Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I would prefer the minister to bring that information back to the chamber. He has said on the record that he asked if the aged-care sector could be broadly consulted, or something along those lines. I would like to know who was consulted, and I would like that information to be provided to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

by leave—I move:

(1)    Schedule 1, heading, page 3 (line 4), at the end of the heading, add “and unannounced support contacts”.

(2)    Schedule 1, page 4 (after line 31), at the end of the Schedule, add:

4 After section 54-3

Insert:

54-3A Unannounced support contacts by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency

          (1)        Every residential aged care facility must be subject to at least one unannounced support contact by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency every year.

          (2)     The residential aged care facility must not be given any prior notice of the support contact.

          (3)     The Assessment Team conducting the support contact must assess the facility against all Quality Outcomes of the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency.

These amendments that Labor are moving today are very straightforward. As I said in my speech in the second reading debate, they put the government’s rhetoric into the legislation. It is a very simple proposition; the amendments say that there will be one check a year of each residential aged-care facility, and it will be an unannounced assessment on all 44 outcomes. That is not unexpected from the community, and we are delivering the legislative instrument that the government should be delivering, given the language that they have been using for quite some time.

The minister said earlier this year that every home will receive one unannounced spot check each year. That was unequivocal; it was very straightforward. It is a little different from what Mrs Bronwyn Bishop said in 2000 when she said that there would be a stepped-up program of spot checks. As I indicated in my speech in the second reading debate, a stepped-up operation of spot checks delivered nothing of the sort. We actually saw a diminishing, over a number of years, of the number of spot checks that were undertaken by the agency in the five years from 2000—since the advent of kerosene baths.

This piece of legislation was the opportunity to give the government the language and the legislative instrument that would deliver on what they have been saying. The community has a very strong understanding that every facility in Australia is going to be given a spot check every year. What does a spot check mean? It means it is unannounced. It actually says that in the legislation. So these amendments that Labor is moving today defines ‘unannounced’. Everyone out there in the street knows what ‘unannounced’ means; it means that someone turns up without telling them. If you get a visitor who is unannounced it means that they did not ring you before they came to see you. That is what ‘unannounced’ means. It means without notice. So when the minister says that every home will receive one unannounced spot check every year, everyone in the community thinks that the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency will go to some 3,000 residential aged-care facilities in Australia without notice at least once a year. The minister’s language is clear; the language in this legislation is also clear—it simply reflects the words that he used earlier this year.

We have needed clarification of what the word ‘unannounced’ means. I asked earlier this year in Senate estimates what ‘unannounced’ might mean, and we talked at length about ‘unannounced’. We had a long discussion with Mr Brandon from the agency which reads pretty well as a Yes Minister script, for anyone who is interested in a bit of a giggle. I am sure Mr Brandon will not mind me saying that. I asked a second question on notice to find out how many unannounced spot checks we have had since 2000. The answer to the first question was: ‘An unannounced visit is a visit conducted with less than 30-minutes notice.’ Unannounced, according to the department—and we know the accountability principles—is conducted with less than 30 minutes notice.

I asked a third question on that. I asked: ‘Please provide the number of unannounced visits by state and territory.’ The answer is quite extraordinary. The answer says: ‘The number of support contacts and reviewed audits conducted with less than one day’s notice were as follows’—so the whole language around this spot check thing is very confused. The intent of my amendments is to clear it all up. If ‘unannounced’ means ‘without notice’ to everybody out there on the street, let us have ‘unannounced’ mean ‘without notice’ in the Aged Care Act. Then the accountability principles can be amended to reflect that. It is a very simple proposition. It is what people understand is going to be happening, and I am unashamedly putting into effect what the minister has indicated he was going to do. That goes to the question of what ‘unannounced’ means.

The second question goes to the intent of the amendment that says that there will be one unannounced spot check a year—one for every facility. There will be review audits; there will be other sorts of assessment processes conducted by the agency. But in this legislation we are just talking about unannounced support contacts—that is what everyone in the world knows is a spot check. So that is what we are doing with this legislation: delivering on the intent of the minister’s language. We know—the minister has been very proud to tell us—that in May 142 unannounced support contacts were delivered; in June, 139. I indicate to the minister that it would be very helpful to progress this debate if he could give us the July, August and maybe even September figures so that we can keep a bit of a running commentary on how many unannounced support contacts we have had, because on the basis of about 140 a month we are not going to hit the target of 3,000.

The minister said in his summing-up that there were going to be 5,200 visits per year—that is fine; there is no reason for me to believe that that will not happen—and that 3,000 of those would be spot checks, I think was his language. On the basis that we had 142 in May and 139 in June, we are going to have to step up the operation a bit in order to hit the 3,000 by the end of the financial year. I recognise that I only have two months of data. Maybe there is other data that the minister can provide to the committee so that we all know and can be assured that we will hit the 3,000 by the end of June next year.

The third element in my amendment goes to the question of the 44 outcomes. The minister, when he made his announcement early this year that every home will receive one unannounced spot check each year, did not indicate that we would only assess certain elements. He did not say that we were going to look just at certain elements of the operation. He did say that these extra spot checks would focus on care standards and provide an incentive for the consistent delivery of high-quality care. That does not say that we are not going to look at everything; it says that we are going to ensure that we deliver high-quality care. This amendment says that we will be expecting the agency to undertake an assessment on all 44 outcomes. They are all equal. They are all important. A home that is not delivering quality of service on all 44 care outcomes can be non-compliant—we know that. But it is important that the community understands this, one way or the other. If the minister is saying we will only check certain things then let us understand that, let us be really clear about that. In my view, families of residents and the residents themselves are of the view that all 44 outcomes are going to be assessed.

Labor’s amendment is a very straightforward proposition; it is very simple. It puts into legislation the language that the minister has been using: one spot check, unannounced, on all 44 outcomes. I commend the amendment to the chamber.