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

I want to make it very, very clear: the coalition absolutely does not support what the minister has just stood up and said, and that is not the intent of this amendment in any way, shape or form. We absolutely support the exclusion of people with a criminal history, as outlined by the minister. I'm somewhat offended that she would suggest I would be thinking they would be fit and proper people to work in aged care. This particular provision is nothing more than allowing the systems governor within the department to make an exemption if an Indigenous community thinks it is culturally appropriate for them to give an exemption to the person they would like to work in their community. Consideration is given to additional circumstances put forward to the systems governor. I absolutely want to put on the record that the coalition does not support and would never support the suggestion the minister just made that the type of people she outlined are people we would think appropriate to work in aged care.

The opposition record our support for the amendment.

Question negatived.

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 3082 together:

SHEET 3082

(1) Clause 58, page 80 (line 5), omit "; and", substitute "; or".

(2) Clause 58, page 80 (after line 5), after subparagraph 58(a)(iii), insert:

(iv) has care needs that can be met in the most effective way by a funded aged care service; and

What this seeks to do is reflect evidence we heard throughout the hearing in relation to people who are under the age of 65, and this has particularly been driven by evidence around people with early onset dementia. We know that the great bulk of specialised dementia care services, staff and resources are currently in our aged-care homes. I think it is appropriate to give a shout out to some of the most extraordinary dementia care institutions in Australia's aged-care facilities, particularly organisations like HammondCare, who have actually specialised in dementia care. This is where the resources exist for people with dementia to get the best possible care, because these are the places where people have the skills and experience to be able to manage it.

I will just put on the record a personal experience of a friend of a very, very close friend of mine, whose husband, at the age of 61, has been suffering from early onset dementia for the last nine years. He is still at home because of a mechanism that prevents him from being able to go to aged care. She is caring for him at home with quite an amount of support, but she knows the best care for him will be in aged care. She is seeking for him to be able to go into aged care, because she believes the care could be improved on by his being able to go into aged care. As this bill is currently written, he would potentially be denied access into aged care. We think that, under circumstances where it can be absolutely demonstrated that the care needs of the individual under the age of 65 can be met most effectively and efficiently and in the way the person and the carer wants those to be met through a funded aged care service—and only under that particular and extreme circumstance—people under the age of 65 should be granted access to aged care.

It is in the interest of the unfortunately many Australians now with early onset dementia—we're seeing an increase—receiving the best possible care that we provide this very strict and tight exemption criteria to enable those people to access the best possible care that they can, because we know that care is currently embedded in our aged-care facilities.