Above: Senator Jacinta Collins being sworn in as Minister for Mental Health and Ageing in new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s cabinet, by Governor General, Quentin Bryce on Monday 1 July.
By Keryn Curtis
The ageing sector has a new Minister in charge following a portfolio reshuffle announced on Monday by new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Victorian Senator Jacinta Collins was sworn in on Monday as the new Minister for Mental Health and Ageing while erstwhile minister, Mark Butler, moves to the environment and climate change portfolios.
Mark Butler has held the Mental Health and Ageing portfolio since 14 September 2010, less than three years, but has held the wheel during what has been undoubtedly the most profound period of examination and change for the aged care sector.
In that time, Minister Butler received and responded to the seminal Productivity Commission inquiry and subsequent report, Caring for Older Australians, which sought to provide a blueprint for structural reform of the aged care system in Australia. Mr Butler conducted a wide-ranging series of direct consultations with elderly people and advocacy groups across Australia known as ‘conversations’ on ageing, as well as extensive consultation with a large group of other stakeholders – in particular via the National Aged Care Alliance (NACA) – in developing the Government’s policy response to the Productivity Commission report.
The Government’s policy, Living Longer Living Better, announced in August 2011, while universally acclaimed as a landmark achievement initially, foundered somewhat in recent months with service provider peak bodies voicing concerns about issues relating to financial viability and workforce.
Despite these concerns, five bills containing the legislation that would see the implementation of the reforms, passed both houses of the parliament in June, with some welcomed amendments in the Senate process, in the final hours before the leadership change.
A new Minister for Ageing
New Minister for Ageing, Senator Jacinta Collins, pictured above, is not well known in Australian politics though she has held a number of committee positions and a shadow ministry, mostly in the areas of education, workplace relations, youth affairs and public administration. She was most recently Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations, a position she held from 14 September 2010 prior to her new appointment this week.
Senator Collins has been Manager of Government Business in the Senate since March 2012, following the retirement of Senator Mark Arbib. She was elected Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate on the night of the ALP leadership ballot, last Wednesday 26 June 2013, replacing Senator Penny Wong, who was promoted to Senate leader.
Like her predecessor, Mark Butler, Jacinta Collins began her career in the union movement, holding several positions with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), including five years as national industrial officer, prior to entering parliament in 1995.
According to the Australian Labor Party website, Jacinta Collins’ main policy interests include workplace relations, early childhood development and health and family policy. She is quoted as saying, “I am particularly passionate about ensuring vulnerable workers are protected and that the workplace relations system promotes fairness and productivity.”
Opposition criticism
Shadow minister for mental health and ageing, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, criticised the reshuffle of the ageing and mental health portfolios, particularly in the context of the timing of reform implementation, claiming that the portfolios were “yet again saddled with a minister on L-plates.”
She said it demonstrated Labor’s lack of priority to older Australians and to those with mental illness; and that both the ageing and mental health sectors were “sick and tired of being passed around like a political football.”
“I have been shadow minister in the ageing portfolio since 2009 and in mental health since 2010. In that time, Rudd-Gillard Labor has had three ministers in ageing and now the second appointed to mental health,” said Senator Fierravanti-Wells.
She said that the major change and reform in the ageing sector was essential for the long-term stability of the industry and questioned how a new Minister could get across the complex and crucial issues that must be managed well and guided cautiously through the implementation phases.
Socially conservative
Two media columnists in the last 48 hours have questioned the suitability of Senator Collins’ appointment to the mental health and ageing portfolios – in particular the mental health portfolio – on the basis of her demonstrated social conservatism.
Crikey.com’s Canberra columnist, Bernard Keane, has described the appointment of Senator Jacinta Collins as “the most bizarre appointment in Kevin Rudd’s new cabinet”.
“Collins is from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association and holds the social views one expects of a Shoppie: she is stridently anti-abortion and a diehard opponent of same-sex marriage; “stable, biological parenting” should be fostered “as a social norm” she said in reference to the same-sex marriage bill last year,” Keane writes.
Writing in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, columnist Susie O’Brien wrote on Monday:
“Either there needs to be a portfolio reshuffle urgently, or Senator Collins needs to come out and pledge that she will not let her personal views get in the way of her management of the portfolio.”
Ms O’Brien says it is important that people are at least aware of Senator Collins’ views on a number of issues including abortion, same sex marriage, stem cell research and euthanasia. She says Senator Collins has campaigned against stem cell research, “that has the ability to change lives for many profoundly disabled people.”
“She is also anti-euthanasia, which gives people with terminal illnesses right to die in dignity.”
“Yes, she is well-liked and well-respected. But I think some of her views are dangerous and antithetical to a just and fair society. And they are totally at odds with the Mental Health portfolio,” Ms O’Brien said.
Getting on with business
CEO of Aged and Community Services Australia, Adjunct Professor John Kelly, said Minister Butler would be acknowledged for taking his portfolio very seriously and working very hard in leading the beginning of the aged care reform process.
“He took his portfolio very seriously and handled it very well. That needs to be acknowledged,” said Prof Kelly. “And his concessions to the senate committee inquiry report were welcomed and reasonable and balanced.”
“I have written to Senator Collins to welcome her to the portfolio. We have said we look forward to building on the tremendous work of her predecessor and working with her to progress meaningful reform in the future,” Prof Kelly said.