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

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

AGED CARE LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (SERIOUS INCIDENT RESPONSE SCHEME AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2020

This Bill introduces a Serious Incident Response Scheme that will respond to, and take steps to prevent, the incidence of abuse and neglect of older Australians in residential aged care. This includes those receiving flexible care delivered in a residential aged care setting.

Consistent with the recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission's report on elder abuse, this Bill will introduce a scheme that replaces existing arrangements in relation to reportable assaults.

The scheme will provide greater protections for older Australians by taking into account broader instances of abuse and neglect, by introducing more robust requirements for residential aged care providers to respond and report, and by providing the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission with more functions and powers.

The Bill introduces legislative requirements that will build provider capacity to identify risk and respond to incidents if and when they occur. By imposing these requirements, the scheme is expected to drive learning and improvements that will reduce the number of preventable serious incidents in future.

From 1 April 2021, residential aged care providers will gain additional responsibilities to identify, record, manage and resolve all incidents that occur.

The focus will be on a provider's response to an incident—the supports they put in place for the impacted aged care consumer/s; the actions they take to continuously improve and reduce the likelihood of incidents reoccurring; and the way in which they use information about incidents to inform risk management, feedback and education to staff and to improve the service's capability to prevent, manage and resolve incidents. Through the scheme, providers will also be required to report serious incidents to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

The Bill defines reportable incidents to include a number of categories of abuse and neglect. This includes: unreasonable use of force, unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct, psychological or emotional abuse, stealing or financial coercion by a staff member, inappropriate use of physical or chemical restraint, unexplained absences from care, neglect and unexpected death. Importantly, unlike the previous aged care reporting scheme, there is no exemption on the reporting of resident on resident incidents, where the resident has an assessed cognitive impairment.

Whether it be alleged, suspected or a known occurrence, residential aged care providers will be required to report serious incidents to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Reporting to the Commission will be implemented in two phases.

From April 2021, a two stage reporting process will be required for all critical reportable incidents—which are those that result in physical or psychological injury or illness requiring onsite medical or psychological treatment or more significant treatment.

Within 24 hours of becoming aware of the reportable incident, the residential aged care provider must notify the Commission. If the incident is also criminal in nature, the provider must also make a report to police. Following the initial report, the second stage of the reporting process involves an incident status report that must be provided to the Commission within five business days, or by a date specified by the Commission. The status report will include any outstanding or relevant information that was not provided in the first notification, for example remedial action taken or supports put in place to minimise harm to the victim.

The residential aged care provider may also be required to submit a final report within two months of the incident. The Commission will determine, on a case by case basis, if a final report is required and if so, the parameters of the report. It will likely include matters relating to investigation of the incident, and corrective actions being taken.

From later in 2021 providers will be required to report all other serious incidents within 30 days. These incidents are categorised as incidents where there is low or no impact on the victim. Until these reporting requirements commence, providers must still keep records of these incidents.

Existing record keeping requirements will be expanded to cover the broader incident management obligations. These require records of each incident to be kept by the provider, as well as the need to make records available to the Commission. This enables the Commission to fulfil its assessment, monitoring, compliance and complaints handling functions.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will be responsible for administering the scheme, using its existing monitoring and regulatory powers. Once the Commission receives reports about serious incidents, it will apply risk-based monitoring of how aged care providers investigate and respond to serious incidents. In instances where the responses are inadequate, the Commission may require further action, such as an independent investigation.

The Bill will also provide the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner with additional functions and powers dedicated to dealing with the scheme. These are intended to ensure the Commission is able to respond proportionately to all levels of risk, to safeguard consumers. This will include powers to respond to serious incidents and provide compliance notices and directions to take action, and will also include imposing civil penalties, infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, and injunctions to ensure compliance with the new obligations under the scheme.

To ensure consistency in regulation, the Bill will enable these powers to be used more broadly, to enforce the aged care responsibilities of approved providers and related offences. These are standard regulatory powers available under the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014, to provide the Commission with a more graduated suite of powers for responding to and preventing non-compliance. These powers will also enable the Commission to take more effective action to protect consumers.

The Bill also provides additional powers to enable the Commission to obtain information or documents directly from its source. This will ensure the Commission is equipped to obtain the information the Commission requires to effectively carry out its reportable incident functions under the scheme, while enhancing the Commission's broader regulatory framework.

The Bill will also strengthen protections for people who report abuse or neglect in a residential aged care facility to cover both existing and former staff members as well as current and past residential care recipients, their families and others supporting them. These changes are necessary to ensure those who witness or suspect that a serious incident has occurred do not face repercussions, such as civil or criminal liability, for making such reports.

Following passage of the Bill, subordinate legislation will specify additional details, including incident management system requirements and the reporting timeframes mentioned.

The scheme complements and supports existing regulatory settings including the integrated expectations of the Aged Care Quality Standards, the Charter of Aged Care Rights and open disclosure requirements. Together these will support residential aged care providers to engage in risk management and continuous improvement to deliver safe and quality care to older Australians.

The health, safety and wellbeing of older Australians is of utmost importance to the Australian Government. Any abuse of a person in residential aged care is unacceptable and it is important that these incidents are reported, managed and prevented from occurring in future.

EXPORT CONTROL AMENDMENT (MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES) BILL 2020

Australia is one of the top ten agricultural exporting countries in the world, exporting around two-thirds of our agricultural production each year.

Strengthening the competitiveness and productivity of Australia's agriculture sector is a key commitment of this Government.

We want our agricultural industries to be able to capitalise on the opportunities that flow from growth in our region and globally, and we want to support the National Farmers' Federation goal to grow Australian agriculture to $100 billion by 2030.

To help us achieve this, we need to ensure we have appropriate regulatory settings to enable exports to grow and in turn to help drive productivity and increase returns at the farm gate.

This Bill will build upon the reforms introduced by the Export Control Act 2020 (the Act), that streamline and consolidate existing export controls and commence on 28 March 2021.

This Bill provides for several minor amendments to the Act to ensure a smooth transition and implementation of the new export control framework for exporters. These amendments will enable appropriate rules to be made to support the Act.

The Bill will clarify the application of the fit and proper person test to alterations or variations requested by occupiers of registered establishments, and enable the rules to prescribe circumstances where the Secretary may approve or refuse to approve a notice of intention to export a consignment of prescribed goods.

The Bill will provide the Secretary with the power to prescribe requirements in the rules for deciding whether to issue an export permit.

The Bill will enable the rules to modify how certain provisions apply to reviewable decisions for tariff rate quotas. It will enable the rules to apply matters contained in instruments to assist in calculating tariff rate quotas.

While these amendments may appear to be relatively minor in nature, they will enable the Government to ensure the necessary regulatory settings are in place to support Australian farmers gain and maintain reliable access to overseas markets. This means increased profitability and certainty to enable further investment in their properties and people.

For the Australian economy, it means more jobs, more exports, and higher incomes in a competitive and profitable agricultural sector.

For Australians, it means stronger regional communities and a more prosperous and productive Australia.

The Bill is just one of the initiatives that the Government is progressing to modernise the systems that underpin our very valuable agricultural exports. This is a crucial step that supports the Australian agricultural sector as it continues to grow and respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.