CHA Opening Remarks: Senate Inquiry into Aged Care Bill 2024

Community Affairs Legislation Committee: Inquiry into Aged Care Bill 2024 [Provisions] – Public hearing invitation – 11 October 2024

Good morning, thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

• My name is Laura Haylen, I am the Director of Aged Care Policy at Catholic Health Australia and I’m joined by Alex Lynch, the Director of In-Home Support and Public Health Policy.
• Catholic Health Australia is Australia’s largest non-government grouping of health, community, and aged care services. We represent approximately 12 per cent of residential aged care facilities and around 20 per cent of home care services across Australia.
• CHA has made a submission to the Senate Committee.
• Firstly, can I start off my saying, CHA and our members are very supportive of the Bill, the rights-based approach and the broader reform agenda of Government.
• We believe, the new Act is essential to address the recommendations of the Royal Commission and lays the foundation for a better quality and more sustainable aged care system that older Australians deserve.
• The reform will ensure all older Australians can access quality care, whether they live in major cities, regional towns or rural areas.
• With half of aged care homes operating at a loss, funding reform is critical for aged care providers, like our members, to meet costs, as well as upgrade facilities, innovate and invest in new models of care as our population ages.
• For our members, this will mean they can move to a sustainable footing and start to look at areas of need in our community to expand, particularly for marginalised and vulnerable people.
• I also want to recognise the work undertaken by Government and the Department to address concerns raised by sector stakeholders on the Exposure Draft.

 In the main, we are supportive of the contents of the Bill and strongly support the passage of this Bill as an urgent priority for 2024.

• With that said, CHA and our members have raised specific areas of the Bill that could be strengthened and are concerned about some of the risks and unintended consequences that could arise with implementation.
• In our submission, we have proposed specific amendments to the Bill related to provisions such as the Code of Conduct penalties, whistleblower protections and scope of responsible persons associated with the statutory duties.
• We have also raised concerns about the implementation of this Bill and the criticality of getting the implementation approach right, in particular for the new Support at Home program.
• We welcome questions on any areas of interest for the Senate Committee to support this Inquiry.