Providers told to support full taskforce report

ACCPA chief Tom Symondson calls on aged care providers to back the whole package of reforms from Aged Care Taskforce.

Aged care providers have been encouraged to give their support for the taskforce’s reform package in full or risk killing it all off if they reject parts of it. 

Aged Care & Community Care Providers Association’s annual state conference for New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory providers has drawn over 500 people to Sydney this week.

Day two included an address from the peak body’s chief executive officer Tom Symondson – who is also a member of the Aged Care Taskforce established last June to advise on aged care funding arrangements. 

He called on anyone in the room planning to talk to parliamentarians about the taskforce’s report – which made a package of 23 recommendations – to say they wholly support it.

“I have had so many conversations with opposition members of parliament, government members of parliament, where they’re saying, ‘Oh, someone from the sector came and said that the sector doesn’t like this bit of the taskforce [report]’. You might think you’re helping [but] that has almost killed it about 15 times. Please just say you support the package,” he told delegates on Thursday. 

No stakeholder will be getting everything they want because the taskforce outcome was negotiated, he said. “It was something we could all live with.”

Mr Symondson also told the packed room at the Hilton Hotel that he’d stressed the importance of implementing the reforms as a whole package together during a conversation with Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells that morning.

“If we just see the taskforce response [first] and the Act six months later, that’s a problem. If we just see the Act and Chapter Four is missing, that is a problem,” he said referring to the chapter related to financial and funding matters.

Following his presentation, Australian Ageing Agenda spoke with Mr Symondson about insights on the timing of the new aged care Act, advice for providers and message for parliamentarians.

Comment on the story below. Follow Australian Ageing Agenda on LinkedInX (Twitter) and Facebook, sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter and subscribe to our premium content or AAA magazine for the complete aged care picture.  

Tags: ACCPA conference, aged care taskforce, aged care taskforce report, Tom Symondson,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement