Topics: Senate Passes Bill to Restore Human Judgement to Aged Care - Labor Stands Alone in Opposition
Senator Anne Ruston: The whole chamber has come together to put the interests of older Australians first. This isn't the first time the Senate has had to do this work – we constantly see this in aged care. The Senate is coming together and forcing the government to do something it should have done in the first place. We saw, late last year, the government refusing to release the 83,000 aged care packages that they promised. The Senate came together and forced them to do it. We also saw the government, despite being warned about the clinical needs of people – showering and wound dressings and the like – being included in clinical care, refuse until the Senate forced them into changing their decisions.
[Inaudible]
Our legislation is very simple. It says that a human must have the ultimate decision-making power over the decisions of the care needs of older Australians. What we have seen constantly by this government when it comes to aged care and older Australians is that they are short-changing older Australians. And for a government that came into power in 2022 promising to put the care back into aged care, all they have done is short-change older Australians and put the wait back into waitlists.
Senator Allman-Payne: Life is actually getting harder for older people under Labor's aged care reforms, and yet Labor thinks everything is fine. Well, it's not fine, and Labor's aged care reforms are unravelling. Piece by piece, the Senate is pulling apart Labor's aged care reforms because they are harming people. The Labor government was humiliated on the floor of the Senate this morning as the bill, co-sponsored by the Greens, the Coalition and Senator Pocock, passed through the Senate. That is the second time Labor has been handed a defeat by the Senate on its aged care reforms. Minister Rae is clearly out of his depth, and it's older people who are paying for it – and some of them lose their lives.
Senator Pocock: I really want to thank Senators Allman-Payne and Ruston for their leadership on this really important issue. It speaks to the values that we have as Australians and how we look after older Australians. It is simply unacceptable to have an algorithm decide the care level that older Australians get, with no ability for a human to override that. The bill that passed in the Senate this morning simply means there is human oversight and the ability for a human to override an algorithm. We need to treat older Australians with the respect they deserve so that they can age at home with dignity. And that's not happening when you have an algorithm deciding things and a human incapable of actually saying, "you got that wrong." We've heard from so many clinicians, geriatricians, older Australians, their families and their carers saying it is not working for them – this aged care assessment tool is not working, the algorithm is not working. So this is the Senate doing its job. Again, I thank the Greens and the Opposition for their leadership on this. This is an important day for older Australians, and I look forward to the government actually making the changes that are necessary.
Journalist: Sam Rae has been on radio this morning saying this is a priority area for the Albanese government – do you think he's been acting fast enough, and has he been very responsible?
Senator Ruston: Well, I think the timing of Minister Rae's radio appearance this morning probably speaks for itself. Minister Rae knew full well for some weeks that this bill was about to be debated in the Senate, and yet this morning is the morning he decides to come out and make his comments. So I'm sorry if you think I'm rather cynical about the timing of them and the sincerity of them.
Senator Allman-Payne: This government has been dragged kicking and screaming into the decision they announced on the radio this morning, and it's only a partial measure. There are still going to be thousands of older Australians who will be subject to an aged care assessment done by an algorithm with no control. Every single time the government has moved on aged care since its reforms, it's been because the Coalition, the Greens, Senator Pocock and the crossbench have actually taken the action the government should be taking of its own volition. And if the government says it really cares about older Australians, then you'd have to ask them why they've only released around 37,000 home care packages in this budget from an aged care waitlist of over 200,000. That is not a government that cares.
Journalist: Despite the support in the Senate, what do you think the realistic chance is of these changes actually going through Parliament, given the bill – for lack of a better term – is sitting in this void, and it's never going to pass the House given Labor's numbers there?
Senator Ruston: Well, along with all the older Australians who have come forward and told their stories, surely the government can't ignore stories like Mr Wilson's, whose family was told he received an aged care package days after he died. Surely a government can't be so callous that thousands and thousands of older Australians coming forward with their stories about incorrect analysis and outcomes from an assessment delivered by this algorithm can be ignored. But I can absolutely assure every older Australian listening today that I – and I'm sure my colleagues standing here with me – will not give up. We will continue to fight and continue to put pressure on this government until they do the right thing by older Australians. And I say to Minister Rae, and I say to the ministers of the Albanese government: these are people. They're not numbers on a piece of paper. They are real people, with real families, who are suffering as a consequence of the government's refusal to accept that something they've done is not working. We are saying to the government: fix it. Fix it for the sake of these older Australians, because quite frankly, if you don't, you will be condemned for not doing so.
Senator Allman-Payne: Just this week, an older couple reached out to my office, telling me they didn't know what to do because their doctor had told them they need to apply for an aged care assessment, and they're too scared to engage in that process because of what they've heard about the outcomes. They're also worried they can't afford it. We are going to keep up the pressure. The Greens, the Coalition, the crossbench, Senator Pocock – we will not rest until the government fixes their aged care system. We have a Supported Home inquiry still on foot, and that Greens-led inquiry will continue to keep the pressure on the government, to keep hearing from older people, advocates and others, to make sure this government knows it cannot get away with leaving older people on a waitlist or subject to an algorithm and to lies.
Journalist: The Coalition and Greens also voted in the Senate to send the social media ban amendments to an inquiry. Why was that important? What do you make of Labor's claim that that's just an eight-week delay for big tech companies to strengthen?
Senator Ruston: One of the things I am highly critical of the Labor government for is their refusal to allow the Senate to do its job. Our job is to scrutinise legislation. We don't just shove it through like they do downstairs with blind faith and no scrutiny. I think it is incredibly important that any piece of legislation with serious impact on Australians is able to go through the proper process – that we have scrutiny of it, we have proper debate. Quite frankly, I am sick of the number of times the Labor Party rams things through under guillotine and doesn't allow the Senate to do its job.
[Inaudible]
Journalist: And just one more – on Labor's gambling advertising reforms, they're saying the changes are significant. Do they go far enough? Is there anything more that needs to be done to address it?
Senator Ruston: Well, obviously the most important thing is that we protect our children. But once again, I think this is another important example where we need to make sure we have proper scrutiny and proper debate, so that the laws we put in place have had the opportunity to be robustly determined – not just determined by a government that decides based on what makes an easy headline.
Senator Ruston: Thanks, everyone.
@Anne_Ruston
/AnneRuston