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 that effect are misleading the community and the parliament. The government made a commitment in the 2018-19 budget to create a single assessment workforce for aged care in line with the Tune review recommendation which states: 'That the government integrate regional assessment services with aged-care assessment teams.' Further, in its interim report the royal commission 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 reject the false claim by Labor about consultation. In fact, there have been several rounds of consultation with states following the Tune review recommendations. The government remain committed to creating a better experience for senior Australians entering aged care and our position remains unchanged. We are committed to ensuring that Australians seeking to enter aged care receive the timely, consistent and high-quality needs assessments that they deserve.