On Tuesday, 14 May, the Albanese government announced its third budget in its tenure, this time for the 2024-25 financial year.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the budget, which primarily sought to ease the pressure created by rising living costs. The Treasurer says the budget “strikes the right balance between supporting the economy and households while not adding to inflation.”
We won’t explore all the areas covered, but we will focus on changes in spending on the disability and aged care sectors.
Let’s look at some of these changes in more detail.
In the 2023-24 financial year, government spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) surged by 21%. This meant the government spent $44.3 billion on the NDIS, exceeding the budget’s forecast by $2.4 billion.
To curb this growth, the government will moderate NDIS participant payments by $14.4 billion and stop automatic top-ups when funds are exhausted. The government seeks to implement these changes over the next four years to keep “intra-plan inflation” within the NDIS in check.
The government will build on the 2023-24 financial year’s budget of $732.9 million, providing more funding in the following areas:
This means the total funding for the NDIS over the next five years will be $5.4 billion.
The government has been steadfast in its messaging: the NDIS remains committed to improving the experiences of people with disability and restoring the original intent of the scheme. However, the true impact of the budget changes remains to be determined.
Here are some potential outcomes we've identified:
The aged care sector will see the government focus on improving the sector by spending an additional $2.2 billion to deliver reforms, provide more home care packages, and raise wages for aged care workers.
The total package promises to deliver the following:
The current reforms, particularly the implementation of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, have been delayed from 1 July 2024 to 1 July 2025—a point of frustration for older people, carers, families, aged care workers, and providers, as many have been looking forward to the reforms.
Most notably, the promise of increased wages/more wage growth has been a sore point for aged care workers, who have been “bitterly disappointed” at the delays in pay rises—which are only set to grow in 2026.
However, the additional funds from the budget could mean:
The budget forecast looks somewhat promising, with increases in funding. However, delays to reforms and the implementation of wage increases remain ongoing challenges that the government has yet to address.
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