ACCPA has welcomed the tabling in Federal Parliament of two new pieces of legislation which show the Government recognises that fixing aged care is a key priority.
ACCPA Interim CEO Paul Sadler said ACCPA urges Parliament to quickly pass the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) Bill 2022 which among other things establishes an Independent Pricing Authority to recommend the price of aged care services and introduces a new residential care funding model called the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC).
“We look forward to working through the implementation detail particularly regarding the level of transparency around the Independent Pricing Authority and the rigor of the methodology for the star ratings.
“Most of the schedules in the Royal Commission Response Bill were scrutinised by a select committee in the previous Parliament, so ACCPA is comfortable to support its passage quickly.
“We also support in-principle the delivery of the Government’s election commitments through the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022 and look forward to the opportunity to scrutinise the implementation of these measures. For example, ACCPA is keen that we take account of staff shortages in how we introduce 24/7 RNs right across Australia, and the impact of home care pricing changes on consumers and service providers.
“We look forward to working with Government to ensure more staff, more funding and more transparency from all parties to deliver a world class aged care system for older Australians.”
