TURNBULL GOVERNMENT’S ONLY MILESTONE IN AGED CARE IS UNANSWERED REPORTS, REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATONS

The Turnbull Government has resorted to cherry picking its way through the latest report to find some positive things to say about its record on aged care.

 

Today’s media release announcing the tabling of the 2016-17 Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act 1997 fails to mention the more concerning aspects of inaction around the aged care portfolio under the Turnbull Government’s watch.  

 

Instead of another media release highlighting the ‘milestones’ the Turnbull Government wants the public to see the Minister should be turning his attention to fixing the outstanding problems in aged care and begin addressing the growing pile of reviews and reports that remain unanswered.

 

Close to a dozen reviews and reports now sit on the Minister’s desk with hundreds of recommendations yet to be addressed.

 

The Turnbull Government must respond to these recommendations as a priority.

 

Ongoing inaction by the Turnbull Government is jeopardising the progress made to aged care services since Labor’s historic Living Longer Living Better reforms.

 

The growing pile of work unanswered includes the Aged Care Legislated Review, led by David Tune. The only action the Government has done to date is rule out two of the 38 recommendations.

 

The Government has also not responded to the 43 recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s report into elder abuse – released in June.

 

Equally concerning is the lack of response to the 19 recommendations of the Community Affairs Committees report into the future of Australia’s aged care sector workforce also released in June.

 

There is also no sense of urgency to respond to the 10 recommendations of the Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes. To date, the only accomplishment is that the Government has accepted one recommendation which was proposed by Labor six months earlier.

 

And two reports on the future of aged care funding - the Applied Aged Care Solution Review and the Wollongong Report on the Cost of Care – are now collecting dust in the Minister’s office.

 

Older Australians and their families deserve better than this.

 

Labor again calls on Turnbull to take these reports seriously, and act quickly in the interests of all older Australians.