Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Nettle for dealing with these two issues separately. Labor will support Senator Nettle’s amendment (1). It is a simple amendment that identifies a group of people who were not included in the original drafting of the act. Paragraph 2-1(1)(e) simply lists a whole range of people to be facilitated to gain access to aged-care services, regardless, it says:

... of race, culture, language, gender, economic circumstance or geographic location …

I suggest to the government that in 1997, when this act was being drafted, it was an oversight; it was something that was not considered. Like Senator Nettle, I have been in touch with a range of people from the gay, lesbian and transgender community who have expressed a whole range of concerns about the way they have been treated or their fears of the way they might be treated if they were to enter residential aged care.

This is a sensible amendment. It would recognise right up front in the act that there are people in the world who want to go into residential aged care who are gays and lesbians and that they need to be treated with the respect that we give to all other people. It is a simple statement of fact. It does not go at all to the way that assets will be treated; it does not go at all to the financial implications of whether or not the person is partnered or not partnered and what financial relationship the person might have had prior to their entry into aged care. This amendment simply says that, along with people who are geographically isolated or who are in difficult financial circumstances who need to be facilitated into aged care, there is another group of people—gay, lesbian and transgender people—that we need to recognise. It is a very straightforward amendment and Labor will support it.

Question put:

That the amendment (Senator Nettle’s) be agreed to.