Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

There is a well-known saying: if it ain't broke don't fix it. So what is this government doing? It's taking one of the few parts of the aged-care system that is working and was not the subject of adverse findings by the royal commission and is 'fixing it' by privatising it. This plan to privatise ACAT assessment services is not supported by the aged-care sector, by state health ministers or by the royal commissioner. ACAT is a professional workforce of almost a thousand people across Australia—registered nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, physiotherapists, geriatricians—who are qualified and experienced and capable of doing proper assessments of the type of care older Australians need. What are those opposite going to do? They're going to privatise these assessments. What could possibly go wrong?

This proposal will only hurt older Australians, their families and those who love them. Rather than improving the process, it is more likely to cause disruption, anxiety and more delays. Rather than improving the process, it is more likely to result in a tick-and-flick approach to assessments that require experienced, capable and professional people. These are assessments that need time, experience and empathy to understand the person, their circumstances and their particular needs. We will not sit by while this government tries to privatise a workforce of at least a thousand qualified and experienced professionals such as the many people I worked with when I worked at Wyong hospital for almost 10 years.

The ACAT model is well respected across the health and aged-care sectors and, most importantly, it is trusted by older Australians, their families and those who love them. These are people like Therese, of Wyong. Therese's husband, Peter, lived with Parkinson's disease for 27 years. She was his full-time carer for over 15 years. Sadly, Peter passed away six months ago. Therese told me:

ACAT was a great support and helped to give Peter access to the best of care including occupational therapy and hydrotherapy. ACAT also assisted to get him a wheelchair.

Therese believes that ACAT would be ruined if it fell into the hands of private operators, and these concerns are shared by many. When the federal was minister was questioned about the privatisation of ACAT, he said, 'The royal commission supports us.' But this just isn't true. The aged-care royal commissioner had to intervene and say: 'The royal commission has not at all considered what should happen to the Aged Care Assessment Teams.' The minister was not telling the truth. The government says that they can't do anything about aged care because of the royal commission and then, at the same time, they try to privatise the Aged Care Assessment Teams.

This decision has been questioned by the states and territories. New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard said the decision was not raised with him at a meeting of state ministers and nor by federal health minister Greg Hunt or by aged-care minister Richard Colbeck. This is what Minister Hazzard had to say:

New South Wales has major concerns. It seems pre-emptive and unreasonable to be effectively privatising health aged-care services while the royal commission into aged care is still underway. Not a lot of logic there.

The Aged Care Assessment Teams, as I and others have mentioned, are one part of the aged-care system that hasn't been widely criticised during the royal commission.

So what's this government's great plan to address the urgent problems within aged care and to restore confidence and certainty for older Australians and their families? 'We'll privatise that bit. We'll try to save a bit of money over here.' Not only that, who is going to provide these assessments? Will they be the organisations that do the assessments? Will they then go out and provide the care, or tender for the care? Brad Hazzard, the minister, said:

It would worry me if a private company had accountability that went beyond the pure interest of the elderly person.

Who would that private company be accountable to? To their shareholders and to their bottom line—not to the vulnerable older person and their family who need care.

The government needs to act on aged care and the government needs to do something today, particularly about home care. The interim report of the royal commission highlighted urgent actions the government could and should take rather than privatising ACAT. The government could provide more home care packages to decrease the waiting list. Shockingly, we heard that 30,000 people have died while waiting for home care and more than 25,000 older Australians ended up in residential care sooner than they wanted to. On the coast, the number of people waiting grows year on year. Either this government doesn't get it or it just doesn't care.

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