With just weeks before the federal election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited northern Australia to unveil a $60 million pledge to build a new residential aged care home in Darwin.
The facility will deliver at least 120 new beds to help ease long-running shortages in the Top End.
The announcement forms part of a broader pre-election health pitch for the Northern Territory.
Albanese positioned it as a sign of Labor’s commitment to fix aged care, following the Royal Commission’s scathing interim report released in May 2024.
Albanese said the report was “summed up best in the title, ‘neglect.’”
“When we came to office, there had been an Aged Care Royal Commission. We had a programme of dealing with the immediate issues,” he said.
“We provided a 28 percent increase in wages of people working in the aged care sector.”
The prime minister said the reforms had stabilised the workforce, which had been losing experienced staff.
Wider NT Health Spend Targets Remote and Youth Care
The Darwin aged care facility is one element of a larger package, including $10.1 million for CareFlight to purchase an aircraft for remote medical evacuations.The plane will support up to 700 patient transfers a year, especially during the wet season when access is most restricted.
Labor is also committing to expand mental health support with an upgraded Medicare Mental Health Centre in Alice Springs and a new Headspace Plus and youth specialist care centre in Darwin.
“These are on top of the record investment we’ve made in Northern Territory hospitals,” Albanese said, pointing to a 30 percent per capita funding increase, “the largest of any jurisdiction” as part of a $1.7 billion national hospital funding uplift announced earlier this year.
Albanese also highlighted past funding of $12.6 million for new aged care beds in Maningrida and an almost $1 billion total investment in First Nations aged care nationally.
Election Contest Shifts to the Regions
The prime minister’s announcement comes a day after the Coalition pledged to establish a $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund, aimed at improving infrastructure, health, and childcare services in rural and remote areas.Nationals leader David Littleproud said the fund would target “the last mile of infrastructure spend that doesn’t fit in the normal pots of money.”
It is expected to generate a $1 billion annual dividend, distributed via competitive grants to not-for-profits and local councils.
The money could go towards upgrading aged care and childcare facilities, boosting digital connectivity, or expanding placements in the regions.
The Coalition’s proposal also includes a Future Generations Fund—a second stream designed to pay down national debt while continuing to support long-term infrastructure needs.
