25th Feb 2020, 4:56 PM – Senate Motions - Aged Care - Privatising Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT)

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Tasmanian Senator Anne Urquhart (Labor), which means it was successful. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own but are politically influential because they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) all Australians deserve the best possible healthcare, especially older Australians,

(ii) our community is ageing, with population projections for Australia suggesting that there will be 4 million people aged between 65-84 years by 2022, with the over 65 and over 85 cohorts rapidly accelerating over the next decade,

(iii) a third of this cohort live outside of major cities in rural and regional Australia,

(iv) as our population ages, our community will increasingly rely on appropriate aged care services for good health, support and dignity,

(v) Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT) are teams of experienced, qualified and highly trained medical, clinically and allied health professionals who are responsible for assessing the level of government-funded care that ageing Australians should receive,

(vi) in 2018-19, ACATs provided over 178,000 assessments,

(vii) ACAT teams are local, know their communities, have enormous expertise over 30 years, and their role is to independently assess what older Australians need and identify the best options,

(viii) ACAT teams are independent of private service providers and owe no allegiance or preference for any particular provider, and

(ix) the Morrison Government has announced it intends to privatise the ACAT workforce and put out a tender for these vital services;

(b) rejects the Morrison Government for its plans to privatise ACAT, which would threaten the quality and independence of services provided to ageing Australians, and jeopardise the jobs and independence of Australian healthcare professionals; and

(c) seeks concurrence for this motion in the House.