A formidable coalition of aged care experts, providers, unions and consumer advocates has launched a determined campaign to prevent the government from dismantling one of Australia’s most successful community support programs.
The newly formed CHSP Alliance is calling for the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) to remain a standalone initiative and to be strengthened as the primary tier of a redesigned aged care system.
Formed in March 2026 with 40 foundation members, the Alliance includes peak bodies such as Dementia Australia, the Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation, Meals on Wheels Australia, and consumer groups including National Seniors Australia and Carers Australia.
In a series of detailed position statements released this month, the group argues that absorbing CHSP into the new Support at Home (SAH) program would undermine four decades of proven community care, drive up costs, and leave older Australians with fewer options to age in place.
Co-Convenor Professor Kathy Eagar AM, a respected health economist, does not mince words.
“Even after massively increasing fees for older people, the government does not raise sufficient revenue to provide everyone who needs one with an SAH package,” she said.
“CHSP is a well-established program and is highly efficient. An hour of SAH is 30 to 50 per cent more expensive than an hour of a CHSP service. It simply makes no sense to destroy an efficient program in favour of an inefficient one.”
Her fellow Co-Convenor, Paul Sadler, Chair of Meals on Wheels Australia, echoed the concern.
“CHSP is the perfect platform on which to build the new primary aged care tier,” he said.
“The program largely funds not-for-profit, community-based providers such as Meals on Wheels, community transport, allied health, and local government services. Most of these services will not be able to keep their doors open if CHSP closes.”
The CHSP has operated successfully for 40 years, beginning as the Hawke government’s Home and Community Care program and becoming fully Commonwealth-funded in 2015.
Today, it supports more than 800,000 older Australians through 1,265 providers operating from 3,652 outlets nationwide, delivering 115 million services each year.
These are everyday, preventative supports including meals, transport, home modifications, social connection programs, digital literacy classes, and assistance for older people experiencing homelessness. They help people remain independent in their own homes.
Unlike the individualised, fee-for-service SAH model, CHSP is grant-funded. It relies heavily on not-for-profit organisations and an army of volunteers, including 35,000 people who deliver Meals on Wheels alone.
The program has consistently recorded the lowest complaint rates in the aged care system and has proven particularly effective in regional, remote, First Nations, and culturally diverse communities.
The Alliance is proposing a clear three-tier structure for aged care, modelled directly on Australia’s health system.
CHSP would become the primary tier, the accessible, no-wrong-door entry point focused on prevention and early intervention, much like visiting a GP.
SAH would serve as the secondary tier for more intensive, specialist support, while residential care remains the tertiary level.
Under this model, people needing six hours or less of support per week could register directly with My Aged Care or be referred by their GP through social prescribing, avoiding the current assessment bottlenecks.
The Alliance believes this approach would deliver better outcomes at lower cost while easing pressure on hospitals and residential facilities.
In its April 2026 position statement, the Alliance sets out 15 detailed reasons for retaining CHSP as a separate program.
These include the program’s ability to foster innovation through grant funding, its unique capacity to mobilise volunteers and community resources, and its proven success in reaching vulnerable older people who are often overlooked in competitive markets.
The group also highlights serious design flaws in SAH, including high consumer co-payments, lengthy assessment queues, and limited flexibility to respond to changing needs.
With Australia facing a 60 per cent increase in people aged over 80 by 2035, the Alliance warns that scrapping an efficient preventative program would be both fiscally irresponsible and harmful to older Australians.
To make the vision a reality, the Alliance has drafted specific amendments to the Aged Care Act 2024.
These changes would create a new category of “primary aged care services” centred on prevention, reablement, and care coordination.
They would introduce a lighter regulatory pathway for non-government and community organisations, explicitly authorise grant funding and population-based commissioning, and allow low-intensity services to be accessed without a full individual assessment.
The proposals are designed to be cost neutral in the medium term, with potential long-term savings through reduced demand for higher cost hospital and residential care.
The Alliance also directly challenges the government’s claim that merging the programs would improve integration.
Instead, it advocates for horizontal integration through clear referral pathways between tiers, shared person-centred records, ideally linked to My Health Record, and regional planning to match services to local needs.
Vertical amalgamation, the group argues, has not worked in similar systems overseas and is not the solution here.
With the May 2026 federal budget fast approaching, the CHSP Alliance is pressing for three urgent measures: rescind the decision to fold CHSP into SAH, launch a formal co-design process with the sector to rebuild the program as the primary tier, and increase funding for CHSP services, particularly in areas with long waiting lists.
The breadth of the Alliance’s membership, spanning unions, geriatricians, allied health professionals, local governments, ethnic communities councils, and major consumer advocates, reflects a growing consensus across the sector.
As Sadler warned, “With a 60 per cent increase in people aged over 80 across the next decade, we cannot afford to get this wrong.”
The CHSP Alliance has laid out a clear, evidence-based roadmap and stands ready to work constructively with government on co-design.
The question now is whether Canberra will listen to this unprecedented coalition of experts or risk dismantling a program that has quietly supported generations of older Australians to live with dignity in their own homes.
All four position statements are available at mealsonwheels.org.au/learn-more/resources/.
