Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will the minister outline to the House how the government's approach to cutting red tape and unnecessary regulation will benefit charities and the aged-care sector?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for his question and I commend him on his caring representation for the residents of Lidcombe, Homebush and Concord and surrounding suburbs in his electorate of Reid. This government is cutting red tape in many areas, including in my portfolio and particularly in the areas of aged-care and charities, which the member for Reid asked me about.

I can remind the House that, on the first repeal day, in the aged-care area we removed the federal certification requirements. These were building requirements which duplicated what was already required at municipal, state and territory levels. They were actually triplicating regulatory requirements, and we removed them. It was common-sense to remove those requirements, and the consequence is millions of dollars saved over time to the aged-care sector. That is a win-win, because it is a saving for the aged-care sector and, in turn, a saving for the residents of aged-care homes right throughout Australia.

We have continued on this second repeal day by reducing red tape further, and one of the measures is to remove the key personnel change requirements. These were simply superfluous requirements but they also added a burden to the aged-care providers throughout Australia.

We are not stopping there. For the past nine or 10 months I have been working with a group of aged-care providers in Adelaide in South Australia and, as a result of that work, we have recently launched the South Australian aged-care innovation hub. This is an ongoing trial which involves 10 providers in South Australia, along with the agencies—the Aged Care Quality Agency and the Aged Care Financing Authority. In addition to that the Council on the Ageing in Australia, COTA, represented by Ian Yates, is part of this trial, and it will be independently evaluated. The result will be that the successful elements of this trial which come to light from time to time as the trial continues will be able to be rolled out right across the aged-care sector in Australia. This is another example of practical reductions in red tape.

The honourable member asked me about charities as well. We are deregulating in other areas. We have abolished the National Gambling Regulator and we propose to abolish the charities commission. So whether it is in aged care, family services or charities, we want to break the shackles of red tape around the ankles of these agencies. We want to allow them to do what they do best—not filling in forms and completing red tape but serving the people of Australia.