Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here today and will be relatively brief on this bill, the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014, because there are other members on our side who would also like to discuss this important change to how the aged-care sector will be able to manage itself. I will start by saying that we on this side understand the importance of aged care to regional and rural communities in particular. The idea that you can grow up in a community, spend your life in a community and then spend those last years in that community is incredibly important to this side of the House. We have all seen, and still see today, the contribution that the not-for-profit sector makes to small rural and regional communities when it comes to providing aged-care facilities. Many of those facilities are still run by volunteers from the community. Many of those facilities have been built on the basis of voluntary contribution by those communities, and it is incredibly important that those facilities can continue to operate in our regional and rural communities.

This bill will help in that regard. Obviously it makes consequential amendments to the Aged Care Act 1997, but it does so in one particularly significant way. It repurposes the workforce supplement. This was a coalition election commitment, because we did not want our aged-care facilities run under a central command system. The previous speaker, the member for Throsby, referred to there being nothing as blinding as bigotry. I could not quite work out what he was referring to when it comes to this bill, but I say to the member for Throsby: nothing blinds like self-interest. The sad thing is that in the dying days of the Gillard government all we saw from that government was it trying to do everything it could to support the only people who were really remaining loyal to it: the union bosses. Sadly, this was another initiative that had nothing to do with helping aged-care facilities on the ground. I spoke to numerous aged-care facilities around this time, and they did not like the idea of Canberra centrally controlling what they should or should not be doing with their budgets. As a matter of fact, they saw it as a complete throwback to some old Soviet-style system. So I would say, with due respect, to the member for Throsby that I think it was self-interest on their side that was dictating this policy.

These are important amendments. But so, too, are other initiatives that the government is making towards the aged-care sector. We see a 2.4 per cent increase in care funding for eligible aged-care programs from 1 July 2014. Importantly, we see a $54million funding boost for aged care providers in regional, rural and remote areas from 1 July 2014 through a 20 per cent increase to the viability supplement. Also, the government is undertaking a stocktake of workforce initiatives to inform an aged-care workforce development strategy as well as future education and training priorities. This review will also consider where activity can benefit the aged-care and disability-service systems—very good methodical, common-sense ways to try to assist the aged care sector.

Obviously the sector is facing challenges at this time. We are seeing people staying in their homes longer, and, when they are using aged-care facilities, the time they spend in those aged-care facilities is shorter. This is placing increased pressure on these facilities. The government is determined to work through these issues with the sector, but it will do it in such a way that it will not be saying, 'Here from Canberra we know best and we will dictate how every dollar in ever instance is going to have to be spent.' We are going to use the completely opposite approach: we want to free up and give more flexibility to each aged-care provider so that they have the flexibility to look after their own long-term interests. So, I commend these amendments to the House, and I commend the government's policies and approaches to the aged-care sector.

See this speech in context