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

I disagree with Mr Hazzard, quite clearly. I disagree with Mr Hazzard because I'm actually implementing a recommendation from the Tune review. I'm actually doing what the royal commission said in its interim report last year, which was that this reform is urgent. I understand that Mr Hazzard has a perspective on this. I have spoken to Mr Hazzard with respect to these reforms—we had a conversation earlier in the year—and we have a different point of view. Mr Hazzard believes that the New South Wales government should do all aged-care assessments. I don't agree with him. The Tune review doesn't agree with him. And the royal commission says, 'Get on with it; the reform recommended in the Tune review is urgent.' So I do have a difference of opinion with Mr Hazzard, the New South Wales minister.

We will continue our dialogue with New South Wales. Mr Hazzard has been very, very open with me. He has sent me a number of documents that have given me the opportunity to work through the New South Wales perspective. We will continue to have that dialogue because the one thing I am really determined to see—and that I know Mr Hazzard is also determined to see—is that people get an assessment process that is appropriate, that provides appropriately for their needs and that refers them to the services that are appropriate for their needs, and they then get access to those services. In the context of our core desires, Mr Hazzard and I are on exactly the same plane. We have a different perspective on how that might be achieved.