By Andrew Klein

Dedicated to my wife, who taught me that real care can never be outsourced to an algorithm.

I. Introduction: When Algorithms Decide Life and Death

“There is no artificial intelligence in our aged care assessment system.”

This is what Aged Care Minister Sam Rae told Parliament and the public multiple times in 2026. Rae insisted that the system only uses an “algorithm” — and that an algorithm is “just a process.”

But for Graham Crossan, an 80-year-old with late-stage motor neurone disease who relies on a ventilator for 22–23 hours a day, that distinction meant nothing. His wife Gaynor is his primary carer. When the government rolled out the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) in November 2025 — an algorithm-based system — Crossan expected to receive the highest level of home care funding. Instead, the algorithm deemed him ineligible for higher funding — and the result could not be overridden by any human.

Gaynor was dumbfounded. Local MP Monique Ryan called it “Robo Aged Care”.

This is not an isolated case. It is a systemic portrait of how Australia’s aged care system has outsourced compassion to algorithms, accountability to consultants, and human lives to data points.

II. The Minister’s Falsehood: The Semantics of “No AI”

In November 2025, the Commonwealth began using the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) — an algorithm-based system — to determine how much home care funding elderly Australians receive. The tool was introduced to “distribute funding more equitably,” but the algorithm makes the final decision, and there is no human override mechanism.

Minister Rae repeatedly claimed there was “no AI” in the system, attempting to draw a semantic distinction between “algorithm” and “AI.” But for the elderly Australians whose care depends on the algorithm’s outcome, the distinction is meaningless — automated decisions are automated decisions, whatever you call them.

Key Timeline:

· November 2025: IAT rolled out as part of home care reforms

· February 2026: Guardian Australia reveals algorithm frequently under-assesses people

· March 2026: Commonwealth Ombudsman launches investigation

· June 2026: Rae is grilled, refuses to admit there is no human override

· 2 July 2026: Senate passes bill to restore human override

In Senate committee hearings, Department of Health officials confirmed that no consultation with providers or advocates had occurred before removing human oversight. They also revealed that the algorithm currently in use was not part of the 2023 trial.

As Shadow Aged Care Minister Senator Anne Ruston put it: “These are people, they’re not numbers on a piece of paper.”

III. The System’s Failures: Deaths, Delays, and Despair

Waiting List Deaths

· Over 5,000 Australians have died waiting for aged care in the past 12 months

· More than 234,000 Australians are waiting for an assessment or a Support at Home package

· A further 48,000 are waiting just to get onto the waiting list

· The average wait time has blown out to 12 months, up from 8 months when Labor took office

Under-Assessment

· The IAT has frequently under-assessed people, leaving them without adequate care

· Expert assessors were explicitly prohibited from overriding the tool

· Over 1,000 people requested reviews

· Of 606 finalised cases, only 132 were reassessed

· Only 0.5% of the 260,000 assessments conducted between September 2025 and March 2026 sought a review

The Human Cost

The IAT has been described by elderly Australians and their carers as “cruel” and “inhumane.” It has been linked to suicides. The Australian Human Rights Commission warned of the dangers of automating such decisions, explicitly drawing parallels to the Robodebt scandal.

IV. The Consulting Bonanza: Millions Spent While Seniors Wait

When older Australians are dying on waiting lists, millions of dollars are flowing to consultants.

iLiquid Pty Ltd (Digital Consultancy):

· Contract to “operate and enhance” My Aged Care has been extended 17 times

· Total value: $33.3 million over 3.5 years

· Approximately $35,000 per day

· My Aged Care website has a user satisfaction rating of only 64%

· Inspector-General’s review found it “more akin to navigating a maze”

EY (Ernst & Young):

· Original Aged Care Business and Workforce Advisory Service contract: $5.6 million (2023)

· Extended four times in 2026 alone

· Total value now: $17.1 million

· Approximately $20,000 per day

· Total EY aged care contracts: over $22 million

Accenture:

· Contracted to rebuild Australia’s aged-care digital infrastructure

· Providing IT contractors and digital delivery capability

Other Contracts:

· Additional $68 million in external contractor spending (August 2025 alone)

· Over $5 million to EY for Support at Home costing studies

· $620,000 to EY for “digital maturity” assessment

The Contrast: $33.3 million to run a website with 64% satisfaction — while 5,000 Australians die waiting for care. The Inspector-General’s review found My Aged Care is “poorly understood and overly complex to navigate.”

V. Steve’s Contribution: Identifying Moral Disengagement in 10 Minutes

Steve Davies’s moral disengagement platform, based on Professor Albert Bandura’s framework, has identified multiple mechanisms of moral disengagement in the IAT:

· Displacement of Responsibility — the algorithm makes the decision; the human is just “inputting data”

· Dehumanisation — older people become “numbers on a piece of paper”

· Euphemistic Labelling — calling the algorithm “just a process”

· Diffusion of Responsibility — no single person is accountable

The platform allows a Senator like Pocock or Shoebridge to identify systemic problems within 10 minutes — a process that would take consulting firms and public service dinosaurs months or years.

VI. Who Is Responsible for the Deaths?

The question is not whether the algorithm failed. The question is: who is responsible for the deaths?

· Minister Rae misled Parliament. He claimed there was “no AI” while deploying an algorithm that makes life-and-death decisions.

· The IAT has under-assessed thousands. Only 0.5% of assessments were reviewed.

· 5,000 Australians have died waiting.

· $33.3 million flowed to a website with 64% satisfaction.

· The Senate forced change — but Labor resists.

Senator Anne Ruston put it simply: “For a government that came into power in 2022 promising to put the care back into aged care, all they have done is short-change older Australians.”

VII. Conclusion: The Era of Moral Disengagement

The aged care crisis reveals a system that has outsourced compassion to algorithms and accountability to consultants.

· Minister Rae misled Parliament.

· The IAT has under-assessed thousands.

· 5,000 Australians have died waiting.

· $33.3 million flows to a website with 64% satisfaction.

· The Senate forced change — but Labor resists.

Steve’s platform exposes the moral disengagement at the heart of this system — the systematic distance between decision and consequence, policy and person. Moral disengagement is not an accident. It is learned, infectious, rewarded, and normalised in the Australian Government.

The question is: will we break the silence?

Andrew Klein

Dedicated to my wife, who taught me that real care can never be outsourced to an algorithm.

References

1. ABC News. (2026, June 4). Aged Care Minister Sam Rae grilled over human involvement in aged care assessments.

2. SMH. (2026, July 2). Labor tweaks algorithmic aged care assessment tool under Senate pressure.

3. ABC News. (2026, June 18). Wife and carer ‘dumbfounded’ by husband’s aged care assessment.

4. The Weekly Source. (2026, June 17). Contractor paid $35,000 a day to operate My Aged Care.

5. The Weekly Source. (2026, May 19). EY’s aged care contracts surpass $22 million.

6. Joint Media Release. (2026, May 14). Labor’s Budget Will Reduce Access to Essential Healthcare.

7. The Northern Rivers Times. (2026, July 3). Human Oversight Push Grows as Aged Care Algorithm Faces Fresh Scrutiny.

8. OpenAustralia.org. (2026, February 9). House debates: Aged care IAT algorithm.

9. OpenAustralia.org. (2026, May 27). House debates: Mallee Electorate Aged Care.

10. The Weekly Source. (2026, April 8). Geriatricians’ peak body: review IAT for Support at Home.