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senate vote 2019-12-05#1
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2020-01-17 11:01:05
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Title
Bills — Aged Care Legislation Amendment (New Commissioner Functions) Bill 2019; in Committee- Aged Care Legislation Amendment (New Commissioner Functions) Bill 2019 - in Committee - Greens amendments
Description
<p class="speaker">Rachel Siewert</p><p>If the Senate is agreeable I would like to ask a series of questions of the minister, which I hope I can do expediently, to get some issues on the record—issues that I think the minister is pretty aware I have some concerns about and would like a better understanding of—and then I'll move my amendment. I think that will probably be the quickest way. I don't want to hold up the place—I'm aware that there's a lot to get through today—but I do think this is an important matter, and there are a number of points that I'd like to make sure we address.</p><p>I want to ask a couple of questions about complaints. Through you, Chair, I ask the minister: what work is the government doing to reduce legislative barriers that prevent the publication of complaints and their resolutions?</p>- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2019-12-05.13.1) introduced by West Australian Senator [Rachel Siewert](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/wa/rachel_siewert) (Greens), which means they failed.
- The amendments related to advocates and community visitors, complaints functions and publicly available reports.
<p class="speaker">Richard Colbeck</p><p>As part of the process that we're going through with this piece of legislation—it is actually, as you would understand, the full establishment of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission—I've written to the advisory committee that supports the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, asking them to advise me and the commission what additional powers might be required. That can go to things like reporting. I'm happy to have some conversations with you as that report comes back to me; it's due very soon. I understand your desire to see transparency, particularly around reporting, and I support that process. It's important to the government that people who have issues that they want to report through the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can do that, and can do it in a way that provides them satisfaction as to the fact that their complaints have been addressed and resolved in a way that's satisfactory to them.</p> <p class="speaker">Rachel Siewert</p><p>I thank the minister for his answer. You said you're expecting the report to come back fairly soon. What time frame are you talking about, and what's your intended process from there? Will that information become public or will you then go through a process of discussing it with various stakeholders?</p> <p class="speaker">Richard Colbeck</p><p>I'll be briefed on that next week, when I meet with the advisory committee; I'll get an initial briefing then. The report will come to me subsequent to that. It will go through some consultation with stakeholders; I think that's an important part of the process. But I am also really cognisant of the fact that we do have a royal commission going on. The commission said to us in their interim report that they didn't want ad hoc changes made to the act. In fact, they may come back to us with a recommendation for a whole new act. They would prefer that any changes occur in that context. So I'm cognisant of respecting that process. It may be that we share those recommendations that come back from the advisory committee with the royal commission.</p> <p class="speaker">Rachel Siewert</p><p>I appreciate what you've said about the amendments to the act, and I suspect, yes, there will need to be a whole new act. But there may be processes that you could put in place that don't require changes to the act that would improve transparency and accountability. Would you be prepared to look at changes that could be made either through delegated instruments or just the process, if changes to the act are not advisable, given the process that's going to happen next year through the royal commission?</p> <p class="speaker">Richard Colbeck</p><p>I suppose that will depend a little bit on what comes back through the report that comes to me from the advisory committee. I will consider all of those things. I think we have demonstrated, as we did with the changes we made to the regulations around restraint, that, if there are things that we see that we can and should act on, we are prepared to consider those things.</p> <p class="speaker">Rachel Siewert</p><p>As the chamber will be aware, I have amendments around enabling complaints about My Aged Care, ACAT and the RAS process. Minister, is the government prepared to support those amendments? If not, why can't community members lodge complaints about that—</p><p class="italic">The CHAIR: Senator Siewert, it's probably better if you move the amendments first, and then they're live.</p><p>by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (1) to (3) on sheet 8811 revised together:</p><p class="italic">(1) Schedule 2, page 31 (after line 19), after item 19, insert:</p><p class="italic">19A Paragraphs 56 -1(k) and (l)</p><p class="italic">Repeal the paragraphs, substitute:</p><p class="italic">(k) to do the following:</p><p class="italic">  (i) allow people acting for care recipients to have such access to the service as is specified in the User Rights Principles;</p><p class="italic">  (ii) provide such people information relating to the residential care being provided by the service;</p><p class="italic">(l) to do the following:</p><p class="italic">  (i) allow people acting for bodies that have been paid *advocacy grants under Part 5.5, or *community visitors grants under Part 5.6, to have such access to the service as is specified in the User Rights Principles;</p><p class="italic">  (ii) provide such people information relating to the residential care being provided by the service;</p><p class="italic">19B Paragraph 56 -2(j)</p><p class="italic">Repeal the paragraph, substitute:</p><p class="italic">(j) to do the following:</p><p class="italic">  (i) allow people acting for bodies that have been paid *advocacy grants under Part 5.5 to have such access to the service as is specified in the User Rights Principles;</p><p class="italic">  (ii) provide such people information relating to the home care being provided by the service;</p><p class="italic">19C Paragraphs 56 -3(j) and (k)</p><p class="italic">Repeal the paragraphs, substitute:</p><p class="italic">(j) to do the following:</p><p class="italic">  (i) allow people acting for care recipients to have such access to the service as is specified in the User Rights Principles;</p><p class="italic">  (ii) provide such people information relating to the flexible care being provided by the service;</p><p class="italic">(k) to do the following:</p><p class="italic">  (i) allow people acting for bodies that have been paid *advocacy grants under Part 5.5 to have such access to the service as is specified in the User Rights Principles;</p><p class="italic">  (ii) provide such people information relating to the flexible care being provided by the service;</p><p class="italic">(2) Schedule 2, page 49 (after line 14), after item 47, insert:</p><p class="italic">47A At the end of section 18</p><p class="italic">Add:</p><p class="italic">; (c) the performance of any assessment (however described) conducted, in accordance with the rules, for the purposes of accrediting an aged care service referred to in paragraph 19(a);</p><p class="italic">(d) the performance of any quality review conducted, in accordance with the rules, of a service referred to in paragraph 19(b);</p><p class="italic">(e) the performance of any monitoring, in accordance with the rules, of the quality of care and services provided by:</p><p class="italic">  (i) approved providers of an aged care service referred to in paragraph 19(c); or</p><p class="italic">  (ii) service providers of Commonwealth-funded aged care services;</p><p class="italic">(f) the performance of any electronic platform established by the Commonwealth to provide information relating to the provision of aged care services or Commonwealth-funded aged care service.</p><p class="italic">47B At the end of subsection 21(2)</p><p class="italic">Add:</p><p class="italic">; (c) the performance of any assessment (however described) conducted, in accordance with the rules, for the purposes of accrediting an aged care service referred to in paragraph 19(a);</p><p class="italic">(d) the performance of any quality review conducted, in accordance with the rules, of a service referred to in paragraph 19(b);</p><p class="italic">(e) the performance of any monitoring, in accordance with the rules, of the quality of care and services provided by:</p><p class="italic">  (i) approved providers of an aged care service referred to in paragraph 19(c); or</p><p class="italic">  (ii) service providers of Commonwealth-funded aged care services;</p><p class="italic">(f) the performance of any electronic platform established by the Commonwealth to provide information relating to the provision of aged care services or Commonwealth-funded aged care service.</p><p class="italic">(3) Schedule 2, page 49 (after line 19), after item 48, insert:</p><p class="italic">48A At the end of Division 3 of Part 7</p><p class="italic">Add:</p><p class="italic">59B Publicly available report on complaints etc. relating to approved providers and service providers</p><p class="italic">(1) As soon as reasonably practicable after the end of each calendar month, the Commissioner must:</p><p class="italic">(a) prepare a report setting out the matters mentioned in subsections (2) and (3); and</p><p class="italic">(b) make the report publicly available.</p><p class="italic">(2) For approved providers the Commissioner received complaints or information about, the report must set out:</p><p class="italic">(a) the number of complaints or information received about each approved provider during the calendar month; and</p><p class="italic">(b) the number of complaints or information received about each approved provider during a previous calendar month that were not resolved or dealt with by the end of the calendar month;</p><p class="italic">(c) for each aged care responsibility that the complaints or information relates to—the number of complaints or information received relating to the responsibility; and</p><p class="italic">(d) both:</p><p class="italic">  (i) the type of actions taken by the Commissioner to address the complaints, or to deal with the information, and</p><p class="italic">  (ii) the number of those types of actions taken.</p><p class="italic">(3) For service providers of Commonwealth-funded aged care services the Commissioner received a complaint or information about, the report must set out:</p><p class="italic">(a) the number of complaints or information received about each service provider during the calendar month; and</p><p class="italic">(b) the number of complaints or information received about each service provider during a previous calendar month that were not resolved or dealt with by the end of the calendar month; and</p><p class="italic">(c) for each responsibility under the funding agreement that relates to the service that the complaints or information relates to—the number of complaints or information received relating to the responsibility; and</p><p class="italic">(d) both:</p><p class="italic">  (i) the type of actions taken by the Commissioner to address the complaints, or to deal with the information, and</p><p class="italic">  (ii) the number of those types of actions taken.</p><p class="italic">(4) The report must not include personal information unless the inclusion of the personal information is necessary to identify the approved provider or service provider (as the case may be).</p><p>I've got a series of questions, obviously, around these issues, which I will try to get through very quickly. Could I ask the government: what would be the issues with the complaints process addressing My Aged Care, the ACAT process and the RAS process?</p><p class="italic">The CHAIR: You started off by asking the minister if the government could agree to those amendments, so that's what you're asking? Yes? I call the minister.</p> <p class="speaker">Richard Colbeck</p><p>The process for the quality and safety commissioner is designed to deal with complaints relating specifically to the provision of care, not to the assessment process. They are separate elements. The commission is intended to operate as a single point of contact for the regulation of quality of care in aged-care services. It's not intended to regulate the process by which consumers access Commonwealth subsidised or funded aged-care services. There are existing arrangements in place for those. So they're separate.</p> <p class="speaker">Kimberley Kitching</p><p>We take this opportunity to convey that Labor is sympathetic to those in this place who want to provide solutions to the many issues that exist across the aged-care sector, but, in saying this, Labor isn't in a position to support the Greens amendments. The interim report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety conveyed a strong message from the commissioners. They said they would 'recommend comprehensive reform and major transformation of the aged-care system in Australia', but they also stated that they would 'chart a new direction for the sector', hopefully 'bringing a clear sense of purpose and of quality'. What mechanisms will be required to address the recommendations in the final report are not known, but I think it would be folly to try to pre-empt too much of the commissioners' directions now. So it is our strong view that any reform should now be done with a clear intention and it should be done in a holistic way.</p><p>We have not been consulted in the lead-up to these amendments being drafted. It's therefore difficult for Labor to support these amendments given the absence of any consultation. It's also difficult because we are concerned that the necessary consultation with the aged-care sector and consumers may not have occurred.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>
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