Things could be a little frosty between aged-care commissioners Tony Pagone and Lynelle Briggs as they sit down to the unenviable task of finalising their royal commission report to government, due in February.
On Thursday, they had a brief if significant public spat over an element of the new aged-care system being proposed by the commission’s counsels assisting, Peter Rozen and Peter Gray.
Summarising a 500-page submission, Rozen and Gray outlined an ambitious plan for aged care, basically abandoning the old system and building a new one all but from scratch.
It is premised on some important themes, including a new Aged Care Act enshrining that older Australians have a universal right to receive safe, timely and quality care. Aged care should no longer be rationed, they argue. If the need is there to help someone live an active, meaningful life, it should be provided. No arguments so far.
Mindful of what they described as the failure of successive governments to deliver the quality Australians want, which is more and more in their own home, and citing horror stories in nursing homes, the lawyers proposed the creation of a new body, the Aged Care Commission, which would sit independent from government.
It would have a wide brief, including approving organisations providing aged-care services, regulating the quality and safety of care, and dispensing aged-care funding to providers.
Ms Briggs pulled them up Humphrey Appleby-style, labelling the idea “courageous”.
Separating the government from $20bn without it having “clear oversight” of where the money went would be a hard sell.
Mr Pagone chipped Ms Briggs for the use of courageous, saying the public should not think her views represented the commission’s final position. In fact, he added, he was more of a mind to accept the counsels’ propositions.
This is an important schism on a two-person commission, as the Aged Care Commission is a fundamental building block of the broader reform package put to them by counsel assisting.
There is much solid thinking in the new recommendations, but on an Aged Care Commission they may have bitten off a bit much. Given expectations are sky high that the royal commission’s report will chart a new path for aged care, let’s hope the commissioners find common ground.
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