Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Adams for her question and commend her on her regular and very constructive representations on behalf of the aged-care industry of her state and of Australia generally. Earlier this year the Howard government made a commitment to conduct at least one random spot check in each aged-care home every year. This was backed up in this year’s budget with an additional $8.6 million of new funding to boost the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency.

Figures supplied to me late last week by the agency indicate that we are well on track to deliver on that commitment. In the first quarter of this financial year, the agency undertook a total of 1,561 visits to aged-care homes. This figure included 382 spot checks. Last week the agency advised the Senate estimates committee that accreditation activity in the September quarter was dominated by the need to conduct the full-site audits associated with the accreditation round. These visits could normally take anything up to three days to complete and cannot, by their nature, be unannounced checks. The agency further advised the estimates committee that its activities for the rest of this year will be increasingly devoted to the government’s new program of annual spot checks.

A letter that I received late last week from the agency’s director, Mark Brandon, indicated that 379—I repeat: 379—spot checks had been undertaken during October this year. This level of activity—379 spot checks in a single month—indicates the agency is on track to achieve the target of one check for each of Australia’s 3,000 aged-care homes this financial year. I wish to congratulate the agency for their exceptionally good work and for the way that they have gone about implementing that deliberate government policy.

Last month the Labor Party attempted to score some cheap political points by attempting to insert a requirement for one spot check each year into some completely unrelated legislation—and honourable senators, I am sure, will remember that.