Sky News host Paul Murray invented a political debate over aged care funding earlier this week, claiming the Government was delaying the release of the Aged Care Taskforce Final Report until after the Dunkley by-election on 2 March because including the family home in means testing for aged care "could move votes".
Paul told the audience that 96% of care costs in residential aged care are paid by the Government compared with 4% from consumer contributions, with a house worth $300,000 assessed in the same way as a house worth $3 million, both statements that are relatively on the money.
But he then went on the attack.
"Are we about to change the aged care system where the worth of your home is what you are going to have to put on the line?" he asked rhetorically. "Because the Government says that's the way to pay for your aged care," he surmised.
"As I can hear you through the television, you've worked hard to pay off that house. You've worked in the garden for how long? You've paid, how much money for the renovations that turned it from the place that you bought for far less into the place that, yes, one day when it's sold, will be worth an awful lot more money," he said.
He said the last time he raised the issue of including the family home in means testing for aged care, he got a "huge amount of response".
"The plan has got a lot of wrong and people are going to get mighty annoyed about it, and rightly so," he said.
Was anyone watching however? Paul's Late Night Live show airs at 9pm and reached about 43,000 viewers according to the latest daily data.
