Time Well Spent

We've spent nine months listening to the people actually running aged care in this country. Here's what we'd tell the minister if we had five minutes. In today's episode we distil nine months of guest conversations into six direct policy asks for the Minister for Aged Care, Hon Sam Rae. From letting good operators prove better models of care, to scrapping star ratings and fixing care minutes for g...

We're choosing to underfund aged care, and as a society, we're choosing to look away. Melissa Argent and Adrian Morgan join us again to dig into why aged care still isn't the election issue it should be. Why we're not short on money but short on the political courage to talk about where it should go. Nothing is off the table: profit, bureaucracy, policy, and the CHSP elephant nobody has a plan for...

The board didn't think the organisation would survive. Almost 5 years later, St Andrew's is approaching $50M turnover, operating above 98% occupancy across three facilities, and developing one of the more interesting dementia care models in Australia. In today’s episode, Dane and Rose talk to Todd Yourell, CEO of St Andrews and discuss what that transformation actually looked like. From a surprise...

As two people who work in aged care, there is a lot we’re not happy with in this industry… And if we’re honest, there are things we’re scared could happen to us one day too. In this episode, we wanted to get personal about what we think the aged care industry needs to do if people are going to have a meaningful life in residential aged care. This conversation is shaped by our personal thoughts and...

Australia needs more aged care beds, more home care capacity, more workforce, more investment and more innovation. But the data is starting to show a much harder question: who is actually in a position to deliver it? Today, Dane and Rose are sitting down with Lauren Ffrost from KPMG to unpack the 2026 Aged Care Market Analysis and what it reveals about the pressure building across the sector. They...

Most providers are already spending money on physio and reablement, but the bigger question is whether residents, families and leadership teams can actually see the value of what’s being delivered. In this episode, Rose turns the mic on Dane and his Operations Manager and Physio, Michael, to talk about what reablement looks like inside residential aged care, what the Act now requires providers to...

We don’t like to think of aged care as oppressive. The people working in it care deeply. Most homes are doing their best with tight margins and limited time. But what if some of the buildings themselves are still carrying a legacy we haven’t properly questioned? In this episode, Rose goes back to where it all began - when dementia wasn’t treated as a condition, but as something shameful. Something...

Gwenda Darling has been living with a dementia diagnosis for 14 years. When she was first diagnosed, she believed her life was effectively over. For nearly four months, she stopped leaving the house. Since then, Gwenda has become a fierce advocate for older people and aged care residents. She has served four terms on the Council of Elders and continues to push for the needs, rights and choices of...

What if dementia care was designed around everyday life instead of rosters, risk avoidance and locked doors? In Port Macquarie, a small aged care provider has built a full village for people living with dementia and after 18 months, the outcomes are forcing questions about how care is traditionally delivered. Emmaus lets people living with dementia cook their own meals, choose when they eat, gives...

It’s not news that we need more beds. More providers, more investment. more innovation. At the same time, it’s getting harder and harder to enter into the market, harder to make a return, and harder to speak up about what sustainability actually requires. So where do we go from here? Today Dane and Rose are talking with Mel Argent, from Rockpool Residential Aged Care. They’re talking about everyth...

We talk a lot about fixing aged care. And a lot of it comes down to the system we’ve built. But what if the problem isn’t just the system… it’s the way we’ve designed the entire experience of ageing? In this episode, Dane and Rose sit down with Paul Browne from LDK, who’s built a model trying to challenge exactly that. From the “one move promise”… to why today’s residents expect something complete...

The New South Wales coroner recently released findings into two deaths at a Sydney aged care home. Two residents on modified diets for swallowing difficulties. Both choked to death on food they should never have been given. When something like this happens, the response is often to look for who got it wrong. But what if the real issue is how easy it is for things to go wrong in the first place? In...

We spent two years trying to protect older Australians. But did anyone actually ask them what they wanted? During COVID, aged care became one of the most tightly controlled environments in the country. Residents were isolated, families were locked out and providers were making big decisions without any solid evidence. We’re sure you don’t need to be reminded how that played out. Today Dane and Ros...

Metro homes make up around 65% of the sector. So they should be the most financially stable right? They’re performing the worst. At the same time, more than half of providers are still losing money… and we’re being told the system is improving. So what are the numbers actually telling us? In this episode, Dane and Rose sit down with Stuart Hutcheon from StewartBrown to break down the latest benchm...

We design aged care services around living well. But what about leaving well? Death is inevitable in residential care, and yet most organisations have no clear framework for what a good death looks like. No structured training, no consistent rituals, and in some cases, no funding for the final day of care. So today Dane is turning the mic on Rose, to sit down and unpack the policies we don’t have,...

What happens when an industry built on care is uncomfortable talking about money? Aged care is framed as something that should exist outside the language of profit, investment and commercial thinking. But without those things, it becomes very difficult to build the homes, services and communities the next generation of older Australians will rely on. And that time is coming quickly. In this episod...

Australia has an Aged Care Home problem. And it’s already creating pressure in regional communities. Current projections suggest that 80,000 additional beds will be needed over the next decade. They’re currently being built at less than 1,000 beds a year … And the gap is starting to have a very real effect on the industry.  We’re already seeing it play out in service viability, workforce strain an...

4,812 older Australians died waiting for the right level of home care last financial year. When Adrian Morgan last joined the podcast, he warned that Support at Home could create serious unintended consequences. Six months on, a lot of those predictions have played out. So what went wrong? In this episode, Adrian Morgan is sitting down with Dane and Rose to talk about what’s happened since the Act...

Most aged care organisations simply talk about dementia. Warrigal decided to formalise it, take it to the board, and make it measurable. Today Dane and Rose sit down with Jenni Hutchings, CEO of Warrigal, to talk about why Warrigal chose to formalise its approach to dementia through a 2030 Dementia Action Plan. The conversation looks at what shifts when dementia is treated as an organisational res...

The last time we had Paul Sadler on the podcast, we spoke about the upcoming reforms to the Support at Home program that were due to go live in November. The reforms are now live and for many older Australians and providers, the reality looks very different to what was promised. We wanted to get Paul back on the show to talk about exactly what has happened after the roll out of the Support at Home...

In this deeply personal episode of Time Well Spent, co-host Rose Plater turns the microphone toward Dane Mitchell to explore the story that quietly shaped his life, values, and leadership in care. At the heart of the conversation is Lola, Dane’s Nan, a woman of deep faith who devoted her life to raising more than 160 children as matron of a Baptist children’s home. Known simply as “Mum” to every c...

Payroll compliance is now one of the biggest risks in aged care. Every provider, even the well-run ones, uncover errors driven by 24/7 rosters, complex Modern Awards and constant legislative change. In this episode, Dane and Rose speak with Siobhain Simpson, Partner at StuartBrown, who has audited hundreds of providers and never completed an audit without finding payroll issues. Siobhain breaks do...

In this powerful episode of Time Well Spent, hosts Dane Mitchell and Rose Plater sit down with data evangelist and aged-care innovator Rob Covino, CEO MIRUS Australia, to explore how AI, automation, and predictive technology are reshaping the future of care in Australia. Rob shares candid insights into the challenges and opportunities facing aged-care providers—from workforce fatigue and inefficie...

What happens after a cyber breach and how can providers be ready before it strikes? In this episode of Time Well Spent, we sit down with leading cyber lawyer and incident response expert Reece Corbett-Wilkins to explore the realities behind data breaches in the aged care and NDIS sectors. Key links: Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024-2025 | Cyber.gov.au – annual status including average costs of cybe...

Paul Sadler joins "Time Well Spent" for an unflinching look at Australia's aged care reform: what’s working, what’s gridlocked, and how real change hangs on rights, funding, and workforce realities. From the promise of the new Aged Care Act—putting human rights at the heart of care—to the systemic roadblocks of rationed packages, hospital bed bottlenecks, and a sector under intense financial and s...