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

During the inquiry process we heard from a number of providers, and probably the biggest issues—outside of the fact that they didn't have the information they needed to put in place the changes that they are going to be required to, under this new reform package—was not just the timing, in terms of the implementation, but also the costs that were associated with it. We heard from a number of providers—not just home-care providers but also residential aged-care providers—that they saw this as going to be a very significant burden, in terms of their ICT upgrades. In fact, during the inquiry we heard from one provider—and not necessarily the biggest provider in Australia, I might say—that they thought the cost of the ICT changes was likely to be around $4 million for their organisation alone. As to the $1.2 billion that was put aside in the last budget for the ICT changes, you've confirmed that is entirely for the implementation of the ICT changes required within government agencies for this reform. So the government's set aside $1.2 billion for that, but they've set aside $10 million to support only Support at Home providers with an amount up to $10,000. I'm very keen to understand the process that went behind the decision-making of the requirement for the government to need $1.2 billion for ICT changes. Does the government have any idea of what the quantum of the cost of ICT changes is going to be across the entire aged-care sector—home care and residential care and any other providers, stakeholders or the like—that are likely to be impacted from an ICT perspective? What is the total cost of the sector's ICT changes going to be on the basis that you believe that we need $1.2 billion to do yours?