Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Aged Care Amendment (Independent Complaints Arrangements) Bill 2015 amends the Aged Care Act 1997 to reflect the 2015 budget measure to transfer the responsibility of aged care complaints from the Department of Social Services to an independent Aged Care Commissioner. From 1 January 2016 the Aged Care Commissioner will have full responsibility for the Aged Care Complaints Scheme. The measure has received sector-wide support, including from the Council on the Ageing, Leading Age Services Australia and Aged Care Services Australia. Labor certainly supports the idea of an independent complaints scheme and is pleased to take a bipartisan position on and approach to this. I like to give credit where credit is due, and in this case it is to the government.

Labor will always be a friend of the aged care services sector. We are committed to an aged care system built on the principles of respect, dignity and choice. That is why, when in government, we delivered the biggest reforms in aged care and ageing in a generation. Labor's Living Longer Living Better package provided a 10-year plan to build a better, fairer, sustainable and nationally consistent aged care system to meet the challenges of an ageing population. The measure before us today paves the way for an important change. Its importance is heightened due to a lack of leadership in rolling out Labor's Living Longer Living Better reforms. There has just been so much to complain about. There has been a long-running concern at both provider and consumer level that the complaints investigation process needed to be independent of the department. Strengthening the independence of the Aged Care Complaints Scheme is a natural progression. In 2009 a review of the then complaints investigation scheme by Professor Merrilyn Walton recommended an independent statutory authority. The review found that a body separate from the department was necessary to remove concerns about the impartiality of decisions.

As I have said, this is a progressive measure and should provide consumers with greater confidence and protection when making complaints. It should also limit unnecessary delays and duplication. But while we give it credit we also have some concerns. The concerns are in relation to how the measure will provide savings of $2.8 million over four years by simplifying the aged care complaints-handling process. Labor is concerned about where the savings are coming from. While we accept this $2.8 million in saving from efficiencies, we have concerns about whether the commissioner will have sufficient resources to handle 4,000-plus complaints each year. With so much to complain about and the massive increase in demand for aged care services over the next 30 years, complaints will no doubt keep increasing. It is vital that the Aged Care Commissioner is resourced appropriately. We certainly do not want to see the good work that they do undermined in the name of savings. While Labor supports a bipartisan approach, this needs to be more than a simple cost-saving exercise. The government has had a poor record of taking its eye off the ball since it took over in relation to aged care in Australia. I will continue to draw the eyes of the minister and the assistant minister back to aged care and I will continue, as Labor will, to keep them accountable.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank colleagues across the chamber for what I expect will be unanimous support for the Aged Care Amendment (Independent Complaints Arrangements) Bill 2015, which, as my colleague opposite outlined, seeks to introduce a 2015 budget measure to increase the independence of aged care complaints handling from 1 January next year. What we are seeking to do here is to increase the independence of aged care complaints-handling arrangements by transferring the complaints powers to the Aged Care Commissioner from the Department of Social Services. From next year the Aged Care Commissioner will have complete responsibility for the Aged Care Complaints Scheme, which currently rests with the Department of Social Services. That will ensure the independence of this important protection.

This measure clearly separates complaints handling from the funding and regulatory functions undertaken by the Department of Social Services. I can assure colleagues that there will be continuity of service in the transition between the department and the commissioner, including maintenance of current staffing arrangements for a smooth transition from a client's perspective. The changes remove any perception of, or potential for, bias in the management of aged care complaints by the department, which also funds and regulates aged care services. Responsibility for the decisions made by the Aged Care Complaints Scheme will rest with the commissioner, whose decisions cannot be influenced by the funding body. The Aged Care Commissioner is a statutory office holder who has independent decision-making powers. All older Australians, we would agree, I am sure, have the right to feel safe and to receive care appropriate to their needs, and establishing an independent complaints mechanism will help ensure that people can have confidence that any complaints that they have will be appropriately managed and addressed.

In making these changes, the government recognises the recommendations of the 2009 review of the former Aged Care Complaints Investigation Scheme by Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton, and the Productivity Commission's 2011 report, Caring for older Australians. I will just cite for you, Mr Acting Deputy President Smith, the responses of the sector to the budget announcement. Alzheimer's Australia said:

This is a strong measure that will improve consumer protection and independent scrutiny …

Catholic Health Australia said it had been 'long recognised that good governance in public administration requires the separation of the regulatory arms of government from the policy and funding arms'. The press release from the Council of the Ageing said:

Mr Yates also welcomed moving the aged care complaints scheme out of the department to the Aged Care Commissioner. COTA has long called for a more independent complaints scheme.

'Having complaints managed by an independent umpire will give older people greater confidence in how complaints are handled,' he said.

Professor Walton herself is quoted as saying:

… the separation of complaints handling from the funder and regulator of aged care services--a key recommendation of the 2009 review—reflected best practice and would help restore public and industry confidence in the scheme.

So it has been universally welcomed.

When the commissioner does take responsibility for the complaints arrangements, the review of decisions will be integrated into those arrangements. Concerns regarding the processes of the commissioner and the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency can be raised with the Commonwealth Ombudsman. Existing legislative complaints management functions will be maintained and will continue to cover Australian government, residential and home based aged care. Aged-care regulatory policy, compliance and enforcement will remain the responsibility of the department of social services. The Aged Care Quality Agency will remain responsible for the accreditation and quality review of aged-care services.

Complaints handling is a vital cog in an effective, modern market quality assurance system. I should, just in passing, reference that in the budget we also touched on issues of quality more generally. I will not go further into those here, but I think we are all keen to have a more sophisticated definition of 'quality'. Safety should be taken as a bedrock, as a given. Quality is really what providers do above and beyond the basic safety standards. Quality is what providers do to exceed consumer expectations.

In conclusion, I think these improvements to the complaints arrangements and the quality arrangements, which I touched on briefly, do support the government's moves to put more choice and control in the hands of older Australians. We have made an important paradigm shift, I think, across the parliament and in the community as well in terms of recognising the consumer-centric view that will be dominant in the future of this sector. I thank my colleagues across the chamber, who are broadly supportive of that approach. With that, I commend the bill to my colleagues.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.