Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Patterson for her question. I recognise her longstanding interest in and commitment to this vital area of public policy. As I indicated to the chamber yesterday, this government has been very proactive in moving to address community concerns about abuse of the elderly in nursing homes. As I have just said in my answer to Senator McLucas’s first question in this place today, I was particularly disturbed to hear that in one nursing home the alleged abuse was not reported immediately to police. This lent some strength to the call for the introduction of some form of mandatory reporting of such incidents. However, before ruling that in or out, as I indicated yesterday and also last week, I intend to consult the Aged Care Advisory Committee on that issue and on a range of other options such as compulsory police checks, whistleblower protection and possible improvements to the complaints resolution scheme. The meeting of the advisory committee, as I have sought to indicate, will take place on Tuesday, 14 March here in Parliament House.