Aged care bills – now for the Senate

The Senate Standing Committee report delivered last Friday supports a number of amendements to ease the transition burden on some aged care service providers and support marginal groups.

By Keryn Curtis

Intensive lobbying from aged care providers and other stakeholder groups for a range of amendments to the five aged care bills currently before the parliament has been rewarded with a number of recommendations making it into the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs’ inquiry into the five aged care bills which underpin the Government’s Living Longer, Living Better [LLLB] reform package.

The 236 page report, released late on Friday 31 May, includes three main components – an eight chapter majority report containing 13 recommendations; a dissenting report from the Coalition Senators; and ‘additional comments’ and recommendations from the Australian Greens.

According to analysis from Catholic Health Australia (CHA), six* of the 13 recommendations made in the majority report, if supported, would involve amendments to the LLLB bills. 

Key recommendations in the majority report also recommend that current references to the Workforce Supplement in the bill be retained, and that the Government examine whether it may be appropriate to revise the Supplement guidelines to permit, in some circumstances, the use of the Workforce Supplement in meeting employee entitlements.

Overall however, CHA says that, while the recommended amendments will be important to particular interest groups*, they do not involve substantive structural changes to the bills.

Coalition criticism

The Coalition senators have criticised the bills, saying they are very concerned about the negative impacts this legislation will have on many aspects of the aged care sector. They say key elements in the bills lack adequate analysis and should have involved detailed broad-ranging modelling prior to being presented to the Parliament. 

The coalition representatives report they find little wrong with current accommodation payment arrangements, saying it is essential to have further time to enable reconsideration of the new arrangements and reassess the impact on the operation of these accommodation payment arrangements on aged care services. 

While they “agree that residents do need options for a range of payment arrangements to best meet their individual financial situation”, “such options should not be at the financial disadvantage of the provider or the whole system runs the risk of collapse.”

They recommend a reconsideration of all changes to accommodation payments pending further detailed modelling and the outcome of the review processes embedded in the bills.

Greens’ broad support

Australian Greens Senator and spokesperson on ageing, Rachel Siewert, said that while her party was strongly supportive of responsible and much needed reform to aged care, there were some key areas identified through this inquiry and consultations with the sector that needed to be addressed.

“This is particularly the case in regards to part pensioners, as well those providers and services who were already under pressure and may find it hard to transition to the new funding arrangements, such as those who operate in rural and regional areas.

“The Greens are supportive of the introduction of a co-contribution payments structure that provides important protections such as the annual and lifetime caps, along with greater flexibility and time-frames for consumers to choose how they pay.

“However, I remain concerned about the pressure that part pensioners will experience under the pricing structures proposed by these reforms. We are recommending a revision of the way taper rates for home care operate, in order to lessen the burden on people on low incomes and part pensions.

The Greens also call for a separate homelessness supplement that acknowledges the complex and specialised needs of aged care services for people who have experienced homelessness or are at risk of homelessness.

Like wise, the Greens have acknowledged the needs of rural and remote aged services, making recommendations on how to support rural and regional services and the ways in which organisations are classed as ‘regional or remote’ in order to gain additional support.

“It is essential that aged care services are financial viable and capable of achieving growth in coming years. From that point of view we have made recommendations that provide the sector with increased capacity to transition if these new arrangements are undermining their viability. We have been very careful to listen to the needs of the sector to make sure these reforms deliver on their intended outcomes.

Attention to detail

Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) has welcomed the report’s thoroughness and attention to detail, noting in particular the recommendations pertaining to the Workforce Supplement and the reporting of the impact of reforms on providers, especially small and rural providers.

ACSA CEO Adjunct Professor John Kelly said ACSA welcomed the recommendation 4.65 that the Minister direct the ACFA [Aged Care Financing Authority] to report regularly on the impact of the reforms on providers, with special consideration on different types of providers, current low-care-only, small providers and rural providers.

“The […] recommendation [recommendation 4],” said Professor Kelly, “that the Government immediately put in place arrangements to monitor the impact on low care providers, and prepare to make available transitional support along the lines recommended by the Productivity Commission, including support services for providers seeking assistance in transitioning to the new system is also welcomed.”

Professor Kelly also acknowledged the Coalition’s attention to the Workforce Supplement, which he said would have a big impact on many of his members, while additional comments by The Greens, particularly regarding financial impacts, provide a basis for ongoing discussion before the legislation is debated in The Senate, he said.

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*The Committee also recommends [recommendation 6] that the dementia supplement be renamed as the Dementia and Behavioural Supplement, in both residential and home care and that the bill be amended [recommendation 7] to include parents separated from their children by former adoption practices.

See the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs’ list of recommendations here.

See the coalition’s dissenting report here.

See the Australian Greens’ additional comments here.

The Committee was made up of eight Senators – three from the ALP (Senators Moore, Furner and Brown); four from the Coalition (Senators Fierravanti-Wells, Boyce, McKenzie and Smith); and Senator Siewert from the Greens.  

The bills, which were passed by the lower house last week amid some stakeholder machinations, will be introduced in the Senate for debate on 17 June.  In the meantime, advocates are maintaining their efforts in communicating their messages to senators.

Given the numbers in the Senate, the bills will be successful if the Greens and ALP vote together.

Tags: legislation, living-longer-living-better, senate-standing-committee-on-community-affairs,

1 thought on “Aged care bills – now for the Senate

  1. I would like to have my say on nursing home abuse example the recent rapes in a nursing home, I have been asking for a enquiry into this home and nobody wants to listen, why cant we have a royal commission into nursing home abuse
    thankyou sandra

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