Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion regarding aged care and I welcome this opportunity to correct the record. The motion states in subparagraph (1)(d):

the Government has announced that it will privatise the ACAT workforce from April 2021, when a tender will be put out for organisations to deliver this vital assessment;

This government has consistently refuted the proposition that our intention is to privatise the assessment process for aged care. That assessment is incorrect—period. The intention is to undertake a tender, and this intention has been public for more than a year, with state and territory officials consulted on a number of occasions. Importantly, states and territories will be able to tender to provide the integrated assessment services.

The Commonwealth does not directly provide assessments. It has always managed assessments through various forms of contracts or agreements with either the states and territories or community based organisations. So what is actually changing? New aged-care assessment arrangements will provide streamlined consumer assessments for access to aged-care services from April 2021. Improved processes will mean that older Australians can get the care they need sooner. The new arrangement will address the current problem of too many people waiting too long for an aged-care assessment. As at 31 December last year, 591 people had waited over 75 days. Under the new arrangements, a single assessment workforce and a network of assessment organisations will assess eligibility for access to all government funded aged-care services. The new single assessment workforce will replace the two current assessment workforces: the Regional Assessment Service, or RAS; and the Aged Care Assessment Teams, or ACATs.

The new arrangements will provide a simpler, more convenient pathway to My Aged Care and a greater focus on reablement and linking support. These integrations are direct responses to recommendations that members on both sides of this House should be well aware of—namely, recommendation 27 of the Tune review, which was that government integrate RAS and ACAT, and the royal commission interim report, which said that this integration needs to be progressed urgently. Far from the privatisation of a public service, this plan streamlines the delivery of government services to senior Australians as recommended by expert reviews. Assertions to the contrary are false, plain and simple, and pair exceptionally well with the Labor Party's unbridled hypocrisy on this issue.

Despite Labor's plans for $387 billion in new taxes at the last election, including a retirees tax, Labor provided neither additional funding in their costings for home care places nor any additional funding for aged-care quality, workforce or mainstream residential aged care. The opposition would have senior Australians believe that our response to the interim report of the royal commission is, in some way, cold and callous. As always, the truth is quite the opposite. I would like to read a few of the things that the Prime Minister said when he was handed the interim report:

Today we have been handed the Interim Report. As warned, it's shocking, disturbing & heartbreaking.

We must establish a new culture of respect for senior Australians.

There is much to do both immediately & for the longer term. There are no easy solutions & we will apply ourselves totally.

This is all about the people we love & cherish. All older Australians should get the same care, support & dignity we would expect for our own families.

What you say matters, and the culture of fear and intimidation spread by the opposition through to our senior Australians is not lost on any of us. Labor's deceit shows they really don't understand the aged-care sector and want to score political points rather than implement genuine solutions. As Liberals and Nationals, we understand, and we understood, that more was needed. We launched the royal commission, and we are delivering better serves and reforms based on a deep care and respect for older Australians. I commend the government for its actions thus far and also extend my appreciation to the former Minister for Aged Care, the Hon. Ken Wyatt AM MP, who instituted this commission in the first place.

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