Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

The government has taken significant efforts over recent times to repair the aged-care system, and one of the actions that we took in relation to dealing with the circumstances that occur in the aged-care sector was to call the royal commission. That royal commission said a number of things. It laid open the circumstance of aged care in this country. It put Australia on notice, it put the Australian government on notice, it put the Australian aged-care sector on notice and it put the aged-care industry on notice about the circumstance in aged care and made some recommendations in respect of what needed to be done to repair that. The government said, in response to the report when it was released last week, that we would take some action, particularly in the areas that were recommended by the royal commission. It had three key elements that it wanted to see done. It wanted to see some action with respect to home care packages, and the Prime Minister has said that we will make some statements about that prior to Christmas, and the government will do that. It also said that it wanted to see some work done with respect to young people in aged care, and that work has already commenced and we will take further action in that space, as I have said and as the government has said. It also said that it wanted to see some work done with respect to the use of restraints, and the government has said we will take some action to deal with that. The aged-care royal commission report said that the issues in aged care were historical, over a number of governments—not just this government but a number of governments—and we all need to take responsibility for that, and the government will take action to repair the aged-care sector.