Below, ACTA CEO Murray Coates congratulates the Government on extending CHSP until 2029 and addresses ACTA’s national membership.
There is now an opportunity for Government to consider CHSP remaining a standalone program, separate from Support at Home.
For ACTA, this is an important commitment. Community transport providers understand firsthand the preventative and social value CHSP delivers, and we look forward to bringing that experience and evidence to the co-design process.
For our sector, this matters. Why? Because together, we have consistently advocated for CHSP to remain a distinct, block-funded, community-based and preventative program. Community transport is not simply about getting older Australians from A to B. It connects older Australians to healthcare, shopping, family, friends and their communities. It helps people maintain their independence and, critically, remain living safely at home.
But 2029 is not the finish line.
The Hon Sam Rae MP, Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, acknowledged the important social value of CHSP and its role as a preventative platform supporting older Australians to remain connected, independent and living in their communities.
ACTA congratulates the Minister on his opening address at the Invox Conference on Monday, 24 August, and particularly welcomes his invitation for the sector to engage in the consultation and co-design process for the future of CHSP, which begins with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing next month.
We now have the time to work with Government to build a stronger, sustainable CHSP that reflects what it actually costs to deliver community transport across Australia. This is the opportunity for the Government to genuinely co-design the future of aged care services with the sector, consumers, families and carers. As a sector, we must secure our place at the table where decisions are made — and make sure our voices are heard, loud and clear!
A sustainable CHSP needs appropriate growth funding so services can respond to increasing demand, alongside dedicated sector support and development funding to strengthen provider capability, workforce, innovation and service capacity. Protecting CHSP is important; we must also invest in the sector, so it is equipped to deliver the stronger, sustainable program we want to see beyond 2029.
ACTA has already started building the evidence for that conversation and will continue representing the community transport sector to advocate for what matters for senior Australians.
Through our National Community Transport Pricing Model (NCTPM) research, we have been examining what sits underneath the real cost of delivering community transport — not simply the number of trips delivered.
That means understanding costs at a granular level; looking at efficient service-delivery ratios; recognising the very different realities of metropolitan, regional, rural and remote services; examining demand and available service capacity; and developing appropriate remoteness calculations.
It also means moving beyond blunt, one-size-fits-all indexation towards an approach that reflects the real cost drivers of community transport. This is consistent with the direction set by the Royal Commission, which called for CHSP indexation to better reflect movements in the actual costs of delivering services. For community transport, ACTA believes that means a fit-for-purpose hybrid indexation model that recognises wages, transport and vehicle costs, insurance and other operating pressures.
A sustainable model must sit alongside appropriate quality and safeguarding arrangements, proportionate regulation and better data collection. Good data should tell us what services actually cost, where demand exists, where markets are thin, what capacity communities need and what outcomes transport delivers for older Australians.
These are the building blocks of a pricing and funding framework that can work in the real world.
And importantly, ACTA isn’t developing these positions from behind a desk.
At our recent National Conference, we brought community transport providers together for an ACTA workshop on the future of CHSP. We asked the sector what is working, what isn’t working and what must be protected as Government considers the program beyond 2029.
The message was clear: protect the foundations that make CHSP work, particularly block funding, flexibility, affordability, local service capacity and the human connection at the heart of community transport; while fixing the parts that are no longer keeping pace with the cost and complexity of delivering services.
We have brought those voices together in our ACTA CHSP Workshop Summary – What We Heard, which is now available on our website: CHSP-Post-2027-ACTA-National-Conference-Workshop.pdf
The Government has confirmed that next month it will begin consultation and co-design on the long-term future of CHSP, including how entry-level services are funded and the future role of block funding.
ACTA will be at that table.
We will bring the evidence from the NCTPM. We will bring the experience of providers operating across metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australia. And, most importantly, we will bring the voices of the people and communities who depend on these services every day.
Keeping CHSP until 2029 is an important win. Now, we need to make these next few years count.
This is our opportunity to build a CHSP that is properly funded, evidence-based, locally responsive and sustainable well beyond 2029.
And ACTA intends to make that opportunity count.
Murray Coates
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Community Transport Association
