Aged Care Amendment (Restoring Human Override for Aged Care Needs Assessments) Bill 2026

Mr CALDWELL (Fadden—Opposition Chief Whip) (13:10): I second the amendment and give credit to the Manager of Opposition Business for raising this amendment today. It really shouldn't need to be the business of the opposition to drag the government, kicking and screaming, to deliver the basics in aged care that Australians deserve, but that is exactly what we are seeing today.

The opposition stands here ready to bring on the Aged Care Amendment (Restoring Human Override for Aged Care Needs Assessments) Bill 2026 that the Senate saw fit to pass before the winter break commenced. We should do it right here and right now. I say that because our inboxes as MPs are getting overloaded with stories from Australians whose families are being let down by a horribly failing system.

The minister, I think, sets the right tone, but he's completely lacking in substance to deal with these issues that are arising in his portfolio. This particular issue of computers not being able to have any sort of human override in the absolutely critical decision-making process of the way in which our elderly are cared for in their final years is an indictment of the way in which this minister has carriage of this portfolio.

Just before we went into the winter recess, I asked a question of the minister. At that point we knew that this bill had passed the Senate, and we knew the minister could see that there was a willingness from the opposition to deal with this issue in a humane way for older Australians. In answer to the question I asked in question time just prior to the break, the minister went on and on and on but failed to acknowledge that we have lost the humanity and the human element in these decision-making processes.

We could fix that today. If I were to go home to my electorate at the end of this week and tell people in my community that we had the chance to fix this issue in Canberra this week but that the government wouldn't even deal with it, they would be flabbergasted. I suspect that is exactly what we are going to see today—a complete unwillingness by the government to acknowledge that they are in any way to blame for the failures in this system.

The question that I asked of the minister just prior to the winter recess related to a constituent in my electorate, in fact, a constituent who lived just around the corner from me in my home suburb of Hollywell. His name was Dudley Austin. Dudley and his family are examples of why the government should come in here, support our motion to have this bill dealt with immediately and support this legislation that's been brought through the Senate.

The Senate have seen fit to pass this bill because, over in that other place, they know that this could easily be fixed, and they know that it should be fixed. Yet here we are today, with the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care happy to bat it off and kick it into the long grass, but older Australians deserve better than that. These examples are becoming far too numerous.

The case of Dudley Austin that I dealt with locally is just one of many where this aged-care system, under this minister and under the Albanese Labor government, is failing our older Australians. The crux of the legislation that was passed in the Senate is so incredibly simple. It is to merely give humans the opportunity to review decisions that are being made by computers.

I wouldn't have thought that that was a particularly controversial piece of legislation—that, in the end, human oversight should be restored to our aged-care system. The fact that that is, in any way, vaguely controversial for this Labor government shows that their priorities are all wrong. Today, the first sitting day back after a few weeks back in our electorates, this Labor government should do the right thing.

They should step up to the plate and they should fix this issue now. The case of Dudley Austin is a stark reminder of how this system is failing Australians. Dudley was 98 years of age and had had a life-threatening fall in his home, but the assessment of Dudley, aged 98, was one of no urgency and no priority.

Because the computer said no, he was left at home without the care and support that he needed in what turned out to be the final days of his life. This story is being repeated all over the country. Every older Australian deserves to get the best out of the government of this nation.

What's happening right now is that they are being left to wither on the vine. The waiting lists are too long. The decision-making process is completely flawed.

Today, this Labor government has an opportunity to right a wrong. They have been bleating on about aged care for four years, making out that they are some sort of guardian of the older Australians, but they're not. They are dramatically failing older Australians.

This bill could be a goodwill gesture from this government that they have had a winter of remorse and that they have seen the error of their ways. But they won't, will they? I suspect they won't, because they won't be happy unless they are playing politics with people's lives.

The concept of us as an opposition walking in here and saying, 'Let's do this today,' is completely unacceptable to them. It wasn't their idea. They wouldn't want to admit that there's any wrongdoing, but case after case of older Australians being failed by this system would suggest that there are major problems.

Today, let's just take a simple step in trying to address that. The Senate has done all the legwork, so all the House members have to do is roll in here today and support this piece of legislation. That's not a difficult task.

In fact, I think that's what Australians would expect of the government in this place. They would expect that, when there are issues that are of this level of urgency and importance, the members opposite would roll in here, get the job done and fix the problems that they created. Older Australians are the ones that we should be looking out for, for having given so much to our country for so many, many years; for having paid taxes; and for having lived through pandemics and wars and worked their buts off for their families.

They deserve to be given the best treatment, not the beta treatment from some computer. I urge those opposite to please pack away the politics for a few moments. Come in here today as a gesture of goodwill to older Australians, and vote to deal with this today so that we can restore human care in our aged-care system.

The SPEAKER: The question is that the amendment be agreed to.