Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Late last week we saw an extraordinary backflip by this government. It finally backflipped on its decision to privatise the aged-care assessment teams. After trying to pretend that it hadn't, two days before Christmas it put on its website that it was going to tender to private companies for the aged-care assessments. But it took a meeting of the states' and territories' ministers with the health minister on Friday for the minister to hear directly from all the states and territories just how unhappy they were on behalf of older Australians about the government's plans to privatise aged-care assessments. We told the government immediately after Christmas that this was the wrong decision. We have been talking about this for weeks. It's taken two months for the government's extraordinary backflip. We're glad they finally made it but it's only under duress and under pressure from states and territories, from people on this side of the House telling stories of the aged care crisis in this country today along with all those service providers and those workers in aged care, particularly the workers in the ACAT teams, health professionals—the registered nurses, the occupational therapists and the physiotherapists—who are doing these assessments every day in local communities and in our hospitals. Older Australians deserve better than this government treating with them contempt, making decisions it pretended it didn't make and then having to come out and backflip on its own decision. It was a disgraceful decision in the beginning, and I'm glad they have finally come to their senses when it comes to aged care assessments.