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

My question to the government is: what is the harm in putting something into the legislation that is really concrete and underpins the absolutely fundamental basis of what we're trying to achieve here in terms of the rights of older Australians? We haven't seen the rules, so we don't know what's in them, but, if you say that everything that we are trying to achieve by this very simple amendment—all the amendment says is to add a clause saying:

(13) An individual has a right to access, at any time the individual chooses, a person designated by the individual, or a person designated by an appropriate authority.

It is not a convoluted amendment that has a whole heap of potential unintended consequences. It's pretty straightforward. I'm really keen to understand: what is the basis on which the government would not be allowing older Australians this basic human right?