Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021, which is the second response to the findings of the royal commission. Aged care, quite frankly, is about dignity. It's about providing our older Australians, who have given so much to our country— (Quorum formed)

The stories we've heard through the royal commission are shocking, to say the least, and now is the time to face the issues plaguing the industry and allow all Australians to age with dignity and respect. This government is striving to provide those Australians with a home and a hospital in one—the comfort and familiarity of a home with the care of a hospital. This vision is important, arguably, for every Australian, as ageing is a future we all face. Quite frankly, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about. This, along with the recognition that senior Australians need tailored approaches, forms a cornerstone of aged-care reform that will act to give comfort and security to our citizens. There is good reason that the Prime Minister called for this royal commission as one of his first acts the position of Prime Minister. This government cares. The bill before us today helps solidify concrete and effective policy that will serve the Australian people.

This bill acts as the second stage in the implementation of the government's $17.7 billion aged-care reform package. The reform focuses on ensuring older Australians can be at home for as long as possible before residential care may become a necessity. It's what Australians have told us they want. With aged-care residents ageing, it is more important than ever to provide high-quality clinical service that gives the dignity we all know our older Australians deserve. The bill stands to not only improve the governance of aged-care providers by increasing the influence of those with clinical experience but also restructures the funding model to ensure the individuality of not just the service provider but also the residents, to be treated with utmost importance in important decisions relating to finding. The royal commission exposed a lot of shortcomings in the sector, and the Morrison government sees this bill as one part of the efforts to increase the quality of this sector.

The first schedule acts to amend the Aged Care Act and the transitional act to enable the introduction of an Australian national aged-care classification. This new funding model aims to achieve more equitable funding by including three components: a fixed component relative to the type of service provided, a one-off entry payment and a variable payment depending on the individual needs of visitors. This funding model places focus on the individuality of the resident and the service offered, ensuring Australians can actually get the services they need. This makes sure funding is utilised effectively.

Schedule 8 closely acts with this, as it expands on the functions of the Independent Hospital and Aged Care Pricing Authority. The authority will now be responsible for providing advice to government for aged-care pricing and costing as well as conducting costing and other studies to inform advice given to the government. As the baby boom generation reaches 80-plus years in the next decade or so, this preparation is more important than ever. This will serve to ensure that the government is properly informed when making decisions regarding the quality of life of aged-care recipients—all part of our support for the sector.

At this juncture, I'd like to acknowledge and recognise the many wonderful aged-care workers in Higgins who have worked tirelessly to support our older Australians through the COVID pandemic. As we know, last year Victoria faced an incredible outbreak of COVID-19 with a very high mortality rate in our aged-care sector, since we know those aged over 70 were at most risk of dying from COVID. I'm pleased to say the vaccination rates across Australia for both aged-care workers and aged-care residents is well over 90 per cent, which means that that sector is very well supported and protected as we have had to deal with the delta outbreak this year.

I also want to thank the fantastic aged-care providers in my electorate of Higgins, including Arcare Morgan East, Regis Armadale, Samarinda in Ashburton, Brimley in Carnegie, Darnlee in Toorak and Emmy Monash, which is just across Dandenong Road. They have provided such a great service locally for many people in my electorate.

The second schedule relates to the manner in which aged-care workers are screened pre employment. Instead of existing police-check obligations, aged-care workers will be screened by a nationally consistent check specifically for them. This allows aged-care services to spend more time caring and less time burdened with paperwork.

The third schedule is closely related to this and serves to allow the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner to construct and enforce a code of conduct applying to all approved providers of aged-care services. The commissioner will be able to receive information and make informed decisions regarding enforcement actions in the case of substantive breaches. This gives the commissioner the necessary teeth to provide the necessary oversight. It directly addresses royal commission recommendation 77, which suggested the development of a code of conduct.

Moreover, recommendation 103 is addressed, since the commissioner will be able to issue banning orders against aged-care workers, prohibiting or restricting them from being involved in specific activities. This forms part of a key recommendation so that we can ensure not only that aged-care workers are checked to ensure that they do their role honestly but also that sanctions are provided in the case of misdeeds. Schedule 6 serves to add to this by acting to increase information sharing between Commonwealth bodies across aged care, disability services and veterans' affairs in relation to noncompliance of both providers and workers. This is so that aged-care residents' safety can be ensured, with efficiency, open reporting and information-sharing abilities.

Schedule 4 adds to the existing Serious Incident Response Scheme, also an initiative of the Morrison government, which I have spoken about on this floor before. The existing scheme is to be extended to cover at-home care, as well as flexible care, instead of simply covering residential care. We know Australians want to age at home. They want to be in their home for as long as possible, and the Morrison government has provided a significant injection of funds to increase home-care packages so that Australians can age at home for longer. In the last budget, 80,000 new home-care packages were provided, taking the number of aged-care home packages to many hundreds of thousands. The schedule in this bill will help to respond directly to recommendation 100—that the Serious Incident Response Scheme be extended to home care.

Of particular importance, under schedule 5 of this bill, approved providers of aged care will be required to ensure that their governing body is presided over by a majority of independent and non-executive members, as well as having at least one member with experience in providing clinical care. This is key because we know, as I said before, that residential care is being filled with more and more residents who are older when they enter into aged care. The good part about having more in-home care is that people are staying home longer. The difficulty is that the aged-care residences are being filled with people as they're getting older. The average age of someone in an aged-care residential facility has moved now from being in the 70s to being in the 80s—there has been an increase of the median age of residents by about a decade. This is quite significant because, as they're growing older, people are more likely to be frailer and they're also more likely to have comorbidities and other chronic conditions. That is why the aged-care facilities are finding that they're having to provide more clinical care.

People want to age in their homes, but they also want to age in an aged-care facility and not have to be shipped off to hospital. Increasing clinical care in the governing bodies of our aged-care facilities means that more attention will be paid to the clinical responsibilities of an aged-care provider. This schedule helps see the end of out-of-touch governing bodies in the industry, ensuring that the voices of those working on the ground are heard in every meeting and cannot be ignored. Moreover, schedule 7 strengthens the ability to punish providers for misuse of accommodation deposits made by residents. Both schedule 5 and schedule 7 will act to improve the quality of governance within the sector, which will of course help our ageing Australians.

This bill is a crucial step in the reformation of the industry, which is so damaged, as we have seen through the findings of the royal commission. This bill does not spell the end of the efforts, however. This acts as a key stage in returning dignity to older Australians. The bill before us today strengthens the regulations of industry and streamlines funding so that not only are the deserving provided with the right government support but the service itself is also improved.

Lastly, let's continue to work together to help make life better for older Australians. Providing dignity and respect for them is so important, because a society is judged by the way that it deals with those who cannot help themselves. We need to provide dignity and respect for ageing Australians and we need to provide hope for all of us that we ourselves will be given the same support, care, love and service that our older Australians have been given. It provides hope for all of us as we age that we will age with dignity and respect. I commend this bill to the House.

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