Tim Storer (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I support the intent of the Aged Care (Single Quality Framework) Reform Bill 2018 but the question is: will it produce the results claimed for it? Whether enough money has been provided in the budget to provide the quality and variety of care that people and their families deserve is questionable. The last budget allocated $5 billion to aged care but, since 2013-14, the sector has been subject to cuts totalling $3 billion, and 100,000 people remain on waiting lists for aged care. That said, public funding of essential services such as aged care should be provided with appropriate quality-control conditions. This legislation is a step in the right direction.

The streamlining of standards across all areas of care, and the increased focus of personalising care to the needs of individuals, is a positive step. However, in my review process, I have noted that major aged-care groups have a range of concerns about whether it will actually deliver better results. For example, National Seniors has raised the concern that funding models should take staff training and composition into account in order to deliver quality aged-care services. They say the quality of care is a function of the quantity of staff available and the mix of skills. Another noted concern is that the needs of care recipients are changing. One in two people who enter residential care has some form of dementia, and people are typically frailer and have more health issues. Increased focus should be given to adequately training our aged-care workforce to adapt to those changing circumstances.

It seems to me that those concerns are partly answered in the amendment put forward by Senator Hinch, which provides for a review process into the idea of a ratio between staff and care recipients. This amendment seems to meet the noted concern about ratios being a blunt instrument by providing for variables on day and night shifts, higher and lower care residents, and differences between metropolitan, rural and regional areas and so on. For those reasons, I encourage the Senate to support the Hinch Justice Party amendment. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.