Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I say to Senator Cormann and his colleague that it is very easy to play to an audience in aged care. These people are very vulnerable. It is easy to play to an audience. It is much harder to do the complex work that is required to resolve those complex issues in the mix between community care and residential care. I want to take this opportunity to commend the minister for the work that she is doing in difficult circumstances.

This bill seeks to amend the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care (Bond Security) Act 2006 to address current legislative inadequacies and to maintain effective regulatory safeguards to ensure high-quality care for older Australians. Essentially, the bill makes changes to the aged-care regulation in three key areas: the regulation of approved providers, the framework for aged care assessment and the protection of residents’ accommodation bonds. In addition, the bill contains a range of other more minor operational changes to clarify and improve the administration of the legislation so that it operates more efficiently and more effectively.

The bill, as the Senate is aware, has been the subject of an inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. I thank Senator Moore and her committee for the work that they did through that inquiry. Sixteen submissions were received and a public hearing was held. The committee recommended, as we all know, that the bill be passed. The committee found that, as the aged-care services sector grows and evolves, this legislation is a valuable step to ensuring that legislation and regulation designed to protect residents will keep pace with that evolution.

There was strong support for the bill, though some concerns were raised about some of the measures that it contained. The committee, however, is of the view that some of the concerns raised by industry were based on misunderstandings about the new arrangements. For example, when it comes to the requirements associated with the notification of missing residents, we have to agree that the rights and freedoms of aged-care residents should never be curtailed. That is simply not the purpose of this measure. A notification to the department would be required only when the approved provider has decided that a person is unaccountably missing and is sufficiently concerned to notify police. This will allow the department to determine whether appropriate action has been taken by the service in respect of the missing resident and whether there are adequate systems and processes in place to ensure other residents’ safety. The department’s response to the notification will be proportionate to the risk posed to the residents of the service. With this measure, frail older Australians will have increased protection. It will not restrict the basic human rights of older Australians and was never intended to do so. Nor will it restrict the freedom of movement of those residents.

Caring for our ageing population is one of the major challenges facing our nation this century. It requires careful planning, adequate funding and comprehensive safeguards to ensure the protection of older Australians. Debate on this bill has highlighted the importance of achieving a balance between protecting the needs and rights of individual frail aged persons entering residential aged care and the long-term viability of the aged care sector. These changes will better protect residents, will promote public confidence in the aged-care sector and will complement the government’s funding of more than $41.6 billion over four years to support aged and community care for older Australians. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.