After seeking a four-day extension, the Senate Inquiry Report was published on Monday, with the Senate Committee recommending the Aged Care Bill 2024 be passed without amendment.
Coalition Senators, led by Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Anne Ruston, added more than 100 additional comments, with 32 recommendations, including:
- revising the timeframe to commence Support at Home to allow more time for implementation,
- providing a clear "transition path" after 1 July 2025,
- further consultation on care management caps,
- having the Inspector General of Aged Care review "red and green tape",
- allow for greater flexibility in the application of care minutes, and
- give consideration to removing RADs from the aged care asset testing provisions where the person has sold the family home to pay the RAD.
Queensland Senator Penny Allman-Payne issued a 'Dissenting Report', recommending that the "Government address many of the serious concerns raised throughout the Inquiry".
The Senate Inquiry, which was chaired by South Australian ALP Senator Marielle Smith, received 189 submissions and heard from hundreds of witnesses at nine hearings held all around the country.
The Government now has three months to respond to the report, with the comments and recommendations expecteds to be debated in the less than three remaining weeks of Parliament before the end of the year.
At the recent ACCPA conference, Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said it was important the Aged Care Bill 2024 was passed in November to lift the sector out of financial "limbo". Time is running out.
The Health and Aged Care portfolio is due to appear before Supplementary Budget Estimates on 7 November. Follow it here.
Read the full Senate Inquiry Report here.
