The changes proposed in this Bill will strengthen legislation on the use of restrictive practices and restraints in aged care. These changes are welcome and, as the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission) identified, much needed.
However, Labor Senators note that they do not agree with this Report’s characterisation of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission’s Final Report as ‘a once in a generation reform to aged care’.
Labor Senators note that the Government’s response to the Royal Commission’s Final Report falls short of solving a number of key issues within the aged care sector, raised by the Royal Commission. They also note that it fails to deliver enduring improvements and reforms for the long term. The Government’s response to the Royal Commission:
It failed to implement appropriate checks, balances and transparency measures around the use of public funding. This includes ensuring the $3.2 billion commitment to increasing the Basic Daily Fee actually goes to improving care and nutritional outcomes for aged care residents.
It ignores the recommendation to require a nurse to be on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in residential aged care homes.
The self-congratulatory language used, by the Government and contained in this Report, to describe the Government’s response to the Royal Commission is inaccurate and it does not assist in improving the urgent needs of those using the aged care system.
Labor Senators support the recommendation of the committee report that the Bill be passed.