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

Senator Gallagher is correct; the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner does report on a quarterly basis, as is required, and the quality and safety commissioner provides a reporting process to government as well. The expectation of government is that all aged-care providers respond to and comply with the regulatory framework that is in place across the country. My conversation with the quality and safety commissioner is to ensure that the regulatory actions that are being taken by the commission, as an independent agency of government, ensure that they work with the providers to ensure that they are brought to compliance with the requirements of the quality code. That's the requirement. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, as an independent agency, has the responsibility to ensure that it takes appropriate regulatory action and compliance action with respect to what it finds as a result of its inspections and reporting processes. So my expectation is that all providers comply with the quality standards and, again, my expectation of the quality commission is that they ensure that providers do come back to compliance once they have met.