The long-awaited draft of a new federal Aged Care Act has arrived for public consultation.
National Seniors Australia is directly involved on your behalf in scrutinising the draft legislation to be sure it lives up to the hopes and expectations we all have for a better aged care system.
The draft legislation is an important milestone in the reform of aged care, that started in earnest with the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety 2018-2021. Among its very many recommendations, the royal commission called for a root-and-branch overhaul of the Aged Care Act.
The commission argued greater quality and safety in aged care could only be achieved if the guiding legislation shifted away from a focus on aged care providers to a rights-based approach with older people at the centre of the law and its operations.
The new Act is not the only thing happening in aged care, but it does bring together many of these reforms.
There is change underway in remuneration and training of the aged care workforce, changes to the standards expected in aged care, work in progress on how to make aged care funding sustainable and able to support quality care, and much more.
National Seniors is advocating on your behalf directly with the government on the raft of aged care changes. But we are also working closely with 10 other key stakeholders representing the interests of diverse older people.
This grouping is leveraging our vast coverage of member groups and networks of older people. We are collaborating on analysing the draft Aged Care Act and advocating for the very best final version of the legislation to go before the Australian Parliament in the coming months.
This joint approach can have a powerful impact on governments. When diverse groups can come together in agreement on what is most important, governments tend to listen more closely.
To ensure this collaborative venture is getting the issues right on the new legislation, we have prepared a Joint Issues Paper which you can read here. The paper identifies aspects of the draft legislation that either do not go far enough or are missing altogether.
National Seniors would like to hear any comments you have on what the Joint Issues Paper has to say.
If you have any thoughts on the new Act, please let us know by emailing policy@nationalseniors.com.au.
