Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

a)   Notes that:

1)   the Rudd Government is ignoring the accelerating crisis in aged care, in particular the serious financial viability challenges faced by aged care providers involved in the provision of high care beds;

2)   the Government appears to justify its inaction by pointing to advice from the Department of Health and Ageing, also submitted to various Senate committees, that “efficient” aged care providers are financially viable;

3)   the Senate has sought to verify those claims by seeking access to the de-identified data from the audited General Financial Purpose Accounts, which the Department of Health and Ageing has been collecting from aged care providers since the 2004-05 financial year;

4)   on 13 August 2009, in answer to question on notice 1688, the Minister indicated that the de-identified data from the General Purpose Accounts was available on the Department of Health and Ageing website – when in fact it wasn’t;

5)   on 19 August 2009 the Senate ordered that the de-identified data from the General Purpose Accounts and associated reports from the years 2005-06 to 2008-09 be laid on the table;

6)   the Government eventually made the 2006-07 de-identified unit record data available;

7)   the Government refused to table the remaining information part of the Senate’s order, providing the following reasons in a letter dated 20 September 2009:

a)   information from 05-06 was of ‘poor quality’ and ‘could be misleading and not contribute to the public understanding of these issues’;

b)   Access Economic and KPMG reports of the 2006-07 data were to ‘inform the Cabinet’s deliberations’; and

c)   information from 2007-08 is incomplete, awaiting some late returns.

b)   Considers that the above grounds are either not supported by precedent or insufficient justification for the refusal to provide the requested information and documents to the Senate, noting in particular that:

1)   the Senate has previously explicitly rejected the proposition that information that may ‘confuse the public debate’ is a sufficient ground not to release information;

2)   not every document placed before Cabinet reveals the deliberations of Cabinet, and only if the reports in question revealed Cabinet deliberations would they conform with the recognised ground; and

3)   incomplete material can (and should) be tabled with a caveat as to its incompleteness.

c)   Rejects the Ministers grounds for withholding the national de-identified data and associated reports.

d)   Considers publication of the national de-identified data from the audited General Purpose Accounts and associated reports to be in the public interest.

e)   Again orders that there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing by no later than 12 pm on 18 November 2009, the following documents:

1)   National de-identified data from the audited General Purpose Accounts of aged care providers for:

i)   2005-06;

ii)   2007-08, including any report/analysis by the department and/or any third party consultant; and

2)   the report/analysis by Access Economics and KPMG based on the 2006-07 de-identified unit record data from the audited General Purpose Accounts of aged care providers.

Question agreed to.