Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak today about the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Serious Incident Response Scheme and Other Measures) Bill 2020 relating to the Serious Incident Response Scheme. Before I cover the detail, I always like to talk about why legislation is being introduced. In this case, this legislation is being driven by the core belief that this government holds that it is our responsibility as a nation to look after and support the interests and the safety of elderly Australians—those Australians who have contributed so much in shaping the nation that we have inherited, those Australians who have helped raise us, the next generation.

At this point I would also like to specifically mention my wife's nan, Patricia Coombe, who died just on Sunday. Patricia was a very fierce advocate of family love. She was a wonderful example to all of her extended family. Pat always led by example in setting up family events, in keeping in touch with loved ones, in sharing information and of course in having a nice full lolly jar at her own home. My personal favourites were the lolly bananas, but, unfortunately, they were Nan's favourites too, and I was left with whatever the kids hadn't already cleaned out. Pat was also a recipient of aged-care services, as many elderly Australians are. Those services were mixed and supported by her own family—her daughters Maureen, Coralie and Kathleen, and their own families as well. Under this model, we can see the expectation that we all have—that when elderly Australians are receiving care on a formal organised basis it is in a safe and supportive environment. That is where this bill comes in.

This bill introduces a Serious Incident Response Scheme. This will respond to and take steps to prevent the incidence of neglect and abuse of older Australians in residential aged care and for those receiving flexible care delivered in a residential aged-care setting. It also introduces a responsibility for approved providers to manage incidents and to take reasonable steps to prevent incidents, including through implementing and maintaining an incident management system. Importantly, this legislation also defines a reportable incident and provides a broad range of powers to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner.

The bill will provide protections for whistleblowers who disclose information about reportable incidents. The bill also introduces the ability for the commissioner to issue compliance notices to deal with enforcement of incident management responsibilities. Importantly, the bill will introduce enforcement powers for the commissioner to impose civil penalties, infringement notices, enforceable undertakings and injunctions.

This Serious Incident Response Scheme is all about driving quality and safety improvements to residential aged care at the individual service level and at the broader system level. Under this scheme, residential aged-care providers will be required to manage all incidents, with a focus on the safety and wellbeing of consumers and on reducing preventable incidents from recurring. Reporting under this scheme will include a range of new matters, such as sexual misconduct, neglect, psychological abuse, inappropriate use of restraints and unexpected death, amongst others.

I've got some experience myself in the implementation of incident management systems. I was a captain in the Australian Army, a few years ago now, when an online system was brought in to manage incidents. At first we thought this was just burdensome paperwork but what we soon learned was that this system enabled us to track actions in response to incidents, whether it was a medical response that needed to be followed up, where a soldier had been injured and we needed to track their treatment and care, or whether it related to administrative or procedural controls to help prevent future incidents. We found that the system was great at ensuring actions were implemented and that any macrotrends in incidents that occurred across Army were identified and mitigated. When I moved into the business world I also had experience with incident management systems, including in mining and oil and gas, which are of course high-risk environments where it's really important that incidents are identified and controls are implemented and tracked. That's where this bill will help—by providing a system under which incidents can be defined and identified and the actions relating to those incidents can be tracked so that, importantly, we continue to improve aged care for all ageing Australians.

As has mentioned by previous speakers, this Prime Minister is passionate about continually improving aged care. That's why, since coming to government, this coalition has seen an increase in spending to $23.9 billion this year. It is why, since coming to government, we have tripled the number of home-care packages. These are just some of the measures whereby we are continually improving the provision of services to aged Australians. This scheme will see a fit-for-purpose serious incident response scheme that gives comfort to all of us across Australia. I know this sentiment is shared across the chamber and by all Australians. We want to provide the best quality for our ageing loved ones. This scheme will help by ensuring that, as they enter aged care, our loved ones experience a supportive and safe environment.

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