Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to put on record my thanks to the minister for the briefing in relation to the amendments that appeared in the Senate to this Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Bill 2018.

I think these nine amendments do go some way towards strengthening the bill. I do want to reiterate my concerns that I put on the record in the House, though. We still have a number of concerns on our side of the House. There's clearly a lot of work to do to get this new commission up and running by 1 January. I hope that the government gets onto that job without delay. I also want to put on the record that Labor has not at any stage tried to impede the passage of this bill in getting through either house of parliament. We know how important these bills are to people who are currently in the aged-care system, their families and their loved ones. We need to make sure that we give them as much protection as we can. Obviously, there's now a royal commission into aged-care services in Australia, but I just wanted to put on the record that Labor does support these amendments. We still don't think they go far enough.

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