Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today I introduce the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill of 2021. This is the second stage of aged-care legislative reform to deliver the high quality and safe aged care that our senior Australians deserve.

This bill responds to a number of recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, ahead of further reforms that have been committed to by this government. The royal commission was one of the first actions of Prime Minister Morrison upon being appointed to office.

Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC)

This bill implements significant structural reform of funding for residential aged care. It replaces the outdated Aged Care Funding Instrument with a new model for calculating aged care subsidies. The Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) model has been developed in consultation with the aged-care sector and consumer groups over several years and it will encourage innovation and investment in the sector.

The AN-ACC was developed following an extensive research project, and the government has taken a staged approach to implementation. From April 2021, residential-aged-care recipients have been progressively assessed and classified under the AN-ACC, and this classification will now be linked, through this bill, to the subsidy calculation for residential-aged-care providers. This bill will finalise implementation of the AN-ACC model from 1 October 2022.

Aged- care and support worker regulation

The royal commission recommended strengthening regulation of the personal care workforce and increasing protections for senior Australians from workers who pose an unacceptable risk of harm.

This bill responds in part to recommendation 77 of the royal commission by establishing authority for nationally consistent pre-employment screening for aged-care workers and governing persons of approved providers. It also establishes a code of conduct, which will ensure poor behaviour of approved providers, workers and governing persons is held to account.

A national database of cleared and excluded individuals will support employment decisions in aged care and, through mutual recognition arrangements with the National Disability Insurance Scheme, across the care and support sector more broadly.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner will have powers to make and enforce a code of conduct. The commissioner will have a range of powers to deal with breaches, including civil penalties, and, significantly, new banning orders for individuals, in line with recommendation 103 of the royal commission.

These new regulatory arrangements are designed to work together, to effectively manage and prevent unsuitable workers from entering or remaining in aged care.

Extending the Serious Incident Response Scheme to home care

The bill extends the Serious Incident Response Scheme to home care and flexible care delivered in a home- or community-care setting from 1 July 2022. These amendment give effect to royal commission recommendation 100.

The new requirements seek to build provider capacity to identify risk, respond to incidents, and drive learning and improvements that will reduce the number of preventable incidents in the future. Under the scheme, providers of in-home aged-care services will be required to identify, record, manage and resolve all incidents that occur.

By extending the definition of 'reportable incident', this bill will ensure the most serious incidents occurring in home- and community-care settings are reported to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Expanding the Serious Incident Response Scheme will reduce the risk of abuse and neglect, and protect vulnerable senior Australians receiving aged-care services in their home and the community.

Strengthening provider governance

This bill improves the governance of approved providers from 1 March 2022. The amendments align with recommendations 88 to 90 of the royal commission, which note that good provider governance arrangements result in high quality care.

A number of new governance responsibilities for approved providers and their governing bodies will be introduced, as well as new reporting requirements to assist senior Australians and their families to understand the operations of providers.

Approved providers will be required to notify changes to key personnel, and the bill will replace the current disqualified individual arrangements with a suitability test. The new governance arrangements will improve the transparency and accountability of providers, and will change the culture from the top down.

Enhanced information sharing

Along with improving regulatory protections in aged care, the Australian government is taking a first step towards aligning the regulation of providers across the broader care and support sector. This sector covers aged care, disability support and veterans' care. Regulatory alignment will improve the consistency of quality and safety protections across the care and support sector while reducing the overall regulatory burden on cross-sector providers.

The bill facilitates increased information-sharing by the commission, Department of Health and Department of Veterans' Affairs with specified Commonwealth bodies. It will facilitate information-sharing about providers and workers operating across the care and support sector who are not complying with their obligations, are failing to provide quality care or whose conduct might be putting senior Australians at risk. The amendments seek to address aspects of the existing legislation that make it difficult to share information in a way that responds effectively to such risks.

I note that reciprocal sharing of information about provider and worker conduct in the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be facilitated by proposed information sharing powers in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Improving Supports for At Risk Participants) Bill 2021.

Increased financial and prudential oversight

The government is implementing a new financial and prudential monitoring, compliance and intervention framework for the aged-care sector. Its purpose is to build the sector's financial resilience and improve its accountability. It will enable the government to identify at-risk providers earlier, and help ensure providers meet their obligations to refund deposits to residents.

This bill introduces the second phase of a three-phase reform by:

These changes implement the government's commitment to enhancing the transparency of the aged-care sector and supporting continuity of care for senior Australians. They also respond to the royal commission's recommendations for more stringent financial reporting requirements and strengthened monitoring powers.

Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority

Finally, the bill expands the functions of a renamed Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority to also include the provision of advice on healthcare and aged-care pricing and costing, and to perform functions conferred on it by the Aged Care Act.

New governance and appointments arrangements will streamline administration and reflect the enhanced responsibilities and integrated functions of the pricing authority. Information used and disclosed to perform the new functions will be appropriately protected.

Establishing an independent aged-care pricing and costing advice function will support transparent and evidence based assessment of the costs involved in delivering care to senior Australians who use aged care. This builds on our existing work to improve transparency in the aged-care sector and fosters community confidence that the care they receive is cost effective and sustainable. Transferring functions performed by the Aged Care Pricing Commissioner to the pricing authority will further streamline administration and enhance industry confidence.

Collectively, these amendments form the second step in the government's five-year reform agenda through the five reform pillars: home care, residential aged-care services and sustainability, residential aged-care quality and safety, workforce and governance.

In particular, I want to thank all of those who have been involved in these monumental reforms, in particular beginning with the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Minister Colbeck; and his staff, led by Mel Clode, who has done such work in such difficult times for her personally. I thank my own staff. Wendy Black has been an extraordinary pillar of strength in relation to this, as has Jane Kilmartin. I thank those within the department, led by Michael Lye and his team. They have done an extraordinary amount of work. And I thank all of those in the sector and all of the advocates for our senior Australians. This is landmark reform. This is reform which will save lives, protect lives and improve lives.

Ultimately, the health, safety and wellbeing of senior Australians is of the utmost importance to the government, and is driving our plan for generational change of the aged-care system. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.