Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to begin with a message to the residents in aged care across the country—the seniors of our nation, who deserve our deepest respect. At times the political debate about the many issues in aged care, so brutally exposed by the recent royal commission, is necessarily focused on the very important issues of funding, regulations and the workforce, all of which I will speak about today.

In this building, aged care can sometimes be talked about like it's a burden, a budget blowout, a massive red tape, the work of staff who are deemed unskilled. Aged care is not a burden. The treatment of our elders is how we should measure the greatness of our nation. In this political forum, the people at the heart of what we're talking about are often left out of the conversation.

So, on the off-chance that there are some folks watching the live proceedings of the House of Representatives from their aged-care home, I want to say that your care, your happiness, your wellbeing and your dignity matter. I want to extend my deepest respect to you and the contributions that you've made to this country in your lives.

The royal commission's report on the state of aged care in Australia was simply titled Neglect. It spoke of neglect in federal funding, neglect in regulatory oversight, neglect of the workplace conditions and remuneration of aged-care workers—who provide highly skilled, crucially important work—neglect of care for the people who raised all of us.

When the former Liberal government deregulated aged care, to the extent where aged-care providers did not need to have anyone onsite with nursing qualifications, nurses and specialist geriatric doctors spoke out in alarm. They knew that people living in care facilities were some of the most vulnerable in our communities and that, without the oversight of a dedicated, qualified nurse, their health, wellbeing and lives would be put at risk. We've seen the full dangers of this during the COVID pandemic in the last two years and the dreadful things that have happened in aged-care facilities around this country.

The royal commission into aged care heard testimony after testimony that laid bare the worst of their warnings, horrors that no-one could wish upon their worst enemy let alone their sick, elderly mother or father, their uncle or their aunt. That report titled Neglect is a national shame but is also an opportunity. The full suite of recommendations from the royal commission must be implemented, and I'm pleased today to support the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022 to get started on doing just that.

We have to mandate that residential aged care and care approved providers provide a registered nurse onsite in appropriate facilities, and that nurse needs to be on duty 24/7 from as soon as possible—from 23 July as mandated. It's important that we cap home care. It's important that we limit the prices of aged-care packages. It's important that we limit the ability of approved providers to charge exit amounts. Older people, vulnerable people, need to understand the cost of the care that they're committing to when they enter a facility. Transparency of information regarding the provision of aged-care facilities is extremely important.

I'm particularly proud to support my colleague from Mayo's amendment to this bill. Subordinate legislation is important. We know that legislation at the discretion of the minister has its advantages and opportunities. It's important, though, that parliamentarians are provided with an opportunity to review their subordinate principles. The community deserves transparency over what the government is providing for us.

The framers of the Constitution vested legislative power in the Australian parliament because they felt: 'The people's elected representatives are particularly well-suited to the exercise of the open-ended discretion to choose ends, which is the essence of the legislative task.' The process of executive lawmaking by subordinate legislation lacks transparency. It lacks the publicity of the parliamentary process. It therefore reduces the accountability of the exercise of legislative power. We need to have greater transparency of the legislation that we see and, on those grounds, I'm very proud to support the amendment of my colleague from Mayo.

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