Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

All Australians deserve to age with dignity and respect. That is at the core of the reformation that is happening under this government. No-one is hiding from the fact that this has not always been the case. That's why our Prime Minister called for the royal commission into aged care as one of his first acts as Prime Minister. Some of the stories we've heard through the royal commission have been shocking. They've been really difficult to hear. But we now have to act on reformation to ensure that we improve the lives of those in the aged-care system.

The Morrison government is committed to reforming the aged-care system, and to do this we have to respect that senior Australians need tailored, individual approaches. This bill would deliver the first stage of the aged-care reform program in response to the royal commission. The health, safety and wellbeing of senior Australians is of the utmost importance. It is driving our plan for generational change. The Morrison government's comprehensive response to the royal commission is driven, through the lens of five broad pillars, by the principles of respect and care. Those pillars are: home care, residential aged-care quality and safety, residential aged-care services and sustainability, workforce, and governance. I will address each of those points.

First, senior Australians want to remain independent and in control of their life. Living at home allows them to do that and to stay connected to their community. That is why investment in home-care packages, as we are doing as a government, is so incredibly important. The government is providing $7.5 billion to ensure 80,000 new home-care packages are brought online. This is what the community wants. This is what senior Australians want. It's what we should all want. It will provide increased support for informal and family carers and support for senior Australians to find the aged-care services they need, provide increased Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission checks and provide transparency pricing to ensure value for money. The My Aged Care website and contact centre will continue to be a key entry point to help those who are ageing and their carers navigate these complex systems.

Residential aged-care services and sustainability is the second pillar. Around 204,000 senior Australians live in residential aged care each year. The government will invest $3.9 billion over the next four years to increase frontline care, and from July 2021 there will be a new government basic daily fee supplement of $10 per resident per day, which will give immediate support for providers for the services that they provide, such as food, nutrition, linen and cleaning. There will also be a new funding model for residential aged care, which will enable transparency, and independent assessors will resolve fairer aged-care support for all residents.

Residential aged care quality and safety is the third pillar of the reforms this government is leading. This will help strengthen the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to further protect senior Australians. The government is investing $231 million to: enable the commission to do 1,500 more site audits; enforce regulation of physical and chemical restraint use; expand the Serious Incident Response Scheme into home care, which is being passed into law here in this House; and increase funding for the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service and the Severe Behaviour Response Teams. These are all incredibly important not only as Australia becomes an older demographic but also as we see more people developing dementia, because we are all living longer.

Primary care support between aged-care and healthcare systems is an incredibly important link to make. We know aged-care residential settings look to their local hospitals and their local GPs for the healthcare support they need. As Australians age better at home longer, we are seeing the residential aged-care settings have participants who are older, frailer and with more chronic diseases. As we saw last year, never has it been more important for that connection between residential aged-care settings and their local healthcare providers. The government is providing $365 million to boost the Aged Care Access Incentive and to increase GP face-to-face care. It will also provide for expansion of the Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care pilot and better support for primary health networks and telehealth services. This is a great reform, because we know that telehealth is a great way for people to connect when they are frail and don't necessarily want to go to their GPs but GPs are busy and might not be able to get to the aged-care facility in time. These initiatives will also produce better data and evidence for workforce planning, because, as we go forward, we know there is increased demand for services and we therefore need to train people, ready for the next stage of increasing our workforce.

That leads me to the third plank in these aged-care reforms—that is, the workforce. The Australian government is growing the home-care workforce by 18,000 new personal care workers, with $135 million to provide additional financial support and incentives for registered nurses. We want to incentivise nurses to enjoy caring for older Australians, and to recognise that with regard to our incentive payments. We want to grow and upskill the workforce, and increase places in the Aged Care Transition to Practice Program and the Aged Care Nursing Scholarships program. We want to fund 33,800 training places for more personal care workers to gain a Certificate III in Individual Support for ageing, and we want to give palliative-care and dementia training to workers. We know that 50 per cent of those in aged-care facilities have some form of dementia, and every worker in those workplaces needs to know how to deal with that special need.

Lastly, we need to look more at governance. There is a new consumer focused aged-care act which will underpin these generational reforms. The Australian government will invest $30 million to support aged-care providers to improve their governance and meet stronger legislative obligations. There will also be a new inspector-general of aged care to provide independent oversight, and older people will have a voice through myriad ways, including the council of elders and a new aged-care advisory council. These pillars are helping to shape our response to a very important issue not just for us but also for the future.

One of the first steps we need to see addressed is the use of restraints in aged care. The bill before us clarifies the requirements that approved providers must meet in the use of restrictive practices. This is an important step in eliminating inappropriate use of restrictive practices, and it is through these tighter requirements that we will be able to ensure providers are providing the best care.

There are many new powers that the Department of Health requires to ensure the safety of those in aged care, but this bill also repeals the requirement for the minister to establish the Aged Care Financing Authority, known as ACFA. It also commits to the new budgetary outline, which I have outlined before. We are investing $3.9 million, as I've said before, in the number of care minutes for residents in aged-care facilities, mandated at 200 minutes per day. That is a very important initiative.

The bill before us is the first step in the government's five-year, five-pillar aged-care reform plan, addressing home care, residential aged-care services and sustainability, residential aged-care quality and safety, workforce and governance. We understand that the world is ageing around us. We all are going to age, because the alternative is something not worth thinking about!

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