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

I probably raised this in the sense of there is significant change in the financial relationship that exists between somebody receiving, say, a supported home package and the provider. Previously, that has been quite a minimal financial relationship. This is about to escalate significantly that financial interaction between the client and provider. The determination of what somebody is required to be contributing is a determination of the government; it is not a determination of the provider. You are actually asking the providers across the nation to be the ones who are administering that financial relationship that has been determined by Services Australia on the policy directive obviously from the Department of Health and Aged Care. We're not talking about something that is just a slight change or a slight tweak from where we're standing the moment. The change to how support at home works, particularly in financial arrangements, is significant, so I'm trying to understand what work has been done. It is well and good to say you have been talking to providers and we would expect that to be the case. This is a significant risk.

The greatest challenge before us at the moment is the fact we need an aged-care sector that is able to continue to provide the kind of care and services to older Australians they will need in the future, bearing in mind we have an increasingly ageing population and we have changing expectations around the delivery of that service, whether that be older Australians who want remain in their own home or whether it be a change in the kinds of service and the components of the delivery of aged care.

We have a significant change before us at the moment. I'm keen to understand what modelling or what work the government has done to understand the risk ratio here and the risk exposure here, because the last thing we need to do is see any of these things potentially have an impact on the sector. We don't need our homes closing. We don't need aged-care providers no longer being in a financial position to continue providing these services. So I am merely asking you, given the significance of the change what has the government done to assess the risk profile of this change? I am asking you particularly in relation to unrecoverable debts for a whole heap of reasons. The cost—the financial relationship—is determined by the government. Have you done any assessment about what the potential impact could be of this increased liability and increased risk on the sector, particularly as it relates to people potentially leaving the sector?