QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator SCARR (Queensland) (15:09): Senator Sterle, you may well have had a fortunate life, but the Senate's fortunate to have the benefit of your service as well. I want to take note, specifically, of the questions which were asked by Senator Liddle. There was some passion from me and Senator Colbeck, who actually held the portfolio of Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services the last time the coalition was in government.
I remember sitting on the other side, listening to the unfair treatment Senator Colbeck had to endure from those who were then sitting in opposition. Let's put some facts on the table. When Senator Colbeck concluded his service as aged-care minister, the waiting time for every level of home-care package was between 30 and 90 days.
It is now 12 months. When Senator Colbeck completed his service as aged-care minister, there were 28,000 older Australians waiting for home-care packages. There are now over 100,000 waiting for assessment and another 100,000 waiting for a home-care package.
That is why Senator Colbeck is so passionate about this issue. The reason for my interjection, in relation to the ability of an aged-care home-care package assessor to override this notorious algorithm, is that we have heard, again and again, that this so-called integrated assessment tool and the automated decision-making which they're using to assess the needs of our older Australians is not able to be overridden by the assessor at that point in time.
Older Australian are pushed back because of this automated decision-making. There needs to be a look across government at the use of automated decision-making. And I say that, in particular, vulnerable Australians—whether they're older Australians or Australians accessing the NDIS—should not be subject to automated decision-making which leads them to be denied the necessities of life without an actual human being involved in the assessment process.
That needs to change. Whoever's in government, it is unacceptable. It's unacceptable that this older Australian went through this telephone assessment and then his family had to plead for a face-to-face assessment.
Can you imagine what that's like? I can't imagine what that's like. They've lost their father and their grandfather, and the day after the funeral a letter arrives: 'Congratulations, you've got your home-care package.' Surely we've got to do better than that—seriously.
I have some sympathy for Senator McAllister. She's not the responsible minister. It's Minister Rae in the other place.
He's the person who needs to take responsibility for this integrated assessment tool after being told, again and again, that it is unacceptable to a majority of the Australian people that this automated decision-making is being used to make life-or-death decisions in relation to the care of older Australians. And it's unacceptable that we now have 100,000 Australians waiting for assessment and 100,000 Australians who have been assessed waiting to actually get access to the home-care funding package.
It is completely unacceptable. Our older Australians deserve better. (Time expired)