Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Aged Care Bill 2024 and the Aged Care Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. Older Australians deserve to receive the best quality care as well as the best quality of life that fits their own lifestyles and their own interests. The reality is that our country is now getting older, and getting older faster. It's important to recognise that aged care is not merely just a sector in our community; it reflects how we as a society value and care for all older Australians. By 2026 it's estimated that 22 per cent of Australians will be aged over 65, which is up from 16 per cent just four years ago.

At a critical time, when our aged-care system is subject to very significant reforms, it's absolutely essential that we engage with and listen to older Australians, as well as the industry that supports them, to hear their experiences, their views and their wishes in how we go about reforming this sector. Unlike Labor, the coalition really understands the importance of listening to the sector and also to older Australians—not just to listen but also to act on what they want, how eventually all of us in this place want to live our lives and how we want to be respected and be able to realise our individual aspirations for our future lives.

It was a pleasure, along with Jan Norberger, who is the Liberal candidate for Pearce, to host shadow minister for health and aged care, my wonderful colleague Senator Anne Ruston, for an aged-care leaders roundtable recently at the Perth RAAFA Merriwa Estate. There, senior representatives from across the aged-care sector provided absolutely invaluable insights, which were listened to and are now being acted upon in amendments that will be before this chamber shortly. The responsibility and the need to consult is exactly why those on this side of the chamber fought so hard to have public hearings around this nation on the bill which, as all of us in here recall, the Albanese Labor government was so not in support of. We fought them every step of the way to get that transparency and to get that scrutiny, which has proved so important with the sheer number of amendments to the original bill and now the amendments that will be coming forward in this place.

The issues confronting our aged-care system are undeniable. With more than half of aged-care homes across our country now operating at a loss, it is not sustainable for the sector. We have an aging population, as I've said. So many Australians now aspire and want to live at home for as long as possible. We not only need to listen to what people want in how we deliver aged care but have to then make sure that we have the right legislative changes in place and we give the sector time to deliberatively implement those reforms. We on this side of the chamber understand the significance and the importance of an aged-care system that is strong and sustainable and that not only supports those who currently need to access the system but supports those who will be aging over the next many decades.

I am very proud that it was the coalition who called for and actually initiated and responded to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The coalition has remained absolutely resolute in advocating for the dignity and clarity that older Australians deserve and in the findings of the royal commission. In response to the royal commission, the former Liberal-National government provided more than $18 billion in terms of funding to support the immediate needs of the sector at that time. This legislation delivers on the first recommendation of the royal commission—the royal commission that those on this side of the chamber initiated—to implement a new rights based aged-care act. When you think about it, it is something that is so important. It's almost unbelievable that until now we haven't actually had a rights based aged-care act. Through significant negotiations with the government, the coalition has sought to bring in amendments to ensure that any reforms provide the dignity and clarity that older Australians now need.

In relation to the inquiry that those opposite fought so hard not to have—which, given the amount of flaws that were discovered and reported on during the course of that inquiry, thank goodness we fought so hard to have that inquiry—this bill does represent a significant package of reforms. The inquiry gave us the opportunity to put older Australians and the aged-care sector at the forefront of these proposed reforms through an open and transparent Senate inquiry process that the Labor Party was so desperate not to have. The inquiry had over 200 stakeholder groups provide submissions, and, again, the message from them was very clear.

When we had the inquiry, it became so clear from the feedback why the government didn't want to have any scrutiny on this bill, because it was demonstrated to be yet another poor, rushed piece of essential legislation served up by those opposite that required significant amendments to make it workable and to achieve the intent. Having considered all the information submitted to the Senate inquiry, it is very clear, as I've said, that this bill requires significant amendments, which, again, the coalition has drafted and will be putting forward in the committee stage of this bill. As the coalition senators noted in our response to the inquiry, there remains concerns that the bill still contains shortcomings that must be remedied in order for it to deliver on the promise that those opposite are making to older Australians.

The government must be transparent and release all subordinate legislation associated with the Aged Care Bill before it passes. I am Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation and it is very clear just how much the government have said: 'Trust us. Let's rush through this bill. We won't worry about sharing the regulations or any of the delegated legislation at the same time, but just trust us. We haven't written this really essential information yet, or, worse, we have written it but we don't want to share it with you because we know it's not going to pass muster.' For that reason, I, like other colleagues, call on the government to release all of those regulations to provide the certainty on the timeline and also to allow all in this place and the sector to work out whether this bill is achievable for the sector.

Like in so many other areas, this government, by withholding this critical information, prevents stakeholders from being able to understand and prepare in full for the changes contained in this bill. It's been extraordinary how many confidentiality agreements that this government has had across so many pieces of legislation so that the select few who do get an opportunity to participate in the proposed changes are subject to confidentiality agreements so they can't discuss it with anybody else. This happened for the Pharmacy Guild amendments and the NDIS, and it goes on and on. Not only does it prevent stakeholders from understanding the detail of the bill and the detail of what they will need to do in the very short timeframe those opposite have given them but it prevents all of us in this place from being able to sufficiently scrutinise the impacts of this bill on behalf of all Australians.

The coalition does remain supportive of introducing a rights based framework to guarantee a world-class aged-care system for older Australians, but the government must play fair and recognise that the quantum of change they are asking the parliament to accept without knowing any of the detail on the transition arrangements is improper, inappropriate and, again, preventing this place from fully discharging its duties in relation to this legislation on behalf of all Australians. The coalition have already made very significant changes to this bill, and we've got many more amendments coming in the committee stage. Through these negotiations, we have achieved very significant changes to the proposed legislation—we've achieved scores of them, in fact—and the government, I understand, only has one or two amendments to this legislation. So I would like to heartily congratulate the coalition team and, in particular, my colleague Senator Anne Ruston, who have worked tirelessly for months, effectively doing the government's job for them to improve this bill and make it workable for the sector. Congratulations to you all.

That's why we, on this side of parliament, have pushed the government to include grandfathering arrangements, lifetime caps for non-clinical care contributions and a much lower taper rate. But we've also sought from the government an assurance that they will remain the majority funder of aged care and not the consumer—that is, older Australians. These grandfathering arrangements guarantee that Australians who are already in residential care, on a homecare package or are assessed as to be waiting for their allocated homecare package will not see any change to their arrangements. It beggars belief that the government didn't introduce a grandfathering provision to start with, but we have advocated and been successful in getting that put in. That is just basic fairness for older Australians who are already in receipt of packages or have been approved.

On this side of the chamber, we also advocated for a lower taper rate towards care contributions to ensure that those who have worked hard and saved for their retirement are dealt a fairer deal. It's something that those opposite are not ideologically supportive of, but that those on this side of the chamber know just how fair that is for older Australians who have worked so hard to contribute to their own retirement. The taper rates we demanded mean that funding contributions increase at a much slower rate than this government had wanted to achieve. Furthermore, we also sought an absolute assurance from the government that they would remain the majority funder, not the people who have worked so hard for their retirement. We also fought for the maintenance of a lifetime cap on non-clinical care contributions across both home care and also residential aged care.

The annual lifetime caps that we demanded and achieved mean that Australians will always know the maximum they could ever be required to contribute to the cost of care, and as you age, and as you've exited the workforce, that is a particularly important assurance, guarantee and comfort for those who have access to aged care. But not only do we fight for a lifetime cap we also introduced a time-limited contribution cap for four years for residential aged care.

In addition to these financial safeguards, the coalition has also secured an additional investment of $300 million in capital funding for regional, rural and remote aged-care providers who are struggling in record numbers to even keep their doors open under the Albanese government. So this funding has been critical for the upgrading of its facilities that often struggle to meet the needs and also the necessary standards that are set before them.

Time doesn't permit for me to go through all of the other reforms that the coalition has fought for and achieved. But while there have been significant achievements during these negotiations, it is important to remember that this is Labor's package of reforms which we have worked very hard to get to a point where we can support what started off as incredibly poor legislation. This government has still failed to address critical issues such as workforce, regulatory impacts and implementation times contained in this bill. So while we have improved it significantly, after 2½ years this government is still letting aged Australians down.