Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today I'm introducing the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Emergency Leave) Bill 2020.

This bill amends the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997 to introduce a new type of leave which can be utilised by permanent residents of aged-care homes in particular emergency situations.

The Australian government is committed to ensuring that all older Australians have access to high-quality aged-care services whilst ensuring that they are treated with respect and dignity. Integral to this is the empowering of aged-care residents to make their own decisions about their emotional wellbeing and physical health and safety.

This is particularly relevant in emergency situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. If a resident, or their family, is concerned that the current health emergency is impacting on the safe provision of residential aged care, they have the right to choose to take leave from the aged-care home without incurring financial burden and without the fear of losing their room.

In the current environment, permanent residents of an aged-care home are entitled to take up to 52 days per year of what is known as social leave. When a resident exceeds their 52 days of social leave, the aged-care provider no longer receives a subsidy payment for that resident. Therefore, in order to retain their place within the aged-care home, the aged-care provider charges a fee to the resident.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inadequacy of these leave provisions. Many permanent aged-care residents are seeking to temporarily relocate to stay with family and reduce their risk of exposure to the virus. For these residents, the only options available are to use their social leave allocation or remain in the aged-care home.

The difficulty is that many residents will exceed their social leave before they are ready to return to the aged-care home. If they choose to remain on leave, the additional charges that may be incurred to secure their room place a significant and unnecessary financial burden on families, carers and residents. In many cases, residents may simply not be able to afford the additional charges and therefore cannot take the leave they desire.

The government has received a large number of representations about this issue. The isolation, lack of visitation and inability to stay with family for the duration of the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused great anxiety for a significant number of aged-care residents and their families. Many residents, and their families, are fearful of the risk of contracting or spreading the virus whilst in an aged-care home.

The amendments in this bill introduce a new emergency leave type for permanent aged-care residents, which will be activated during pandemics, natural disasters and other large-scale emergency situations as determined by the government.

This new leave type will not be available on a regular basis. Once activated, the emergency leave will only be available for a set period, as determined by the government, and will be applied either nationally or to a specific area or service. This will ensure the flexibility needed to allow government to address situations such as floods, bushfire emergencies or future instances of isolated or regional outbreaks of COVID-19.

In light of the current emergency, provision is being made to apply these changes retrospectively to 1 April 2020. This will ensure that residents who have already been financially impacted by the need to take leave from their aged-care home will be adequately covered. It will also ensure providers are not financially disadvantaged.

This bill ensures that permanent aged-care residents and their families are supported to make decisions about personal safety in emergency situations, and not suffer unnecessary financial burden as a result. It also ensures that, following an emergency, residents are still able to use their social leave entitlement to maintain their normal visiting and special events routine with their families and friends, which is important for emotional and mental health.

This change is in the best interests of all older Australians and the broader community by supporting a resident's right to make their own decisions about their care.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.