Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (13:26): I think that Senator Allman-Payne has just put on record the Greens's actual position. She has said the quiet part out loud, which is that the Greens are determined to move this motion so that they can stop the government from establishing an escalation pathway.

That is the very clear conclusion that we must draw from the contribution just made by Senator Allman-Payne, and it's up to the Greens to explain to the Australian public why they don't think that this amendment—this change to the aged-care system—is important. But it is not a position that the government disagrees with. This bill establishes the capacity for an escalation pathway for home support assessment decisions, and it should be really clear to people that it will make a real difference to older people who have complex extenuating circumstances that don't fit neatly into existing assessment processes.

This government has been working tirelessly since we came to office to establish an aged-care system that is fit for purpose, not just fit for the circumstances that we confront now—circumstances shaped by a decade of neglect—but for the circumstances that will come next year and the year after as more and more older Australians move into that period of their lives where care either at home or in a residential aged-care facility will be necessary.

Part of that has meant regularising the way that we assess individuals and their care needs, because consistent national rules are an essential feature of any fair, sustainable system. Those were not the circumstances prior to the government's reforms. The previous assessment system delivered wildly varying results depending on the assessment organisation that assessed you, depending on where you lived, depending on how you presented and depending on how you made your case.

That is what the integrated assessment tool seeks to address. Assessment organisations, peak bodies, advisory group members and representative groups told us that the system needed a way, though, to deal with exceptions to the rules, and that is what the bill that is presently before this chamber seeks to do. In seeking to split the bill, what Senator Allman-Payne has made clear is that the Greens position is that this shouldn't proceed, that this amendment shouldn't occur and that it shouldn't be established as a means to support older Australians to have their care needs assessed appropriately.

That is disgraceful. It is disgraceful game playing in a context where we are seeking— Senator McALLISTER: This is disgraceful game playing at a time when the government is seeking to do serious work over years to repair a broken aged-care system. The bill also, of course, strengthens the representation and advocacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the aged-care system by creating a dedicated commissioner, and that is a proposition that also ought to be supported by this chamber.

We seek to establish the office of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner within the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission so that that commissioner can advocate for the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and older people and promote culturally safe, trauma informed and responsive aged-care services.