House debates

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Bills

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2016-2017; Consideration in Detail

1:11 pm

Photo of Sussan LeySussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Hansard source

I will answer just briefly because the member for Franklin has indicated that she has had a briefing from my department and it has explained how we will transition a sector that is providing aged-care packages in a somewhat limited way now to a sector where the consumer has more choice over the providers of those packages in, as she said, February 2017. She correctly identified that this is an important area to get right.

The member for Franklin also mentioned a saving that both her party and our party have agreed was necessary in the aged-care funding instrument of $1.2 billion, given that the budget for that funding instrument had blown out by $3.8 billion over the forward estimates. It happened once before under Labor and they took the same corrective action that we are now. We have agreed that that corrective action needs to be taken, and I am consulting with the sector about what we will do to make sure it does not happen for a third time. We also need to recognise that the certainty that is needed when you are a provider of aged care is very important.

It is not a cut. It is not going to be described by me as a cut because it is actually a growth that is continuing at about 5.1 per cent. So our spend in aged care is budgeted to continue at 5.1 per cent, and it will. But if that expected growth blows out, as it did with this aged-care funding instrument, we will bring it back to trend. We will have no choice, to come back to my point about the scarce health dollars. By the way, even if they were not scarce, it would still be the right thing to do to properly manage the system. You just cannot let expenditure in one area run away.

We are very excited about the reforms in aged care. They are going to make a difference to every single older Australian. They are going to bring the consumer to the centre of their care. I am looking forward to older Australians becoming empowered and able to make their own choices and not to feel like they are passive recipients of packages and that they have to do certain things because that is what the package does. They will have choice and control. They can say, 'I don't want my house cleaned this week; I want to go down to the club and have a few drinks with my mates. I don't care about the dishes in the sink today.' Just to have that flexibility and choice is absolutely vital. Why should we ever expect that older Australians somehow have to have this one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to policy and funding support from Canberra? This is, indeed, a transformation in aged care and one that I very much hope the Labor Party will join us in supporting.

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