The Labor leader criticised the Government’s plan to publicly tender the aged care assessments later this year in a speech to the Queensland Media Club last Wednesday.
“Our aged care system is broken – and this Government wants to make it worse by subjecting ACAT to the indifference of the market,” he said.
“There is a role for the market. But markets have no conscience. The Government must abandon its plans immediately.”
The Opposition has also launched a petition to stop the “privatisation plan”, saying it could lead to the loss of over 1,000 jobs and “could mean the end of these assessments being done by experienced, qualified and highly-trained workers”.
Some in the sector reportedly have other concerns. The Saturday Paper’s Senior Reporter (and former Social Affairs Editor at The Australian) Rick Morton penned a lengthy piece on the weekend about the plan.
He says experts are warning that the Government’s takeover of the teams from the states and territories would give the Commonwealth the power to make eligibility for home care harder– and (surprise, surprise) reduce the home care waiting list.
“When ACAT was first set up, the agreement was that they would be run by the states and territories because they were genuinely neutral,” Professor Kathy Eagar, the Director of the Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI) (and author of the Royal Commission into Aged Care’s research paper comparing Australia’s staffing levels to other countries).
“There is a lot of concern in the industry that this move by the Commonwealth is about limiting the number of people that will be eligible. If they control how high the gate is, they can decide who gets in.”
Is the Government so Machiavellian in its thinking, however? Is it more likely they are simply looking to cut down on red tape?
