Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Today, I've written to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors asking him to immediately reinstate human oversight into aged-care assessments. Before the new aged-care rules came into effect on 1 November, assessors had the ability to override the integrated assessment tool algorithm if the assessment it churned out wasn't suitable. They have now lost the ability to do this, and we are hearing from hundreds of older people, their families and their care providers that the algorithm is systematically underassessing people's needs, denying them essential and most often life-saving care and supports. Hundreds of thousands of older Australians are already on a long waiting list, waiting for at-home support, and now Labor has added in another barrier to that process.

Reducing complex human needs to a set of rules and inputs just so you can save a few dollars is dangerous, and it's outrageous. By removing human decision-making, you're leaving the health and wellbeing of older people in the hands of an opaque and flawed system. We know that this is a false economy, because denying at-home support doesn't save us anything. It costs Australians their health, and it costs the government more in the long run. It is always the case that those with the least are asked to carry the burden of austerity and budget repair, and Labor's changes to the aged-care system are symptomatic of this, pushing up costs for people on fixed and low incomes and making it even harder for them to access care. Human assessors must have the ability to override underassessments so that older people can get the support that they need to live safe and fulfilling lives in their own homes.