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

Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (12:03): I'm very pleased about the decision the chamber just made on putting that question. I think the minister has very convincingly set out the importance of this proposed escalation pathway. As the Chair of the Community Affairs Legislation Committee, which spent some time over the last few weeks inquiring into this additional amendment to the amendment bill, I think it's really important to remind the chamber that this escalation pathway is intentionally targeted.

It is a change that has come about as a result of targeted consultation with stakeholders and in response to what we are hearing from older Australians about their concerns with the integrated assessment tool. The intention of the pathway is to operate as a safeguard in exceptional circumstances while maintaining the benefits of a consistent rule based assessment system, and that is something that I think is really crucial.

We do believe that there has to be some form of consistent rules based decision-making. As the minister said, if we were not to have that kind of decision-making process, it would be expensive and it would come at the expense of older Australians. Importantly, the amendment doesn't remove or diminish an individual's right that they already have to seek reconsideration of an aged-care assessment decision under the act.

They still have that pathway should they need it. But what's important about this particular pathway is that it essentially allows the rules to be set aside in particular circumstances. We consider that this escalation pathway strikes the appropriate balance between consistency and flexibility.

It preserves the benefits that we think a standardised assessment tool brings, but it also allows us to address exceptional circumstances where they arise. We've been really clear since coming to government about fixing the challenges—that's putting it nicely—that we inherited from the former government in aged care. We don't shy away from that work.

It's hard; it's not easy. These are older Australians who deserve the very best care that we can give them, and our government minister is committed to doing that work. I really hope that this chamber doesn't stand in the way of us responding to the calls of the sector and responding to the calls of providers, community advocates of older Australians and their families.

We heard in our inquiry into this additional amendment that this is what older Australians and their advocates want us to do in this place. They don't want us to wait. Ageing Australia said that the escalation pathway was needed and was a useful interim safeguard.

Nurse practitioners said that it would improve fairness. OPAN said they welcomed the escalation pathway. So it would be a really disappointing decision in this place if senators were to stand in the way of giving older Australians an escalation pathway where they need it.

I think the fact that this relates to exceptional circumstances is a really important consideration because these are circumstances where they require us to step in and make a decision and where the cost of not doing so is high, not just to the older person, of course, but to their family, to their carers and to providers. For the Liberals and the Greens to team up and stand in the way again of us delivering for older Australians would be a great shame and a terrible reflection on their commitment to improving the lives of older Australians, which they say is what they're here to do.

They say they're here to work constructively with us. They say they're here to help make the system better—a system that, I remind senators, was a system of neglect. The royal commission found that we were neglecting the needs of older Australians in our aged-care system.

In a great country like ours, the fact that older Australians were left by, let's be frank, those opposite when they were in government is truly disgraceful. We can do better. We are doing better.

It's hard work. It's not an overnight fix. It's been the result of many years since Labor came to government in 2022.

In this bill, through the schedules that were originally brought to this chamber that were originally part of this bill and through the additional schedule that came in recent weeks—as a result of targeted consultation, as a result of listening to older Australians and what they need, listening to advocates, listening to families—the government is taking action to make sure that, where an escalation is needed in exceptional circumstances, older Australians are able to access that escalation pathway.

Really, it's not just older Australians and advocates and families and carers that have been calling for this. The opposition and the Greens have also asked us to do this, but here we are with an opportunity for them, in good faith, to show that they are willing to work with us on improving the system, on fixing the mistakes that were made under previous governments and on doing better for older Australians, and this is an opportunity for them to show it.

Schedule 4, which is the particularly contentious schedule that's being talked about today and that the Greens have moved to have separated from this bill and therefore delayed, therefore delaying older Australians the opportunity to escalate a decision—that schedule means that older Australians can always have their home support assessment looked at again by a person to make sure the right decision is made on the level and the urgency of that care.

I cannot see a reason that would be acceptable to older Australians to hold that up from passing through this chamber. Standing up this escalation pathway takes work and supporting this bill and passing this bill is not the end of that work. The government and the department, in giving their evidence to the Senate committee in recent weeks, were really clear that there is ongoing work to be done, ongoing consultation, to set up the rules that will inform the escalation pathway.

We have said all along we want to do this in a timely way. We don't want to force older Australians to have to wait, and we will continue to consult and work to get this right. Assessors, older Australians and, in fact, even the Liberals and the Greens have told us there needs to be a way for someone to take another look at an assessment outcome that potentially is not right, that doesn't look right.

This schedule, schedule 4 of this bill, delivers that. It would be really hard to explain to the family of an older Australian who needs their decision assessed and to explain to them why this chamber held that up. The Senate should be asking how quickly we can fix this problem not how we can play political games or yet again use aged care as a political football to gain some votes back for—it's really shameful that we would attempt to use some of our most vulnerable Australians to play a political game.

This is an opportunity to come together and to fix a problem. The government have been really open and upfront that that is what we are seeking to do. The pathway will be there, if it were to pass this chamber, which I believe it should quickly, for a person whose complex needs aren't captured by the existing assessment process.

It sits alongside an existing review system, but we, after consulting with older Australians and their families, have come to the view that this is a really important and urgent change that should pass this chamber without further delay. There are extenuating circumstances where the integrated assessment tool might not be able to consider all of the unique factors that make up a person's life.

We accept that, and so, where a case meets the criteria, we want to give the department the ability to substitute the outcome of that original assessment so a person is not left with a set of circumstances that don't meet their needs. I can't, frankly, see why this chamber would delay what seems to be a sensible decision to make a real difference to older Australians who are seeking to have their assessment looked at.

What we've seen in the chamber today and saw yesterday on this bill does nothing to improve the pathway for a single older Australian. It does nothing to make the assessment tool work better for the older people around our country who need us to do it. Our government is willing to work with stakeholders across the parliament and outside this parliament—older Australians and their families—to get this right.

We are genuine about that willingness. I call on other senators in this place to work with us to do that. The bill has been through the House.

It's been considered in detail. My Senate committee has looked into this bill—not once but twice.