessary action to refine the aged care system and build on its once-in-a-generation reforms”.
The families of the 17 people who die every day waiting for Support at Home services might argue the Government should have listened more carefully and a lot earlier.
Ageing Australia (the lobby group for aged care providers) and the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) both welcomed the review and the legislation.
Ageing Australia CEO Tom Symondson said the review provides “the opportunity to fix the problems at their source, rather than simply correcting poor assessment decisions after they’ve been made”.
“Now we need to make sure it leads to lasting improvements, so older Australians get assessments that reflect their needs. Only then can we ensure they can be supported to live independently for as long as possible, as they deserve.”
OPAN CEO Craig Gear agreed, saying “while the escalation pathway will help address individual cases, the independent review provides the opportunity for a long-term solution”.
Several weeks ago the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) opened a process for aged care providers and workers delivering services under Support at Home to share feedback about their experiences, closing on 14 October.
On that day DHDA announced an extension of the closing date to 30 October.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced it was opening a consultation on its proposal to strengthen the labelling of low-risk products that contain vitamin B6.
This follows reports going back several years of nerve damage and other ill-effects from overconsumption of the substance.
The consultation closes on 25 November.
The Centre for Disease Control announced it had released new climate risk assessment and adaptation planning guidance for health services. It said the guidance includes a manual, local climate and health hazard data, and practical planning templates, and is designed to “help organisations assess climate‑related health and service risks and plan practical adaptation actions to manage them’. (Read more in this Croakey report).
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released the 2024-25 edition of Health expenditure Australia, showing health spending in that year amounted to 10.5 percent of GDP.
Total spending of $290.7 billion was 3.4 percent higher in real terms than the previous year, driven largely by an estimated 3.9 percent increase in Government spending compared with only 2.4 percent in non-government spending.
While spending on hospital services increased in real terms by four percent, spending on primary care, including public health, increased by 1.2 percent.
The AIHW released an associated report on Health system spending on disease and injury broken down by each of the 17 Australian Burden of Disease Study groups and 220 conditions within these groups, and an article providing a growth decomposition of health system spending on disease and injury.
The analysis found spending attributable to disease and injury increased by $48.4 billion in 2024-25 prices between 2015–16 and 2024–25, with most of the growth associated with population growth, higher expenditure per service and population ageing.
Finally, the AIHW released Residential Aged Care Quality Indicators for the June quarter, which it summarised as:
- there has been a statistically significant decrease since 2021 in the proportion of residents experiencing one or more pressure injuries, significant unplanned weight loss, consecutive unplanned weight loss, falls that resulted in major injury, polypharmacy, antipsychotic medication use, incontinence, and in the proportion of workforce turnover
- there has been a statistically significant increase in emergency department presentations and emergency department presentations or hospital admissions.
However, it should be noted that for several indicators (for example, polypharmacy and use of antipsychotics) a rapid improvement in the early part of the period has been followed by stasis, while for others (for example, restrictive practices) early improvement has been followed by some backsliding.
Consumer and public health groups
The Cancer Council used National Nutrition Week (12 – 18 October) to urge greater action on diet, weight and cancer prevention.
CEO Jacinta Reddan said “we know that obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet and alcohol contribute to increased cancer risk”.
“Excess bodyweight is the cause of around 5,300 cancer cases in Australia each year and is linked to 13 cancer types, yet public awareness of these links remains low.”
Clare Hughes, Chair of Cancer Council’s Nutrition, Alcohol and Physical Activity Committee, said “cancer prevention cannot rely on individual choices alone”.
“Governments have a critical role in creating healthier food environments, including by restricting unhealthy food advertising to children, mandating the Health Star Rating and exploring how a tax on sugary drinks can improve overall health,” Hughes said.
“We can all reduce our cancer risk by eating a healthy diet, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weight and reducing the alcohol we drink, but Government policy also has a role to play in supporting all Australians to make healthy choices.”
In related news, the Food for Health Alliance (FHA) said new research from the Deakin Centre for Global Preventive Health and Nutrition showed “children are being hit with digital food marketing from major unhealthy food brands up to 27 times per hour online”.
FHA said: “Deakin’s analysis shows that major fast food and sugary drink brands make up most of the top food advertisers to children online.
“Top brands marketed to younger children were KFC, Nutella, Domino’s Pizza, McDonalds, Red Bull and Coca Cola. For adolescents, the top brands were McDonalds, Red Bull, KFC, Uber Eats and Coca Cola.”
FHA Executive Manager Jane Martin said “these new results support the need for strong Government action to protect children from unhealthy food marketing and make sure children can play, learn and interact in an online world that supports and promotes their health and wellbeing”.
The National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) released Forgotten Health Spend: A Report on the Expenditure Deficit in Rural Australia 2026, showing that the health expenditure gap between rural and urban Australians has widened by a further $880 million from $8.35 billion in 2025 to $9.23 billion in 2026.
The report found each rural Australian is receiving, on average, $1,218 less in healthcare funding each year than city residents, with the gap increasing to $6,368 for people living in small rural towns of less than 5,000 people.
NRHA Chief Executive Susi Tegen said “rural Australians keep the country’s economy running”.
“They grow our food, power our industries and sustain communities. Yet, they have poorer health and die younger than city people,” she said.
“Despite Governments knowing this, and solutions being provided, these communities do not receive the funding allocation and policy options they need to get care.”
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) reacted to the report, calling on federal, state and territory governments to commit to funded solutions to rural healthcare inequity.
ACCRM said that “investment in rural generalist training, sustainable local services and healthcare teams, alongside infrastructure needed to deliver care, must be central to the response”.
ACRRM President Dr Rod Martin said “we cannot keep expressing alarm at worsening numbers while communities wait for care”.
“We need governments to commit to what they will fund, who will deliver it and when communities will see a difference,” he said.
The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) welcomed the SA Government’s tougher laws to counter illicit tobacco, saying it adds pressure on other jurisdictions to match it.
Meanwhile, the ABC reported that ACT Health Minister Marisa Paterson “said the Government had not yet committed to laws that would shut down illegal vape and cigarette shops, because it needed to consider the human rights implications and whether the laws would be effective”.
Two days later – following widespread incredulity and not a little ridicule – the Government announced it would develop legislation that included closure orders, strengthened seizure powers and criminal penalties for shops that sold illegal products.
Palliative Care Australia (PCA) called on Governments across Australia “to include better access to palliative care in their strategies to reduce hospital bed block and ease pressure on public hospitals”.
PCA CEO Dr Chris Hatherly said “evidence consistently shows that people receiving high-quality palliative care at home or in aged care are less likely to present to emergency departments, spend fewer days in hospital in their final year of life, and are more likely to receive care and die in the place of their choosing”.
“This frees up hospital beds for other members of the community who desperately need them. It can reduce health system costs, and it can improve the quality of those precious last months and weeks of life for people and their families.”
First Nations
The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) released a position statement on Every woman’s right to birthing without restraints.
CATSINaM said it “is deeply concerned by reports of women being shackled or otherwise physically or chemically restrained during labour and childbirth”.
“This practice is inconsistent with safe, respectful and culturally safe maternity care and poses unacceptable risks to the health, wellbeing and dignity of women and babies.”
The CATSINaM statement followed a report from a Senate inquiry into Senator Lidia Thorpe’s private members bill seeking to ban the practice of restraining women during childbirth.
Rather than recommending the bill be passed, the report recommended “the Commonwealth consider appropriate pathways to engage with States and Territories, to address the issues raised by the bill”.
Like that will be effective!
Trade unions
Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA) celebrated Allied Health Professions Day on 14 October, recognising the contributions of allied health professionals and calling for their expertise to be more accessible to Australians at every stage of life.
APHA CEO Bronwyn Morris-Donovan said “Australia’s future health and care needs require us to plan now for a workforce that can meet them”.
“That means supporting allied health professionals to enter and remain in the workforce, enabling them to use their skills fully, and addressing the barriers that prevent Australians from accessing their services.”
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) released the State of Emergency 2026: Australia’s Ageing Population report, saying it “revealed Australia’s health system is not prepared for the growing number of older patients arriving in emergency departments”.
ACEM President Dr Peter Allely said “Australians are living longer than ever before, and that’s something to celebrate”.
“But from the ED floor, we can see very clearly that successive governments haven’t planned for what success means for our health system.
“Aged care pressures are spilling straight into emergency departments and, by 2030 nearly one in five Australians will be aged 65 and over. Our health system and its workforce are just not equipped for this demographic change.”
ACEM made a series of recommendations for Commonwealth and state Governments under the broad headings of:
- Strengthening alternative pathways to acute medical care for older people to reduce ED demand and hospital admissions
- Improving patient flow through the ED and reducing access block
- Expanding prevention mechanisms to reduce ED attendance and hospitalisation through early intervention
- Funding research into models of primary and acute care to improve outcomes for older people.
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) and Australian College of Midwives released their joint submission to the DHDA consultation on private health reforms, arguing “nurses’ essential role in health service delivery must be better incorporated into the private healthcare system if it is to be a contemporary, high-quality and sustainable part of Australia’s healthcare landscape”.
ACCRM warned “childcare shortages are forcing rural generalist doctors to reduce their working hours and putting opportunities to recruit and retain essential healthcare workers at risk”.
In its submission to the Senate inquiry into early childhood education and care in rural, regional and remote communities, ACRRM argued “accessible, quality early education must be recognised as essential infrastructure for rural and remote healthcare”.
ACRRM also invited public feedback on its draft Practice Standard for the Quality and Safety of Virtual Care in Rural, Remote and First Nations Communities, which “provides a rural-specific framework for healthcare systems, organisations and services delivering care through virtual models”.
The deadline for responses is 15 November.
The Australian Dental Association (ADA) and a number of other dental organisations welcomed the launch of the Parliamentary Friends of Dental and Oral Health group, chaired by Labor Senator Helen Polley and independent MP Dr Monique Ryan.
According to the ADA, the group “will provide a standing forum for parliamentarians to engage with the dental sector and champion reform, with a particular focus on children’s dental health”.
(Given there is already an entitlement-based dental benefit program covering children from all but the wealthiest 10 percent or so of families, there does not seem to be a particular reason to focus on children.)
The ADA concluded “the importance of the Friends group can’t be overstated – it has the very real potential to elevate dentistry even further into discussions about healthcare policy”.
The AMA released a revised Rural workforce initiatives position statement, with proposed reforms covering medical school entry, specialist training, workforce incentives and support for doctors and their families.
It called for “a nationally coordinated rural health workforce strategy that delivers sustained investment in training, infrastructure and services tailored to rural, regional and remote communities”.
The AMA also released its submission commenting on the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Advisory Committee Time-Tiered Working Group Report, arguing “reform must strengthen continuity of care, protect patient access and deliver additional investment into general practice”.
AMA President-elect Bonning said “better funding for longer consultations is an important first step, but we can’t stop there. Medicare needs genuine structural reform”.
The Australian Association of Psychologists (AAP) called for urgent investment in mental health services following the release of documents showing the NSW Government was advised it would need up to $600 million in additional annual workforce funding to meet unmet demand for public mental healthcare.
AAP Executive Director Tegan Carrison said the figures were extraordinary but not surprising.
“We have a mental health system that is increasingly focused on responding to people once they reach crisis point, rather than providing the early intervention and ongoing psychological care that could prevent that crisis in the first place.”
AAP called on the NSW Government “to release the full assessment of unmet mental health need and establish a transparent, adequately funded plan to address workforce shortages and expand access to services”.
They urged the Commonwealth and state Governments “to work together to improve affordable access to psychological care, including reform of Medicare’s two-tier psychology rebate system”.
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists NSW Branch Chair Dr Ian Korbel said the revelations were deeply concerning, and urged the NSW Government “to acknowledge the scale of the challenge, consider the evidence in front of them in its entirety, and scale the practical solutions that strengthen hospital services, community mental healthcare and psychosocial supports”.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) issued a statement on the NAB Health Insights Report, based on a survey of more than 1,000 Australians, which found 85 percent visited a GP in the past year, up from 80 percent in 2025. This was more than pharmacies (66 percent) and dentists (58 percent).
Other findings included:
- 76 percent of people who visited a GP ranked them as the most important health practitioner for themselves or their family
- 98 percent of Australians aged 65 and over visited a GP in the past year
- patients rated the quality of care they received from their GP at 8.1 out of 10, up from 8.0 last year
- patients rated the ease of accessing GP care at 7.4 out of 10, up from 7.3 last year.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said “these results tell an encouraging story”.
“More Australians are seeing their GP, and patients clearly recognise the value of general practice.”
He concluded “making healthcare more convenient is important, but convenience must never come at the expense of patient safety or continuity of care”.
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) launched a position statement on Youth Appropriate Health Care, developed in partnership with the College’s first-ever Youth Advisory Group.
RACP Youth Appropriate Health Care Working Group Chair Professor Simon Denny said “adolescents and young adults require specialised services that address their unique needs, from their developing autonomy to their mental, social, and physical well-being”.
“It’s a unique period of life and young people at the moment are poorly supported when they need specialist care.
“Governments must take the lead in reforming healthcare for young people by funding multidisciplinary teams that offer integrated medical and psychosocial care in hospitals – particularly in adult hospitals, where services for young adults are virtually non-existent, and in regional, rural and remote areas.”
On the International Day of Rural Women (15 October), the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) “celebrated the women caring for Australia’s land and rural communities, [and] called for practical support for their health and the female doctors who care for them”.
RDAA President Professor Sarah Chalmers said practical support for female doctors was essential to maintaining rural healthcare services.
“Flexible rosters, access to reliable childcare and support when returning from parental leave can make the difference between a doctor staying in rural practice or having to step away,” she said.
“In a small town, childcare options can be limited, particularly for doctors working nights, weekends or on call. We need employers and health services to work with doctors to find arrangements that make rural practice sustainable.”
Industry groups
Catholic Health Australia (CHA) released its submission to the Government’s consultation on informed financial consent and split billing practices.
It supported a single definition of informed financial consent, together with “firm action” on split billing.
The submission also argued:
- the design of fee transparency matters as much as the decision to require it, because international evidence indicates that publishing individual prices in markets like this one can raise prices rather than lower them
- disclosure alone will not reduce what patients pay
- transparency obligations should extend to insurers, whose gap and preferred provider arrangements are frequently the largest single determinant of what a patient pays.
Medicines Australia released a paper Building a Future of Life-Saving Clinical Trials for Children with Cancer “setting out four practical reforms to bring more potentially life-saving cancer trials to Australian children”:
Leverage existing well-established networks, such as ANZCHOG, to coordinate paediatric oncology clinical trials, bringing together investment, advocacy and engagement with global trial sponsors
Connect Australia’s existing cancer data infrastructure, including ZERO, CIRCAA and SACHA, so information can better support clinical decisions, trial matching and evidence generation
Expand access nationally through teletrials, hub-and-spoke and shared-care models, so where a child lives does not determine whether they can participate in a trial
Better align regulatory and reimbursement settings with paediatric medicine development, including consideration of age-agnostic approaches and clearer treatment of real-world evidence.
Parliamentary committees
The Senate inquiry into the Private Health Insurance (National Joint Replacement Register Levy) Amendment Bill 2026 reported, unanimously recommending the bill be passed.
International organisations
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a new five-year strategy for its Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, “charting a path towards a world where every country can detect and understand emerging health threats within 24 hours of their appearance by 2030”.
WHO said the Hub was created in 2021 in response to the critical gaps exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its priority initiatives over the next five years are:
- Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources using artificial intelligence to scan thousands of publicly available sources in real time each day to identify signals of potential health threats. It brings together a global community of over 4000 experts and is being used by over 125 Member States and 30 regional and international organizations
- The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) strengthening capacities in genomic sequencing and bioinformatics to identify and understand emerging pathogens. This helps accelerate the development of tests, treatments and vaccines
- The Collaboratory connecting more than 2000 experts in modelling and data science who can be rapidly mobilised when new threats emerge
- The Collaborative Surveillance Initiative, which is being implemented in more than 83 countries, supporting national institutions, systems and workforces to detect health threats through a One Health approach
- The Digital Enablers for Public Health Intelligence Initiative, a new programme, will develop secure digital systems that enable countries and partners to share, analyse and use data while supporting the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence.
Finally
Finally this week, an article from Reasons to be Cheerful on initiatives driven by young people across the US to direct medical supplies that would otherwise reach their expiry date and be discarded to providers in the US and overseas who can make use of them.
I don’t know if Australia has a problem of the same scale with soon to be out-of-date supplies, but if we do let’s hope the article inspires similar action here.
Consultations and inquiries
Here is our weekly list of requests by government bodies and parliamentary committees for responses to consultations or submissions to inquiries, arranged in order of submission deadlines. Please let us know if there are any to add for next week’s column.
Productivity Commission
Closing the Gap Review
26 October
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Additional public consultation on amending the Poisons Standard regarding ethylene oxide, propylene oxide and epichlorohydrin
26 October
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand
Proposed addition of phytosterols, phytostanols and their esters as a novel food to bread
27 October
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Consultation on draft Point of Care Testing Guide for Health and Aged Care Services |
30 October
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
A short survey to assist in a preliminary assessment of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Care Standard (2020)
30 October
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Feedback from aged care providers and workers delivering Support at Home
30 October (previously 14 October)
Medical Services Advisory Committee
- F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for evaluation of complex infection
- Kappa free-light chain index testing for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis
- Detection of measurable residual disease in patients with multiple myeloma
- Genetic testing to identify homologous recombination repair gene alterations in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer to determine eligibility for treatment with PBS-subsidised talazoparib
- Anti-Müllerian hormone testing for identification of Polycystic Ovarian Morphology, to support the diagnosis of Polyendrocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS)
- Review of devices used in catheter-based cardiac ablation for the treatment of patients with cardiac arrhythmias
- Defensive Antibacterial Coating with antibiotics for reducing the risk of periprosthetic surgical site infection
- Lifileucel for the treatment of patients with previously treated unresectable or metastatic melanoma
- Efanesoctocog alfa for routine prophylaxis in patients with haemophilia A
6 November
Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority
Consultation on ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS Fourteenth Edition and AR-DRG V13.0 Development
13 November
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator
Cost Recovery Implementation Statement
13 November
Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine
Draft Practice Standard for the Quality and Safety of Virtual Care in Rural, Remote and First Nations Communities
15 November
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Changes to permissible ingredients – Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride, pyridoxal 5-phosphate, and pyridoxal 5-phosphate monohydrate)
25 November
Senate Community Affairs Committee
2025 National Health Reform Agreement with Western Australia
27 November
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
“We want to hear about your experience with aged care assessments and the Support at Home program”
14 December
Author details
Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.
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