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

I rise to speak in support of the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Increasing Consumer Choice) Bill 2016.

Labor is supporting this legislation as it is essentially the next logical step in the reforms of aged care which, when we were in government, we did all the heavy lifting for when it came to having a forward plan and laying out the foundations for the future direction of aged care in this country. This is consistent with what we envisioned would happen and it was supported by the sector. We consulted widely with them when we were in government and were developing the Living Longer Living Better reforms.

Like those in the aged-care sector, I am pleased to see the government are continuing to roll out our Living Longer Living Better reforms. The bill before us is making further changes to the way we allocate home care packages, and we all know how important it is to ensure that we give older Australians as much support as they need to be able to deliver on them being able to live in their own homes for as long as possible. For them to be able to do that they need to have support, and this is a further step in assisting them. This measure is in the spirit of Labor's Living Longer Living Better reforms. I trust the minister will have accountability and transparency, as well as an independent process for evaluating this rollout. The measure will give the consumers of aged-care services—older Australians, their carers and their families—greater choice and control of the services and support they need to remain as independent as possible within their own homes and, just as importantly, within their own communities. That is what the desired outcome is all about.

Labor supports these measures, but the real test is the government's ability to implement and regulate the changes. We know that over the last 2½ years, since they came to government, those opposite have failed older Australians miserably. They have never had their eye on the ball. When Mr Abbott was elected, he never appointed a minister for ageing. That was completely overlooked. Then we had a change of Prime Minister and, when he announced his ministry, once again ageing and aged care in this country was overlooked. It was an afterthought. Now we have a Minister for Aged Care and aged care has been put back where it should always have been, with the Department of Health.

The unfortunate thing is that, with the good things that we are supporting in this piece of legislation, the government does not demonstrate the sort of respect and support that older Australians deserve. We need to address the ageing of our population. This is not something that is going to go away. This is not a fad. This is not a political opportunity for me to stand up and talk about it. This reality is not only facing Australia; it is international: how do we support our ageing population?

Senator Bilyk, who is behind me, and I represent the state of Tasmania. We have the fastest ageing population in the country, followed by South Australia. In the next five years—in fact, even less than that—we need to see an increase of 5,000 additional people being trained and skilled up to work in the aged-care sector. These are big challenges for us—huge challenges. I hope—I am even praying—that the government will finally see the light and realise that our older Australians deserve to have a minister for ageing. The issues confronting older Australians go right across all departments, whether you are talking about insurance, employment or the support that we want to give people so that they can stay in their own homes, but we also need to look at investment in infrastructure when it comes to residential care. The difference that we are now seeing is that people are fortunate enough to be able stay at home for much longer. They can remain independent for much longer. When people end up going into residential care, their health issues are far more complex and expensive. Therefore, there is a lot more that this government should be doing to support older Australians. Just as importantly, we need to ensure that the sector has support and leadership from the government. We know—because I have spoken about it numerous times in this place—that the government has failed to show any leadership in this area.

The first part of a two-stage plan will change the way home care services are delivered for older Australians. The first stage is addressed in the legislation before us today. It will allocate packages directly to consumers from 27 February 2017. Home care packages would follow the consumer. Consumers—that is, the older person and their family—will be able to choose who their provider is and change their provider if they are not happy with the services that are being provided. The other extremely important aspect of this legislation will ensure that consumers can take the package with them. For instance, if someone in Hobart is receiving a package, has a provider and their partner passes away and they choose to live with their son or daughter interstate, they will be able to take the package with them. That is an excellent step forward. As I said, the change in the legislation has been borne out of the Living Longer Living Better package.

The second stage would integrate the Home Care Packages Program and the Commonwealth Home Support Program into a single Home Care Program from July 2018. This will require additional legislation from whoever forms government after the next election. The legislation will make amendments to the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997 in three main areas. Firstly, funding for home care packages would follow the consumer rather than the provider. This measure, which, as I outlined before, is transportable to wherever you are living, would remove the Aged Care Approvals Round, ACAR, process for home care packages. The 2015 ACAR saw the final allocations of home care packages to providers. This would remove considerable red tape for aged-care providers, who would no longer be required to make these applications. Providers would be approved as long as they met the accreditation and quality standards.

Secondly, this legislation will create a nationally consistent approach to prioritising access to home care packages through myagedcare. This measure would remove the regional ratios as well, with a prioritisation process to take into account an individual's needs, circumstances and waiting time, regardless of their location. This measure would allow more accurate data on the demand for home care packages which would actually produce some very good data for us to continue to plan. Specifically, it will allow myagedcare to capture how many people are waiting for a package, how long they have been waiting, what part of Australia they reside in and much more meaningful data. The third change is the reduction of red tape for providers to become approved under the Aged Care Act 1997.

The quality standards will remain the same and it is important to reiterate that. The quality standards will remain, but the criteria for assessing suitability will be streamlined. This is a very lengthy process that has been based on key personnel rather than capacity. Providers need to have an allocation of places in order to retain their status as approved providers. The legislation will allow providers to retain their status as long as they meet the quality processes and maintain accreditation.

Labor have always—as we know on this side—led the way on aged-care reform in this country. Some 11½ years ago we had the previous Liberal government of the Howard years, who already knew the issues around aged care and the sort of reform that was needed, but the best that they could come up with was that in 2½ years they had five ministers for aged care, and they still could not consult with the sector and come up with any real reform agendas. It is a bit like what they are suffering from now when they cannot come up with any taxation reforms. They have no idea of how to plan for the economy and how we are going to grow opportunities in this country. We recognise, on this side, the challenges and opportunities that there are in the ageing area. As I have said, there is enormous potential for employment in this area, for people to retrain and re-skill themselves. It is not just us on this side of the chamber telling the government how desperate the situation is and to recruit more people into the workforce, it is the sector telling them. The people out there providing services, providing infrastructure, have been saying to the government—although it has been falling on deaf ears—that they need to have some leadership in how they are going to develop and sustain an extremely high level of skills when it comes to the aged-care workforce. Once again, this is a workforce that is predominantly women. Some of the lowest paid workers in this country always seems be women. It is always women, whether you go to the retail sector, whether you go to aged-care sector, or whether you go to the disability sector.

This government has the opportunity to do something that can have a real impact. But it has taken this government 547 days to deliver a stock take of government funded, aged-care workforce initiatives which were intended to inform the development of an aged-care workforce strategy. We have still seen no sign of that at all. So those on the opposite side of the chamber, and the responsible minister, have failed yet again to listen to the sector. Shame on those opposite, shame on this government.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will keep my contribution on this short because I realise that we can run out of time very quickly. The Greens support this bill. We recognise this is another step in the process of reforming aged care and the Living Longer Living Better program. I note that we are supporting this bill as non-controversial because it has the support of the key stakeholders, consumers and providers, therefore we think it is worthy of support. The implementation of this is in the guts of what comes next, and we will be watching that very closely.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their comments and commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.