Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety provided a clear blueprint on how to fundamentally change and improve our aged care services, but the majority of the 148 recommendations have still not been implemented; and

(b) the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission is the point of contact for concerns and complaints about aged service provider responsibilities but it appears to be understaffed, have limited powers of investigation and be restricted in the way sanctions can be imposed on providers; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) establish an independent body to oversee the implementation of the essential aged care service reforms in line with the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety; and

(b) expand the powers and resourcing of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to enable it to effectively manage complaints and impose meaningful sanctions.

I'm prompted to move this motion as a direct result of the failure of one of Tasmania's largest aged care providers, Southern Cross Care. I've spoken previously in the parliament about my concerns with this organisation, but since then my fears and the fears of others have escalated.

For instance, Advocacy Tasmania, which is funded to deliver the National Aged Care Advocacy Program in Tasmania, has over the past year supported more than 100 Southern Cross residents and their families in their attempts to resolve a multitude of service and care issues. This is way out of proportion to all other Tasmanian aged care facilities. Indeed, Advocacy Tasmania is so concerned with Southern Cross's failures that it has approached the Minister for Aged Care, asking her to support an investigation into Southern Cross, including a focus on its executive team and board. Advocacy Tasmania has also written to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, suggesting that the CEO and chair of Southern Cross are failing in their obligations under the Code of Conduct for Aged Care and asking for an urgent intervention on behalf of the vulnerable Tasmanians living in Southern Cross facilities.

Advocacy Tasmania has provided numerous examples of complaints against Southern Cross, like: dangerously low staffing levels when, for example, residents at high risk of falls are forced to shower, toilet and dress themselves; poor quality food and food service, with one resident being left without a main meal on at least eight separate occasions in the space of just two months; poor quality care, such as staff failing to notice a resident's significant health deterioration until a family member demanded attention; requiring residents to complete formal consumer information request forms in order to simply access their own information; and, of course, consistently slow and dangerous bell response times. There has even been an utterly bizarre instance where Southern Cross applied to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a guardianship order over a resident. Thankfully, this application was dismissed by the tribunal.

You would think that Southern Cross learnt its lesson when it was singled out by the aged care royal commission, but clearly it didn't. You would also assume that the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission would be on the beat, but, astonishingly, Southern Cross has not consistently been held to account by the commission for poor performance. Effective sanctions have not always been applied, and often there is no follow-up by the commission to ensure agreed measures have been implemented. As a direct result, Southern Cross continues to fail in its obligations and older Tasmanians continue to suffer.

Indeed, I was so concerned about the safety of residents in Southern Cross facilities that I recently met with the aged-care minister to relay my fears and ask her to intervene. In response, the minister is facilitating a meeting for me tomorrow with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, for which I am very grateful. At the meeting, I intend to ask how the commission will deal with the issues facing Southern Cross residents, including individual complaints but also, even more importantly, the broader failures across the entire organisation, because clients, advocates and allied health professionals all attest that the issues at Southern Cross are deeply rooted in the failings of some members of the executive team and board. If such an investigation is outside the scope of the commission or it is not in a position to act immediately, I will be asking the minister to empower it to do so.

I will also be asking the commissioner about what actions will be taken following the release this year of the Report of the Independent Capability Review of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, which showed there are critical capability gaps in the organisation that require attention. The report also provided some recommendations on how the commission's capability can be improved to better support its regulation of the aged-care sector.

I need to make it clear that I hear many positive stories about the hardworking and overworked Southern Cross staff, and my complaints are not about them. No, this is about the conditions in which many Southern Cross residents are living as a direct result of mismanagement and deep systemic failures. As a direct result, it's simply impossible, frankly, for me to reconcile Southern Cross's values of integrity, respect and compassion with the way that many residents and their families are feeling now: powerless, harassed and bullied.

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