Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Hansard source

The government has not made a decision to privatise aged-care assessments. It's disappointing that claims to this effect are misleading the community and the parliament. The government made a commitment in the 2018-19 budget to streamline the assessment process of aged care by the integration of ACAT and RAS in line with the 2017 Tune review recommendation which stated that the government integrate regional assessment services with the aged-care assessment teams. The royal commission in its interim report stated:

The Government has announced that it will implement this recommendation and will integrate the two assessment workforces from 2020. The Royal Commission considers that this integration needs to be progressed urgently.

The government is committed to creating a better experience for senior Australians entering aged care, and our position has not changed. We're committed to ensuring that Australians seeking to enter aged care receive timely, consistent and high-quality needs assessments that they deserve.