Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McCarthy, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) the Morrison Government has announced that it intends to privatise Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT) from April 2021,

  (ii) when asked in Parliament about the ACAT tender, the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Senator Colbeck, said he is "actually doing what the royal commission said in its interim report last year",

  (iii) following reports that the Morrison Government would privatise ACAT, the Chair of the Royal Commission into the Aged Care Quality and Safety, the Honourable Gaetano Pagone QC, issued a statement to say that, "the Interim Report did not endorse the Government's stated position", and

  (iv) the Chair of the Royal Commission also stated that, "we have not yet made recommendations about which sector or mechanism will best achieve an integration of Regional Assessment Services and the Aged Care Assessment Teams";

(b) condemns the Morrison Government for its current plans to privatise ACAT services; and

(c) calls on:

  (i) the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians to correct the record and clarify that the Royal Commission did not recommend that ACAT services be put to tender, and

  (ii) the Morrison Government to stop its plans to privatise ACAT services.