Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for the answers that he has been able to give. Obviously, there is a lot more that needs to go through in terms of this bill. I reiterate the disappointment of the opposition that we don't have greater clarity around the really important aspects of this bill that will have such a huge impact on nursing home facilities across the whole of Australia, not the least of which will be the significantly disproportionate impact on rural, regional and remote communities.

So I look forward to seeing what you're going to come forward with in your delegated and subordinate legislation. We will certainly use the opportunity of the little time that you're going to be providing to us and the wider community to make sure that we are not having unintended detrimental consequences because of the fact that this has been rushed, and also because of the lack of transparency and, obviously, the lack of time that is going to be made available for these really important facilities that protect and support older Australians in their journey in later life. This is obviously a tick and flick that is being put in place to move forward an election commitment, with no regard whatsoever for the unintended consequences. But, as I said in my contribution earlier, the opposition is absolutely committed to making sure that we support any initiative that's going to support older Australians in their journey.

So we will not stand in the way of this legislation. In fact, we would have put in place this legislation, almost in its entirety. We probably just would have accepted the recommendations of the royal commission, which spent many, many months working with the sector more generally to understand the really significant nuances that exist across our aged-care sector. That's to make sure that whatever we put into this place and whatever legislation we enact takes into account all of those details. Instead, we see those opposite going for a headline. Yes, Australians do expect that people who are in nursing homes will have access to the appropriate nursing care. But in the pursuit of a headline, those opposite have absolutely failed to recognise that sometimes there are nuances that will mean that things need to be changed to meet the individual and unique circumstances that we find because we have such a large country and very shallow markets across our country. That's not what's happening here today, but we certainly won't stand in the way of improving the situation for older Australians who need the support and care of our many, many wonderful aged-care providers. We also will not stand in the way of making sure that anybody who is a bad provider, a rogue provider, is held to account and is not allowed to inflict the kind of devastating pain and impacts that we saw in some of the testimony during the royal commission.

I would urge those opposite, as they go forward in their aged-care reform—a reform that we're happy to be constructive about and support them with as they go forward with that reform—is, please, not to apply a one-size-fits-all model to this. That appears to be what they're intending to do with this bill and with the bill they've pushed through this place more recently. I would urge them to make sure that they actually take a little bit more time and pushing a little bit more investment and effort in making sure that they understand the nuances of what is a very, very important sector for Australians. It is absolutely important, as we see with our ageing population, that we support the journey of older Australians—that we put them in the centre of every single piece of our decision-making. This should not be what the government wants, what the bureaucracy wants or even, for that matter, what the providers want. What we need to do is invest in the opinions, wants and needs of older Australians, making sure that those are the seminal points when we make decisions about what we intend to do. Those opposite need to listen to the voices of older Australians and not to their own voices.

On that note, as I said, the opposition will be supporting the government in moving forward on this important piece of reform, despite the reservations that we have about the way this has been handled. By leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1677 together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (after line 5), at the end of paragraph 54-1A(4)(a), add:

(iii) in considering whether the provider has taken reasonable steps, the Secretary must consider whether the provider will undertake reasonable measures to provide the highest level of clinical care with the available workforce, which may include measures for the support of clinical care by enrolled nurses and through telehealth consultations with registered nurses (within the meaning of the Health Insurance Act 1973); and

(2) Schedule 1, item 2, page 4 (after line 23), at the end of section 54-1A, add:

(6) In this section:

en rolled nurse means a person who is registered under the National Law (within the meaning of the Health Insurance Act 1973) in the nursing profession as an enrolled nurse.

telehealth consultation means a consultation conducted (other than in person) by videoconference, telephone or other technology.