Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

Following release of the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the government has committed to reforms in the aged-care system. These overarching reforms can't come soon enough. For my older constituents, for their families and carers, and for workers in aged care who put in so much effort, these reforms need to happen now. I'm pleased to hear from the government that the new research based model for calculating residential aged-care subsidies, the Australian National Aged Care Classification, will be designed to take into account additional costs for those who provide services to vulnerable groups and for small regional providers, such as those in my electorate, who face additional challenges to sustainability compared to those in the metropolitan areas.

While I await the report of the committee, I am in favour of the establishment of a nationally consistent preemployment screening and code of conduct for workers in aged care, aligned with those for workers in the disability sector. However, almost a third of these workers are estimated to be working across both aged care and the disability sectors. This, again, begs the very pertinent question of why aged-care workers are paid up to 25 per cent less than those who provide support to people living with a disability. Both are doing vital work and important work, and their efforts should be valued and paid equally. I call on the government, as I have before in this House, to support the work value case to this effect before the Fair Work Commission right now. It would do tremendous good for the government to support this application.

The extension of the residential care Serious Incident Response Scheme to home and flexible care to provide equivalent protections to those receiving aged care at home or in community settings from the middle of next year is also a sensible measure. New governance and reporting requirements for approved providers of aged care are also welcomed. We do need to take this opportunity to ensure sound governance and reporting form the bedrock for a new aged-care system. I, therefore, urge the government to provide for better reporting on related party transactions, staff hours, make-up, complaints, food and nutrition, particularly given the increased funding to providers for this purpose and charges levied for administration and management opposed to the direct provision of care. I understand the carveout included in this bill, based on consultation with consumer peak bodies, is designed to help those providers with fewer than five governing body members and 40 consumers manage the impact of new governance requirements. This should help to ensure that smaller regional providers, for example, are not overwhelmed, which could push older residents to find care further from their communities.

I'm pleased to see the facilitation of greater information sharing in relation to noncompliance of providers and workers between Commonwealth bodies across aged care, disability and veteran affairs sectors, with appropriate safeguards in place. Improved powers to request information or documents from a provider or borrower regarding refundable accommodation deposits with an extended five-year period of liability for misuse of such deposits are indeed welcome.

I've discussed with Senator the Hon. Richard Colbeck, the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, how such concerns can be flagged to consumers earlier so that they are present at the point of sanction. This should be another area where prospective residents of aged care are ensured access to all of the information they need to choose their residential aged-care provider.

Beyond the measures of this bill, I don't believe a person should be charged up to half of their home-care package in management and administration fees. I will therefore be asking members in this place to support my bill to cap those administration and management fees, to ban exit fees and to increase transparency on pricing information for providers.

I await the report of the committee before indicating Centre Alliance's formal position for this bill. I urge the government to do more to implement the recommendations of the royal commission and to work with all members in this chamber to deliver an aged-care system that truly has older Australians at its heart.

There are a couple of other issues that I would like to mention. One of those, which was also mentioned by the member for Warringah, was one of the recommendations of the royal commission, and that was to ensure people who are over 65 years of age who acquire a disability are not discriminated on based on their age. Right now, if you are 64 and you break your neck, you can access NDIS; if you are 66 and you fall over and break your neck, the best you can have is a level 4 package of My Aged Care, and that does not provide the level of support needed to ensure someone can stay at home. It is a huge gap in policy and one that we must address as a matter of urgency. We also need to address the lack of dental care support for people who are pensioners. Dental issues account for around a third of preventable hospital admissions in our nation.

We have to keep working on this royal commission and making sure that all of the recommendations are implemented; we can't allow the findings to sit gathering dust on a shelf. I would urge that we form a joint committee of both houses with people from right across the parliament—essentially, a working group—to make sure that we can continue to put older Australians and the needs of older Australians front and centre and in this place.

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