Scott Morrison commits more than $500m to aged care following damning royal commission interim report
Scott Morrison has pledged more than $500 million towards an aged care sector shake-up which would increase the number of home care packages by 10,000 places, with the PM also thanking Donald Trump for sending US firefighters Down Under. WATCH QT LIVE
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Scott Morrison has committed more than $500 million towards fixing problems in aged care, weeks after a royal commission investigating the scandal-prone sector released a damning interim report.
The prime minister has promised $537 million to increase home care packages, reduce the use of chemical restraints and get younger people out of residential aged care.
“We can and must do better in providing improved support for our older Australians,” Mr Morrison said.
“Like every Australian, we were appalled by the revelations of the interim report, however we will do everything we can to build an aged care system of the highest quality.”
His three-pronged plan hinges on increasing the number of home care packages by 10,000 places.
It also involves providing better medication management and dementia training for nursing home staff, and introducing new targets to remove younger people with disabilities from residential facilities.
“I want to stress again that what we really need to establish above and beyond everything else is a culture of respect for older Australians,” he said.
The additional 10,000 home care packages will be rolled out from next month, with a particular focus on those with higher levels of need. From the start of next year, there will be much stronger restrictions placed on the use of anti-psychotic medicines.
A timeline has also been set for removing younger Australians from aged care: Nobody under the age of 65 entering residential aged care by 2022; Nobody under the age of 45 living in residential aged care by 2022; and Nobody under the age of 65 living in residential aged care by 2025.
It comes after Mr Morrison called Donald Trump to thank the US president for securing the release of Timothy Weeks from the Taliban.
Professor Weeks, from Wagga Wagga in NSW, was freed from custody in Afghanistan last week through a prisoner-swap deal.
The prime minister also thanked President Trump for sending US firefighters to help battle recent blazes in Queensland and NSW.
During the telephone call on Monday morning, Mr Morrison welcomed initial progress towards the US and China settling their long-running trade war. He said the US-China deal would give great confidence to the global economy, according to an official read-out of the conversation.
REVAMPED NEWSPOLL GIVES COALITION THE EDGE
A revamped Newspoll has found the Coalition holds a narrow lead over Labor as Canberra gears up for the final fortnight of parliament.
The Australian reports that an exclusive Newspoll conducted shows the Coalition ahead of Labor on a two-party-preferred vote of 51-49.
But in a sobering result for both parties, a majority of voters were dissatisfied with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.
The results for the two-party-preferred and primary vote were very similar to the outcome at the May 18 election, with the Coalition on 41 per cent, and Labor stuck on a woeful 33 per cent.
The parties were tied up at 50-50 after preferences in the most recent Newspoll.
The latest Newspoll also showed a downgrading of One Nation’s primary vote from 7 per cent to 5 per cent, and an increase in support for other minor parties, up from 6 per cent to 9 per cent, edging closer to the May 18 election result. The Greens’ primary vote remained at 12 per cent.
Mr Morrison’s satisfaction rating was measured at 43 per cent, with a dissatisfaction rating of 52 per cent. It is the first net negative satisfaction rating recorded by the Prime Minister since the election.
Mr Albanese’s performance ratings also dropped, falling to a 38 per cent approval rating, compared with 42 per cent in the last Newspoll.
The Labor leader’s dissatisfaction rating rose to 45 per cent, up from 37 per cent previously.
The latest survey is the first one conducted by Newspoll using a new methodology that relies less on using phone calls to gather opinions and more on the online world.
Newspoll moved to revamp its methodology after all the major published polls failed to accurately predict the election result. In the past, Newspoll accurately predicted the 2016 election result and previous elections dating back to the 1980s.
Campbell White, the head of public affairs and polling for YouGov Asia-Pacific, which conducts Newspoll, told The Australian polling had become harder as more and more people screened calls on mobiles and rejected robocalls.
“The 2019 election was a disappointment for the polling industry. Without exception, every Australian poll got the outcome wrong,” Dr White said.
“A decade or so ago, most people had landlines and they tended to answer them. There was very little call screening.
“This meant getting a representative sample was easier and pollsters did not need to be so skilled in modelling and scaling their data.
“The truth is, the old days are never coming back. In order to do better, we need to consider what we can do differently.
“We’ve seen a consistent pattern overseas where telephone polling has become less accurate and online polling more so as fewer people answer phone calls and more and more people are online.”
"We believe this was a significant contributor to the inaccuracies seen at the election. Conducting surveys online will allow us to construct better samples, in terms of age, gender, and socio-economic representation."
WHAT TO EXPECT IN FINAL PARLIAMENTARY SITTINGS
Unions could soon be more easily deregistered and their officials disqualified, as the Morrison government eyes victory on an industrial relations bill.
The federal government is confident of securing the passage of its hotly contested “ensuring integrity” legislation through the Senate this week. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, the government’s lead negotiator, has been wrangling the Senate crossbench for several months.
Senator Cormann is confident Pauline Hanson, whose One Nation party controls two crucial votes, will help get the workplace laws over the line. “This is about making sure that we put our economy and jobs on the best possible trajectory for the future,” he told ABC radio.
“The continued lawlessness from some organisations is imposing a cost on the economy.” However, Senator Hanson insists her support is not guaranteed.
“I will take my time this week to actually sit down and have further talks with the unions,” she said.
“I am not going to be pushed or badgered or bullied or threatened by anyone - I don’t care whether it’s the government or the unions - I will make a decision that I think is right for the people of this country.”
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said no amount of amendments could improve the legislation.
“We want to defeat this legislation because it’s bad legislation, it can’t be made better,” he told reporters outside Parliament House.
Meanwhile, refugee medical transfer laws imposed against the federal government’s will could be unwound by the end of this week.
Parliament resumed today for the last sitting fortnight of the year, with the government intending to put its medevac repeal bill to a vote in the Senate. Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie will ultimately cast the deciding ballot.
Senator Lambie will meet with Prime Minister Scott Morrison today to discuss amendments that could ease her concerns about dismantling the medevac regime. The Senate crossbencher is also expected to meet with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
“Anything that’s got to do with humanity is always really, really difficult to have to take a vote on, so that’s why I’m taking a little bit longer than I know that many people would have hoped,” Senator Lambie said on Sunday.
“Hopefully, over the next few days, between myself and Peter Dutton, we can get this sorted and certainly get a vote taken.”
Senator Lambie has indicated she wants to land a deal that amends the system, without giving the government the full repeal that it wants.
“I think what you’ll find with medevac is it may not look like it does today,” she said.
More than 150 refugees and asylum seekers have come to Australia under the medevac laws.
The government also has a new-old addition to its ranks after Jim Molan was sworn in as a NSW senator, replacing Arthur Sinodinos, who has been appointed ambassador to the United States.
Senator-elect Molan lost his seat in May and has promised NSW Liberals he will only stay in parliament until the next election.
The lower house will deal with legislation to expand the cashless welfare card trials, require the ABC to focus more on regional areas, expand the presumption against bail for suspected terrorists, and changes to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.
It will also look at a private member’s bill from independent Andrew Wilkie on private health insurance and another from Bob Katter that would give the auditor-general the power to investigate big banks.
In the Senate, a Centre Alliance bill cracking down on robocalls during elections is among those up for scrutiny.
Originally published as Scott Morrison commits more than $500m to aged care following damning royal commission interim report
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