Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This report was a very, very important report. It was important then, and it's even more important now. I'll remind people what this report is. This is the Community Affairs References Committee report, Effectiveness of the aged care quality assessment and accreditation framework for protecting residents from abuse and poor practices, and ensuring proper clinical and medical care standards are maintained and practised. I'm talking to the government response to that report. And, given the circumstances, I'm even more disappointed about this response than I would have been otherwise.

In response to most of these very important recommendations, the government 'notes' the recommendation. For example, the government 'notes' the committee's recommendation that the Australian government clarify that residential aged-care providers ultimately hold a duty of care to all residents. You would have thought, given that the committee thought it was so important that we raised it, that the government would do more than just note that recommendation. The government 'notes' the recommendation that the requirements for a model of care and clinical governance framework be more clearly articulated within the Single Aged Care Quality Framework. Again, you would think it would do more than just note that.

Can I remind senators that this report was tabled in April 2019. I would very strongly argue the government has had plenty of time to start addressing these very important matters. The government 'notes' the recommendation that the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission work collaboratively to develop benchmarks on staffing levels and skill mix, which includes the requirements to roster on a registered nurse at all times. The government 'notes' that that's what the committee recommended. How many times does this government need to be reminded, and asked, to fix staffing levels in aged-care facilities? I've lost count, in fact. This is another very important recommendation. I would argue very strongly that, if the government had taken action on these recommendations, it would have addressed a lot of the failures that we see happening right now, particularly if they had addressed the issue of clinical care.

These residential facilities are subacute care facilities now, because what we've seen over the years—as I'm sure all the people in this place who take a very deep interest in aged care know—is a gradual move, from low-level care not being provided in residential aged-care facilities any more, to high-level care. What we were seeing before COVID-19 is residents being shuffled into emergency departments and back to resi care. It's like a revolving door. As soon as there's trouble, people are hiked off to emergency care. It very strongly upsets residents, and it very strongly upsets their families. These issues have not been resolved. The government is not resolving the issue around duty of care. During the inquiry there were very strong arguments raised by some providers that, in fact, they were clinical care providers. We are talking about high-level care here, high-level care for residents. This should have been resolved a long time ago, and that has not happened.

I'd argue, as I said, very, very strongly, that these recommendations need more than just 'noting'. There's been very little progress in addressing these major issues. There's been very little progress towards fixing the workforce issues that we raised here and that were also raised by the Aged Care Workforce Taskforce chaired by Professor Pollaers, who made, I think it was 14 recommendations. We have not seen a commitment to implementing those recommendations. The government started that task force. They got that operating—while the community affairs committee's previous aged care inquiry, on workforce, was underway; I'm glad the government was so responsive! Again, we haven't seen those recommendations implemented, neither the recommendations from the committee nor those from the Pollaers task force report. There's a litany of failures here. I look forward to contributing to the general business discussion we're having very shortly. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.