Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My father turned 92 years old yesterday. I went and celebrated his birthday with him. He's actually in Wolper hospital at the moment, which is in my electorate. Like many, he has been a beneficiary of our aged-care system, and, like many of us here, I suspect, I'm familiar with the system through my interactions in looking after an ageing parent.

Truly, I think a measure of our decency as a society is how we look after our elderly and ensure they can continue to live lives of meaning, dignity and purpose, even when physical and mental frailties take hold. In Australia we have about 1.3 million people accessing some form of aged care, and this number is only going to increase over time. This is why improving aged care for senior Australians is a very high priority for this government, as it should be. It's why one of the first acts of Scott Morrison as Prime Minister was to call a royal commission into aged care quality and safety. This royal commission has uncovered some troubling concerns in this sector, which it highlighted in its October 2019 interim report, including the management of dementia patients, the prevalence of young people in inappropriate residential aged-care facilities, the use of chemical and physical restraints, and the shortage of home care packages. The royal commission's interim report is clear: as a country, we—the government, the aged-care sector and the entire Australian community—can and must do better in providing improved support for our older Australians.

In response to the royal commission's interim report, the government announced a $537 million funding package across the three priority areas, including investing almost $500 million for an additional 10,000 home-care packages. The additional 10,000 home-care packages will be focused on the royal commission's identified areas of need and are strongly weighted towards level 3 and level 4 packages, which provide a high level of care. These additional 10,000 packages have been rolled out since December last year. Since the 2018-19 budget, the government has invested $2.7 billion in 44,000 new home-care packages. We've more than doubled the number of home-care packages available, to a record 150,000 this financial year. Undoubtedly there is still more work to be done to ensure older Australians have the choice to stay in their homes for longer, but these are important steps.

Part of the challenge is to ensure a better and less traumatic experience for older Australians entering aged care, and it is for this reason that we are seeking to create a single assessment workforce that will assess eligibility for access to all aged-care services. David Tune said in his review:

… to create a seamless aged care system that is responsive to consumer needs and enable the government to fully understand demand, it should be a priority to combine the RAS and ACAT—

or regional assessment service and aged care assessment team—

assessment workforces and systems into an integrated assessment workforce.

The royal commission noted in its interim report: 'The royal commission considers that this integration needs to be progressed urgently.' The government intends to implement this recommendation and integrate the two assessment workforces. This was announced in the 2018-19 budget. The new system will support greater flexibility in the assessment process by avoiding the need to schedule second assessments and by providing simpler and more-convenient options for clients to enter My Aged Care, including through GP referral and online self-service. This will help people to be connected to care sooner, reduce duplication and inefficiencies and stop a revolving door of assessments where vulnerable older people get sent to multiple organisations, depending on the programs for which they are eligible.

The intention to undertake a tender has been public for more than a year, with state and territory officials consulted on a number of occasions. States and territories will be able to tender and provide the integrated assessment services, just as they do now. As you would know, Deputy Speaker Gillespie, the Commonwealth does not directly provide assessments. It has always managed assessments through various forms of contracts or agreements with the states, territories or community based organisations.

What all this is about is improving the experience and lessening the stress and trauma for older Australians and helping to ensure older Australians can access the services they need sooner. This should be a goal that we can all get behind.

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