Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to take the opportunity to support the Aged Care Amendment (2008 Measures No. 2) Bill 2008. This bill provides the most extensive changes to the aged-care regulatory regime in the last 10 years and it is the first broad set of changes for aged care under the Rudd Labor government. Older Australians deserve high-quality care regardless of whether they are in residential care or receiving community care in their own homes. Older Australians are and have always been an incredibly valued asset in our community. They have helped shape this country. They have shaped the composition of modern Australia, and they will continue to make a significant contribution to society with a lifetime of skills, knowledge and experience.

This bill before the chamber today highlights how serious we are about older Australians and how committed we are to one of the major challenges faced by the nation—that is, protecting our aged and frail. I regularly take the opportunity, as I am sure most members do, to recognise the contributions of older Australians in our local communities not only to their families but also within the communities themselves. I encourage the participation by older Australians in various community activities.

Only last month, I had the opportunity of presenting six community service awards to older Australians on behalf of my community of Werriwa. Between them, the six recipients clocked up almost 20 years of service to our community. Such an effort is more than worthy of recognition and appreciation. The award recipients were: Samuel Oliver, who was nominated by the Lurnea Adult Activity Centre; Alf Cooper, Elizabeth Henderson, Gwen Scherer and Dorothy Kerr-Lansom, who were nominated by the Pembroke Lodge in Minto; and Jean Cameron, who was nominated by the Campbelltown City Senior Citizens and Pensioners Welfare Club. Without these amazing people, so many things that we ordinarily take for granted in our communities would simply not take place at all. Whether it is organising the regular bus trips, organising activities and outings or working to assist in various charitable works in our communities, these things, unfortunately, fall to people in some cases who have the time but above all who have the commitment, wherewithal and ability to keep making these contributions. Like other members, I do try to recognise and honour that continued community activity by many of the older Australians in my electorate. By the way, they do not do it to compete for awards or honours. There is no fuss or fanfare about these people. They are very committed and they worked diligently to ensure that our communities are the better for it.

This bill will go a long way to continuing to please and reward older Australians by amending the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care (Bond Security) Act 2006 to address current legislative inadequacies and maintain effective regulatory safeguards for ensuring high-quality care for our older Australians. In particular, these amendments will link approved provider status to the allocation of aged-care places directly linked to the Commonwealth funding. They will modernise the legislation so that it better aligns with contemporary business practices and applies to all approved providers regardless of their corporate structures. They will streamline the assessment of frail and older Australians to ensure that more timely, consistent and quality assessments are provided. They will ensure that any accommodation bonds or like payments paid by our older Australians for entry into aged care are fully protected under the Commonwealth bonds guarantee scheme, and they will make some minor operational changes to improve the administration of the legislation so that it operates in a more efficient and effective manner.

The Minister for Ageing outlined in her second reading speech that the features of this bill are significantly different to what existed in 1997 when the Aged Care Act came into effect. A bit over a decade later, the sector has, quite frankly, evolved from one which was typically a one-site, one-service type where the owner of the facility was also the operator, to now one—and my electorate is no different to many others here—that is often a multi-site, multi-state and certainly multi-service operation using complex financial and legal arrangements. In other words, there are large business models underpinning these facilities. That is really what has eventuated over the last 10 years or so.

The last decade has also seen a significant increase in the levels of investment in the sector from large corporate entities, where the owner and operator of the facility have distinct roles and distinct responsibilities which are often very separate. They cannot, in other words, be considered one and the same. Therefore, in many instances, the current business model that exists now does not actually lend itself to scrutiny of these complex corporate structures. The changes which are laid out in the bill are now very much intended to ensure that the regulations do keep pace with these changing developments within this industry generally.

The bill is aimed at a range of people who are considered to be the key personnel for the proposed regulatory scrutiny. Currently, as the minister put it in her second reading speech, the existing legislation is aimed at those who pull the financial strings. But they may not necessarily be considered the key personnel. The amendments before us will ensure that an inspection of all of those who pull the financial strings and the relevant provisions apply consistently to all approved providers. The bill will provide better protection for residents and promote public confidence by increasing the capacity for the Department of Health and Ageing to consider the record of the related entity when making decisions about approvals. This is very important. It is not just about whether the entity has the ability to bankroll a development; it also goes to the actual record in service delivery. So it will assist people, not only the frail and the elderly but also their children who are helping to make decisions on their behalf in some instances, to see the company’s record of service delivery and therefore to judge suitability. I think that is also significant. From the department’s position, this will allow them to assess suitability by having regard to the delivery of service record of those who are seeking approval for these developments.

Importantly, the bill also makes changes to the regulatory and administrative framework. The bill will make clear that only aged-care services are regulated under the Aged Care Act, removing uncertainty about which aged-care services are regulated by this legislation. This is necessary given contemporary developments. What we are now seeing—which, again, I think is pretty consistent across all our electorates—is that developers are sometimes developing aged-care retirement villages and disabled care all in the same development. That gives rise to a level of uncertainty as to the regulatory regime that actually applies throughout that total development and particularly how it impacts or does not fully impact under the Aged Care Act.

These reforms all add up to greater confidence for aged-care recipients and their providers about their rights, obligations and protections that apply under this scheme of regulation. As the shadow minister indicated, she understood that these amendments had the support of industry. It is important to note that the changes outlined in the bill have been subject to significant consultation with the aged-care sector, largely undertaken through the Ageing Consultative Committee. In addition to the committee’s activities, there was broad consultation through the distribution of a paper prepared by the Department of Health and Ageing that resulted in substantial written submissions received from stakeholders that informed the development and finetuning of the complex legislative and policy reform process.

I would like to spend a little time talking about some aged-care facilities in my electorate of Werriwa. Like all members, I visit aged-care facilities and these ones in my electorate operate at a very high standard and have a proven record when it comes to aged care. For instance, the Blue Hills Village at Prestons is a market leader in the field. They have a very close cooperation with their local community and provide high-quality service, particularly for veterans. Maurice Tulich is the CEO of the village and is a bloke I have known for many years. He is certainly committed to excellence. It is a family owned and operated business and continues a proud tradition of growth and change to meet community needs and market demand. He has just opened a new facility on the outskirts of Menangle in the electorate of my colleague the member for Macarthur. It is a state-of-the-art facility and one that we can be justly proud of in the south-west of Sydney.

It was not all that long ago that the Minister for Ageing, the Hon. Justine Elliot, paid a visit to the Blue Hills Village to pay tribute to Ian Monro for his voluntary work with members of the community at the Blue Hills Village as well as the wider community of Prestons. The minister also went to the Frank Whiddon Masonic Nursing Home, Easton Park, at Glenfield. She met with residents at two of the facilities and gained a greater understanding about Masonic homes generally throughout New South Wales. Robert Hillier, the CEO, and his staff are highly trained and professional people. The significance of the Frank Whiddon Masonic Nursing Home is that it is the headquarters for all the Masonic homes operating in New South Wales. The minister was able to spend an hour or two with Robert and his staff discussing a broad range of issues applying to the industry. We are very fortunate to have people of that calibre in my electorate. Two other local aged-care facilities I would like to mention are Maple Grove at Casula, which is managed by Barbara Mullen, and Pembroke Lodge at Minto, which is managed by Joseph Zhou and the director is Lorraine Rushbrook. Lorraine only recently visited my office with a number of residents from Pembroke Lodge, ones we specifically recognised for their continued commitment to the community of south-west Sydney.

Many people agonise over decisions to move their parents—or grandparents, in many respects; in my case, my parents—to a retirement community. As the previous speaker—the shadow minister for ageing—has said, a lot of this in terms of community expectations goes back to people seeking to have the standard of care that we want to afford our own parents, and there certainly are changes in expectations in that respect. The retirement community in Werriwa have excellent choices in terms of their retirement community providers. Before I finish talking about my local providers I should say—on behalf of the government but certainly on my own behalf—that there is a genuine appreciation for the time, the effort and the commitment that the wonderful staff of the community providers show and the dignity they provide in looking after the older Australians in my electorate of Werriwa.

I will return now to what this bill is about. This bill comes about in the midst of a global economic crisis but, again, we are taking decisive actions to strengthen the Australian economy. This bill will make a significant amendment that will help protect the accommodation bonds of older Australians. By the way, as at 30 June last year there was $6.3 billion in bonds held under the guarantee scheme. Currently, under the accommodation bond guarantee scheme, repayment of the bonds is made only in the event of the provider becoming insolvent or bankrupt. As we have discussed over the last number of years, there are many business structures operating out there that simply being insolvent or bankrupt may not be the sole protections required in terms of these guarantees. Many have been put in, as I know myself, on behalf of parents and others, so a level of financial security is required. This bill will strengthen the protections of the bonds by ensuring that they are fully protected by the guarantee scheme, not just in instances of insolvency or bankruptcy, and therefore these assets will be protected. And, by the way, these are sometimes the assets of some of those most vulnerable in our society.

The other proposed amendments concern police checks. At the moment, under the existing legislation, police checks are provided only for people who are working as staff with unsupervised access to residents. This government is committed to ensuring that older Australians in nursing homes and hostels receive quality care in a safe and secure environment. As such, the amendment before us will ensure that all persons working in these facilities, regardless of their activities, are obligated to undergo police checks. As I say, this will extend police checking to all staff, regardless of whether they are supervised or unsupervised. The only criterion is that they have access to residents. Further, the waiting time will be reduced for aged-care assessments by streamlining the assessments. During the consultation stage, as I mentioned a little earlier, it was identified that one of the major causes of discontent is the level of time it takes for an individual to be assessed by an aged-care assessment team. This is now going to be streamlined to best meet the needs of the people concerned and to ensure that the services being provided are the most appropriate. Nevertheless, the amendments to the bill will make the assessments more efficient and more effective.

Finally, the bill will also provide for a more formal arrangement in respect of notifications of missing persons and for those notifications to be put through to the Department of Health and Ageing when residents are reported missing to police. This is to ensure that appropriate safeguards are put into a system so that, when a person has gone missing, appropriate action is being taken by the provider to ensure that, where possible, we guard against similar breaches occurring. Again, that is a significant measure of security.

Over the next four years, the Australian government will provide more than $40 billion in funding to aged and community care, including $28.6 billion to nursing homes and hostels. As I said at the outset of the speech, this legislation provides extensive change, which is long overdue, to the Aged Care Act. More importantly, it is about protecting the most vulnerable members of our society: the frail, the aged, and the infirm. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate (on motion by Mr Lindsay) adjourned.

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