Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Treasury and Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I table an addendum to the explanatory memorandum relating to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Bill 2018. The addendum responds to concerns raised by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. I also table two supplementary explanatory memoranda relating to the government amendments to be moved to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Bill 2018.

I seek leave to move government amendments (1) to (9), as circulated, together.

Leave granted.

I move:

(1) Clause 17, page 12 (line 3), after "consumers", insert "and their representatives".

(2) Clause 17, page 12 (line 7), after "consumers", insert "and the representatives of those consumers".

(3) Clause 23, page 16 (after line 32), after subclause (1), insert:

(1A) However, the Commissioner must not charge:

(a) an aged care consumer, or their representative, fees for services provided by the Commissioner in performing the consumer engagement functions; or

(b) a complainant fees for services provided by the Commissioner in performing the complaints functions.

(4) Page 22 (after line 18), at the end of Part 4, add:

35A Chief Clinical Advisor

The Commissioner must, in writing, appoint a person who is a member of the staff of the Commission, or a consultant engaged under section 35, as the Chief Clinical Advisor to assist the Commissioner in the performance of the Commissioner's functions.

(5) Clause 41, page 25 (line 21), omit paragraph (3) (c), substitute:

(c) issues affecting aged care consumers or their representatives;

(6) Clause 59, page 36 (line 7), after "places", insert "(if any)".

(7) Clause 59, page 36 (after line 7), after paragraph (1) (b), insert:

(ba) if the service is a home care service—the number of care recipients provided with care through the service;

(8) Page 36 (after line 26), at the end of Division 3, add:

59A Information about Commonwealth - funded aged care service may be made publicly available

(1) The Commissioner may make publicly available the following information about a Commonwealth-funded aged care service:

(a) the name and address of the service;

(b) the number of persons who are recipients of the service;

(c) the services provided by the service;

(d) the facilities and activities available to persons who are recipients of the service;

(e) the name of the service provider of the service;

(f) information about the variety and type of service provided by the service provider;

(g) information about the service provider's performance in relation to the provider's responsibilities under the funding agreement that relates to the service;

(h) any action taken, or intended to be taken, under this Act or the rules to protect the welfare of persons who are recipients of the service, and the reasons for that action;

(i) any other information of a kind specified in the rules for the purposes of this paragraph.

(2) Information disclosed under subsection (1) must not include personal information.

(9) Page 52 (after line 14), after clause 76, insert:

76A Review of operation of this Act and the rules

(1) The Minister must cause an independent review of the operation of this Act and the rules to be conducted within 6 months after the fifth anniversary of the commencement of this Act.

(2) The persons who conduct the review must give the Minister a written report of the review.

(3) The Minister must cause a copy of the report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the report is given to the Minister.

The government proposes a number of amendments to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Bill. The proposed amendments address various issues raised in the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry into these bills. The government welcomes the committee's recommendation that the bills be passed and that establishing the commission should not be delayed. As the committee noted, there will be a further opportunity to pursue improvements in a second stage of reform, as signalled in the objects of the bill. However, after considering the issues raised in the inquiry with both the committee and stakeholders that appeared before the committee, the government considers that there are some amendments which would be appropriate to be made now, to apply from the commencement of the commission on 1 January 2019.

These amendments will support the new commission in its role as the single point of contact for aged-care consumers and providers of aged care in relation to quality of care and regulation. These changes refine or clarify the government's policy intent to deliver more integrated and responsive regulatory oversight of the sector and contribute to the bill's objects and focus for consumers. In summary, these changes will broaden the scope of the commissioner's consumer engagement functions to include the representatives of aged-care consumers; remove the ability of the commissioner to charge fees for services to complainants and consumers for certain functions; provide for the commissioner to be supported in the performance of their functions by a chief clinical adviser appointed by the commissioner; extend eligibility for appointing members of the advisory council to include persons with experience or knowledge of issues affecting aged-care consumers or their representatives, such as informal carers; extend the commissioner's power to publish information about aged-care services to include other Commonwealth-grant-funded services; and provide for a statutory review of the operation of the act to occur in early 2024, which will be five years after the commencement of this bill and four years after the second stage of reforms foreshadowed in this bill. I commend these amendments.