Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the Aged Care Bill 2024. The Community Affairs Legislation Committee, which I chair, conducted an inquiry into this bill primarily through the month of October, reporting early November. It was a considerable inquiry, and I just need to put some facts on the record regarding the extent and thoroughness of that inquiry as well as some of the other consultations which have gone into the development of this bill. We held nine public hearings over a matter of a few weeks. We went to every single state and territory, not just capital cities but regional areas in the states and territories as well. We heard from over 150 people, including 28 witnesses who shared their lived experience of aged care. We held five panels of lived-experience witnesses across the course of our hearings. We added an additional one towards the end to make sure we could bolster the lived experience we were receiving as evidence to our committee. In total, we received over 180 submissions by people affected by aged care and by their advocates and representatives, as well as by service providers and other stakeholders across the aged-care sector.

It was a substantial inquiry. I want to thank the committee secretariat for their tireless work to organise these hearings in a very short timeframe, particularly Claudia Kevin, who stepped up as acting committee secretary for a significant portion of the inquiry. I know a number of other Senate staff members attended our hearings and helped facilitate our inquiries, because we had so many around the country in such a short period of time. Government senators turned up to every single one of those inquiries for the entire duration of the day. I want to acknowledge Senator Urquhart and Senator Pratt for their presence and also for their assistance to me in chairing some of those inquiries.

This built on a consultation process conducted by the Department of Health and Aged Care before the bill was introduced. The exposure draft of the bill was released for public consultation for four months, during which nearly 1,000 people attended face-to-face or virtual workshops on the legislation, including specific sessions for culturally and linguistically diverse communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The department hosted three public webinars with more than 9,600 people in attendance, and facilitated roundtable discussions that engaged aged-care experts, advocates, providers and representatives to discuss and provide comment on the exposure draft. I'm advised that these consultations in total resulted in almost 14,500 separate points of engagement on the bill, including more than 440 submissions and 1,500 survey responses.

The consultation on this bill and these reforms was extremely thorough, not just by our committee but also by the department before it, and that consultation extended to people with lived experience of aged care. It was not just about providers, and it extended to almost every corner of Australia. And as chair of the committee, I am so grateful for the heartfelt, passionate and sometimes deeply personal testimony we received, which was instrumental in developing our report and shaping our views.

But what we heard loud and clear over the course of this inquiry was that this bill was urgent and necessary, and that there is absolutely no time to waste to pass it through the Senate so that the government can implement these vital reforms. This bill is part of a reform process which isn't months long—it is years long, after significant advocacy from people in aged care, from their families and from their loved ones. It responds to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety from October 2018—the report of which left absolutely no doubt about the urgency of a reform. That interim report was titled Neglect, and let us never forget it. From a royal commission report call Neglect, something had to happen. This bill represents a substantial part of the government's response to that report and a substantial part of the reform process we know needs to take place in aged care to make sure that high-quality care can be delivered in a sustainable way to ensure it will be there for all the generations that need it.

In its final report, the royal commission has made clear that change was needed and that people in aged care want to be treated with care, dignity and respect, but that it had been far too easy for older people and their families to become disempowered in what can be a depersonalised, confusing and overly bureaucratic aged-care system. Recommendation 1 of the royal commission was that a new aged-care act be passed by this parliament, and the passage of the bill will respond to around 60 of the recommendations of this royal commission report.

This bill is about putting older Australians at the heart of the aged-care system and raising the standard of care across the nation, and sustainable funding is an essential part of that mission. By changing how aged-care providers deliver services to older people in their homes, community settings and residential care homes, there is an opportunity to ensure that older people are treated with the respect that they deserve. This bill implements a much-needed, rights-based legislative framework for aged care, as was recommended by the royal commission.

We all know the stories—the horrific stories—from years past about what has happened in aged care in this country. The royal commission report was called Neglect for a reason, and none of us should be comfortable maintaining the status quo that produced a report called Neglect. The bill before us today is about responding to that report, saying a report called Neglect does not leave us with any option but to embark on a substantial agenda of reform. Sometimes that requires hard decisions, but it actually does require coming to the table, coming to the party and trying to resolve a problem—a massive problem which was hurting too many of the people we love and too many members of our own families. It would have continued to hurt and harm if a reform agenda were not ambitious, bold and brought to this chamber, as this bill today.

I think this is a good bill. Throughout our inquiry process we found some things which we thought needed work and needed to be addressed. We made commentary throughout our report on the committee's view, and I acknowledge the work and the response of the government to some of those issues raised. That's the purpose and part of having an inquiry process. But it is also really important that we come together and do something about this and that we don't think the status quo, in a system which led to a royal commission report called Neglect, is ever going to be superior to a reform agenda which seeks to put older Australians at the heart of aged care, because that's not an acceptable scenario either. It's not acceptable and not at all reasonable to put your heads in the sand on this one. We need to come together as a parliament to deliver reform. That's what our community expects of us, and that's what this bill will deliver.

Those reforms go to secure and sustainable funding. They go to the Support at Home program, which will make a tremendous and massive difference to many people's lives. We know it is a core part of what older Australians and their families expect and want from the aged-care system and what this bill will help us deliver, including changes to those waiting lists and making sure that more Australians are supported to be able to age in their homes—an absolutely critical request of older Australians and their families.

The aged-care sector absolutely needs reforms. These reforms are once in a generation, and I commend the minister who has worked tirelessly, since she was sworn into this portfolio, on seeking to deliver a reform program which responds to that report and responds to the title Neglecta report that this chamber should never be able to ignore—and a response of the complexity, detail and, at times, compromise necessary to change this system to ensure that it works for older Australians, that older people get the care, dignity and respect they deserve, that we do that in a sustainable way and that we don't shirk our responsibilities in this parliament to respond to that No. 1 recommendation to deliver reform and to deliver a new act this term. That's our opportunity today. I commend the bill to the Senate.