Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I conclude my remarks on the Aged Care Amendment Bill 2011. It is true that all we have gotten from Labor's so-called reforms in health has been overblown promises, overblown spending and new layers of bureaucracy, one after the next. Let us hope the legislation before us to make changes in the aged-care sector is more successful. There is provision for a review to be conducted in 2014-15. Aged care needs supportive policy. Currently it is overregulated, underfunded and facing huge challenges. I note that the explanatory memorandum for this bill states that it is difficult to quantify the regulatory impact of these amendments. This remains an ongoing concern for the coalition. This is a government that imposes additional regulatory burden on industry at every turn. The aged-care sector has almost been regulated to death. For those reasons I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes:

(a) objection to the growing burden of regulation being placed on the aged care sector by this Government and its impact on the ability of providers to make available affordable aged care places; and

(b) that the Government has broken its election promise to repeal one regulation for every new regulation; and

(2) calls on the Government to immediately adopt the Coalition’s commitment to reduce Commonwealth regulation by at least $1 billion per year."

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