Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Boyce for the question and for her outstanding contribution as chair of the Senate Community Affairs Committee. I think all my colleagues know that Australia's population is ageing, and therefore we need to have an aged-care system that is fit for purpose for the long term. Commencing 1 July, there is a new arrangement, which seeks to create a more consumer-driven aged-care system, but I want to emphasise first and foremost that, for those people already in residential aged care—whether they be receiving care or accommodation—their existing arrangements will be grandfathered.

While there will always be a safety net, we are asking people who can afford to to contribute to the cost of their aged care and accommodation. New means-testing arrangements will take effect from 1 July, which will see an asset and income test apply to both residential care and accommodation. There will also be annual and lifetime fee caps in place to make sure that the system is affordable over the longer term. For accommodation, the distinction between high care and low care is being removed, so consumers will have the option now of choosing a bond, a daily fee or a combination of the two—the choice will be theirs.

I should indicate that these changes were legislated under the administration of the previous government, and no minister in a new government inherits a clean slate. It may well have been the case that, had I been the minister in the middle of last year, some of these arrangements may have been a little different, but, nonetheless, in the broad, we do believe that these changes are a step in the right direction. I will, however, be monitoring the real-life working-out of these and listening to the views of consumers and providers.