Senate debates

Monday, 26 November 2018

Bills

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Bill 2018, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2018; In Committee

1:40 pm

Photo of Rachel SiewertRachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 8522 together:

(1) Clause 5, page 2 (line 21), after "enhance the", insert "human rights,".

(2) Clause 59, page 36 (after line 10), after paragraph (1) (d), insert:

(da) the number of staff, and the skill mix of staff, providing direct care to care recipients receiving care through the service;

These amendments relate to the comments that I made during my second reading contribution and relate to the human rights element for older Australians. I found very convincing evidence from Mr Mitchell, which I articulated in my second reading contribution, around the human rights of older Australians. He articulated that very well and, in fact, it was just after the Four Corners reports. What we saw there were the human rights of older Australians being violated, in many people's opinion, including my own. We think it would benefit the commission if the objects of the commission included reference to older Australians' human rights. There are also very strong opinions among many people that, in fact, there needs to be an international convention on the rights of older peoples around the world. It's something that I also find very attractive and will continue to pursue. In the meantime, we think a valuable improvement to the bill and to the role of the commission would be to amend the objects to include reference to older Australians' human rights.

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