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

As I indicated to the chamber yesterday, the government currently doesn't procure directly any assessment service in the aged-care sector. It subcontracts to state governments for ACAT services, and it contracts to other providers—I think about 17 other providers—for the provision of regional assessment services. What the government has said it intends to do is to create a single assessment workforce. That is exactly what we intend to do. I have never conceded that the government's intention is to privatise, as the opposition continue to claim, because that has never been our intention.