the Aged Care Today magazine featured articles

Budget night is one of the biggest events on the policy calendar. The handing down of the Federal Budget by the Treasurer – usually at 7.30pm on a Tuesday night in May – is the culmination of months of work by the government, the public service and advocacy organisations like Ageing Australia. There is significant media coverage and great interest from our members. This year around 500 of you attended our budget webinar.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in preparing our response. Much of it happens in the ‘budget lockup’ which I attended for Ageing Australia this year.

The budget lockup is a tradition that dates back to the Chifley Government in the 1940s. While things have changed a bit since then, the basic idea is the same: representatives from the media and peak advocacy bodies are given an embargoed copy of the entire budget to view ahead of release so that our response can be ready to go as soon as the Treasurer ends his speech.

The lockup is a unique experience. At 4pm, representatives from peak bodies from every sector start arriving at Parliament House. We shuffle through to the backrooms where we hand over our phones and show that our laptops are on airplane mode. We find a seat in one of these rooms that are alarmingly reminiscent of exam halls and are handed physical and electronic copies of all budget papers. From 4.30pm until the Treasurer hands down the budget we work through the papers, checking and interpreting the announcements relevant to our sectors.

Treasury officials are there to answer questions, as are colleagues from other peak bodies. It’s important to share notes (and snacks – special thanks to Tamara Thomas from UnitingCare Australia on both fronts) to try and determine some of the more confusing figures in the papers or to find any announcements hiding in the weeds.

Through conversations with Minister Rae’s office and with our contacts at the Department in the weeks leading up to budget, we usually have a rough outline of what to expect. Minister Butler’s Press Club address in April and the release of the accommodation pricing review gave us a good idea about much of the residential care funding.

But even with these tips, there is a lot to analyse and the three hours in the lockup passes rapidly.

If you missed our budget coverage, I would summarise our response to the $3.7 billion as welcome, but clearly not enough to meet growing demand. A more nuanced analysis is available on our website.

We focus a lot on that Tuesday night, but there is a lot more that goes on before and after budget night to progress our policy asks. Many of you will see our visible advocacy in the form of pre-budget submissions, media releases and media interviews, but what is less visible is the significant behind the scenes work with senior department representatives, with Ministers Rae and Butler, and sometimes more importantly with government backbenchers and the Treasury.

Another important event on the calendar for budget week is the Health Minister’s post-budget breakfast. These breakfasts are often more useful for networking than for actual policy announcements, but this year there were a few notable statements.

First, Minister Butler’s portfolio receives over half of all pre-budget submissions made to the government. Ageing Australia’s submission is one of over 2,000 seeking to influence government policy and funding allocation. The takeaway is that we are in a contested environment, and that submissions alone do not achieve policy change.

Second, Minister Butler spoke at some length about the future of aged care. We heard that Ministers Butler and Rae want to see changes in the plans for CHSP, and that they want to work constructively with us to do that.

Finally, it was reassuring to hear Minister Butler say that we should expect to see aged care feature heavily in all upcoming budgets. This means he knows the job is not done. Our job is to make sure the solutions are the right ones.