Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will start my contribution today on the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) Bill 2022 by pointing out this is the first bill Labor has introduced into the Senate. It really underlines the seriousness with which we take this issue that we would choose to open our entire legislative program for the 47th Parliament with this bill. Of course, it's hugely important. This bill goes to the heart of how Australia treats some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

Aged-care recipients are people who have lived long lives, worked, volunteered, raised families and paid their taxes. They are our aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents. They've spent many years contributing to our country and community, and now, when they lack the ability to live independently and care for themselves, they justifiably expect to be cared for by society with dignity and with compassion. It's a simple and reasonable request. But, sadly, we as a nation have been failing our older Australians for a considerable time.

The aged-care sector is in crisis because of nine long years of failure and neglect by the previous government. Fixing the crisis is not just about looking after the millions of Australians relying on the aged-care system now; it's for all our sakes. Let's face it: most of us will grow old—hopefully!—and will rely on the aged-care system in some way. When we do, we would like the assurance that we are going to get better treatment than the suffering being experienced by many older Australians now.

The aged-care royal commission shone a light on this suffering, and many, many Australians were absolutely shocked by what it revealed. Among the worst findings of the aged-care royal commission were the following. In 2018-19 the number of alleged assaults in aged care was estimated to be between 32,000 and 44,000. In the same period there were estimated to be 2,520 alleged incidents of unlawful sexual contact—almost 50 a week. Studies revealed that as many as 68 per cent of people in residential aged care were either malnourished or at risk of malnutrition, and there was a clear overuse of physical restraints and dangerous and unnecessary chemical restraints in residential aged care. The royal commission concluded that at least one in three people accessing residential aged-care and home-care services experienced substandard care. They also found that many of the people in institutions in the aged-care sector want to deliver the best possible care to older people but are overwhelmed, underfunded or out of their depth.

I know those opposite hate being reminded of this fact but the royal commission's interim report was given a one-word title: Neglect. That one word sums up perfectly the shameful treatment of older Australians over the time those opposite were in government. The previous government failed to address the crisis because, like so many issues, they treated it as a political issue—not a human catastrophe but a public relations problem to be media managed. And the worst culprit in this respect was the former Prime Minister, Mr Morrison. We all know Mr Morrison earned himself the nickname 'Scotty from Marketing' because of his propensity to try and spin his way out of problems rather than show any real leadership.

A case in point is the release of the aged-care royal commission's final report on 1 March 2021. Mr Morrison held a press conference outside Kirribilli House to announce the release. What should have been an opportunity for a dialogue about the contents of the report, its damning findings and what the government was going to do to address it turned into a PR stunt. I'm sure Mr Morrison was hoping the media would simply go along with it, but kudos to the ABC's Anne Connolly for calling it out for what it was. Here's what Ms Connolly said when she confronted the then Prime Minister about his stunt: 'You've had this report since Friday. You've given us half an hour's notice to attend a press conference. You tabled the report while we were here. How can we ask questions that are relevant to the report without knowing what's in it?' I guess the follow-up implicit in Ms Connolly's line of questioning was, 'What's the point of the press conference?' It was clear that the point of the press conference was to deliver the type of spin that Mr Morrison constantly engaged in. He released the report at the beginning of the press conference because he wanted journalists to hear his interpretation of the report, without asking any uncomfortable questions about its damning findings. To Mr Morrison, the ongoing crisis in aged care—like the so-called barnacles of the Howard era—were just a political problem that he wished would go away.

Let's not forget that the aged care royal commission was called about six months before the 2019 federal election. Although it was an important exercise in shining a light on some of the most egregious failings in aged care, I think the timing was pretty cynical. It seemed that Mr Morrison, shortly after coming to the leadership, wanted to kick the can down the road to get through to the next election, rather than take any real action to address the aged-care crisis. Even with the royal commission in full swing, there was a need for urgent action and there were plenty of previous reports to outline what action was needed, as the royal commission itself noted in this stinging criticism:

Had the Australian Government acted upon previous reviews of aged care, the persistent problems in aged care would have been known much earlier and the suffering of many people could have been avoided.

This is a sector that has never truly been valued by those opposite—an attitude that was typified by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull when he suggested that an aged-care worker in Burnie in Tasmania was 'entitled to aspire to a better job'. On that side, we've had a procession of aged-care ministers who have allowed report after report after report into the sector to accumulate. Altogether, 23 reports have been gathering dust on the desk of one aged-care minister after another without any meaningful action from the previous government to address the crisis in aged care. The latest and, arguably, least efficient or effective minister—although he had strong competition for that title, I think—was Senator Colbeck. As minister, Senator Colbeck oversaw the disastrous handling of the government's response to COVID outbreaks in aged care in the early days of the pandemic. In the midst of this crisis, he chose to accept VIP hospitality at a cricket match in Hobart instead of turning up to answer questions at a public hearing of the Senate's COVID inquiry. I remember speaking to Senator Gallagher about this and being told that he had been offered dates and that the inquiry was happy to arrange dates that suited Senator Colbeck, but he still didn't want to turn up. When, after being embarrassed into it, he did finally front the inquiry, he could not answer a basic but important question: 'How many Australians have died of COVID in residential aged care?'

I won't pretend that the election of a Labor government means the crisis in aged care is magically over. Australians can, at least, be assured that they now have a government that is serious about tackling the crisis. Before the Senate today is a bill that helps restore quality, dignity and humanity to Australia's aged-care system. Extensive consultations have been held with unions as well as aged-care workers, providers and residents to ensure that their views and experiences are considered, and I would like to congratulate the minister for aged care for hitting the ground running and meeting with so many stakeholders in such a short period of time.

Several of the measures in this bill were recommended by the royal commission. Some measures in this bill were included in the former government's Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021, which lapsed when the election was called. Instead of schedule 2 of the lapsed bill, a new comprehensive worker registration scheme will be developed, with criminal history checks continuing to apply in the meantime. In regard to this measure, I appreciate that working in aged care is a difficult and demanding job. In fact, when I was a student nurse, I was doing my studies at an aged-care facility. It was actually a hospital for aged-care people, and 98 per cent of people in that hospital were in aged care. I was a childcare worker for 12 years and I've got to say that aged care was even harder than that, and it was a pretty damn hard job being an early childhood educator. So, having worked in aged care, I absolutely get what these workers are going through. I remember being spoken to once because I wanted to spend time talking to the patients, and there just wasn't time. You just got on and did what you had to do. There was no time for that. That was really sad, and it was one of the reasons I left.

There are occasions, however, where someone demonstrates that they are not a fit and proper person to be working in aged care, and we don't want them simply going and getting a job with another provider. If you look at some other professions with registration schemes—for example, doctoring, nursing and teaching—the same principle applies, because they have vulnerable people in their care.

The bill also includes several measures that will provide additional protections for older Australians. These include the expansion of the Serious Incident Response Scheme, to establish obligations on approved providers of home care and flexible care in a community setting to report and respond to incidents and to take action to prevent incidents from recurring. A new code of conduct will set higher standards of behaviour for aged-care workers, approved providers and governing persons of approved providers, to ensure they are delivering aged care in a way that is safe, competent and respectful. Improved information-sharing between care and support sector regulators will enable proactive monitoring of cross-sector risks and better protection of consumers and participants from harm. An interim solution for the provision of consent to the use of restrictive practices is to be established while state and territory consent arrangements are reconsidered.

The bill also includes a series of measures that provide greater transparency and accountability for providers. Star ratings will be published for all residential aged-care services on My Aged Care by the end of 2022. These ratings will enable older Australians, their families and carers to make informed decisions when seeking quality aged care.

From 1 December 2022, approved providers and their governing bodies will be required to meet new responsibilities that will improve governance. Approved providers will be required to notify the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission of changes to key personnel, and the current disqualified-individual arrangements will be replaced with a broader suitability test. Amendments will also be made to increase financial and prudential oversight in respect of refundable accommodation deposits and bonds. The functions of a renamed Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority will be expanded to include the provision of advice on health-care and aged-care pricing and costing.

This bill is just the beginning of the work of the Albanese Labor government. It's just the beginning of the work that we will be doing to restore decency and humanity to the aged-care sector and to ensure that older Australians are treated with respect, dignity and compassion. I'd love to be able to say that we can end the crisis now—that we can snap our fingers and fix the mess caused by nine years of neglect—but this is a large and complex multibillion-dollar sector, and you can't fix nine years of neglect in nine or 10 weeks. Having said that, we are dedicated to the task—which is more than I could say for our predecessors.

This bill addresses some of the most urgent reforms for the sector, but we have some big plans for aged care that we committed to in the lead-up to the recent federal election. The Albanese Labor government will ensure that every residential aged-care facility will have at least one qualified registered nurse, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We will raise the standard of aged care across the board and mandate that every resident receives at least 215 minutes of care per day. We will back a real pay rise for aged-care workers, and, if the Fair Work Commission delivers it, we will fund it. If we want higher standards of care then we need higher wages for our carers. And we will ensure better food for aged-care residents by mandating nutrition standards for aged-care homes. The contrast between our commitment to drastically improve standards in aged care and the neglect of the previous government could not be more stark. But we are determined to fix this mess and to ensure that older Australians receive the quality care they need and deserve.