26th Feb 2020, 4:30 PM – Senate Motions - Aged Care - Privatisation

The same number of senators voted for and against the motion, which means it failed. It was introduced by NSW Senator Deborah O'Neill (Labor).

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT) are teams of experienced, qualified and highly trained medical, clinical and allied health professionals who are responsible for assessing the level of government-funded care that ageing Australians should receive,

(ii) the Morrison Government sees ageing as a problem and the market as the solution,

(iii) the Morrison Government has announced that it intends to privatise ACAT from April 2021,

(iv) the New South Wales (NSW) Minister for Health and Medical Research, Mr Brad Hazzard, has been highly critical of the Morrison Government's decision to privatise ACAT,

(v) Minister Hazzard has said that "NSW has major concerns" about the Government's plan to privatise ACAT,

(vi) Minister Hazzard has said that "It would worry me if a private company had accountability that went beyond the pure interest of the elderly person",

(vii) Minister Hazzard has said that "It seems pre-emptive and unreasonable to be effectively privatising health aged-care services while the royal commission into aged care is still under way", and

(viii) Minister Hazzard concluded that the Government's decision to privatise ACAT demonstrated that there was "Not a lot of logic there"; and

(b) calls on the Morrison Government to:

(i) listen to the concerns of their colleague Minister Hazzard in the NSW State Government, and

(ii) stop the privatisation of ACAT services.