Ahead of the May Budget, Tom Symondson, the CEO of the Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA), says the peak body’s No. 1 priority is a “national discussion” around co-contributions in order to bring consumers along.

“This is a topic that no one’s felt able to talk about publicly for decades. It is only now in the last three or four months that we have started to talk about it as a subject,” he told The SOURCE.

“We haven’t put forward specific measures because our view is we need to bring consumers with us.

“We do not feel able to put forward specific measures before we’ve had that conversation with consumers, with our members, with experts in funding policy and with a whole range of stakeholders.”

This is why ACCPA has not joined a consortium of aged care peak bodies and providers that are calling for the Basic Daily Fee to be uncapped, Tom added.

“All of those measures need to be on the table, whether it’s uncapping the Daily Fee or changing the cap, looking at the way the means test works and looking at RADs and DAPS.

“But our strategy is to work with all of the people who are likely to be impacted by a change in consumer contributions. And number one, that’s consumers.”