Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

The Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021 implements eight measures to deliver the second stage of aged-care reform in response to the royal commission and to ensure senior Australians receive high-quality and safe care. The bill introduces new subsidy calculation methods to fund approved providers to replace the outdated funding instrument and encourage innovation and investment in the aged-care sector. It establishes authority for pre-employment screening for the aged-care workforce and provides authority for an enforceable code of conduct and banning audits. These new regulatory arrangements will work together to effectively manage and prevent unsuitable workers from entering or remaining in aged care and the broader care and support sector, and will ensure approved providers and their workers, in governing persons, are held to account for their behaviour.

The bill extends the serious incident response scheme from residential care to home services to reduce the risk of neglect and to protect vulnerable senior Australians receiving aged-care services in their home and in the community. The bill also introduces strengthened provider governance arrangements to improve the transparency and accountability of providers, and will change the culture from the top down. Replacing the current disqualified individual arrangements with a suitability test will bring further regulatory alignment with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The bill will facilitate the sharing of information among relevant prescribed Commonwealth bodies about providers and workers operating across the care and support sector who may not be complying with their obligations. Regulatory alignment in this area will improve the consistency of quality and provide safer protections across the aged-care and support sector while reducing the overall regulatory burden on cross-sector providers. Increased financial and prudential oversight will build the sector's financial resilience and improve its accountability, and the expanded functions of the Independent Hospital and Aged Care Pricing Authority will support transparency and evidence based assessment of the costs involved in delivering care.

These amendments have been developed as a result of significant consultation directly with stakeholders as well as through the extensive consultation undertaken during the royal commission. I thank members for their contributions to the debate on this bill. The health, safety and wellbeing of senior Australians is of utmost importance to the government and is driving our plan for the generational reform of the aged-care system. I commend the bill to the House.

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