Aged Care (Consequential and Transitional Provisions)

The Transitional Bill engages the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health by ensuring individuals who entered the aged care system under the Aged Care Act 1997 (the old Act) can continue to receive the same level of care under the Aged Care Bill. Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the Transitional Bill deals with transitioning individuals, where individuals who were approved under the old Act to receive residential care, home care, or flexible care, or were approved for the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) or the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care (NATSIFAC) Program, will be transitioned to the new system under decisions that the System Governor is taken to have made under the Aged Care Bill in relation to eligibility determinations, decisions that the individuals require access to funded aged care services and classification types that correspond to the type of care they were receiving under the old Act. This ensures individuals will continue to be able to access health facilities and goods, including nursing and personal care services, medication management services, therapeutic and allied health services and leisure and interest activities. The objectives of the Transitional Bill are therefore consistent with the right to health as they ensure continuity of care for those currently accessing aged care services under the old Act.

Under the new Act, only registered providers can deliver funded aged care services. Therefore, all current active approved providers must become registered providers under the new Act to ensure continuity of services for older people. This Part will facilitate the automatic transition of current Commonwealth-funded providers, including approved providers and those funded through CHSP and NATSIFAC, to registered providers under the new model, without the need for any administrative process prior to the new Act commencing, through a process called deeming. Through the deeming process, the department will move providers to the new registration categories based on the current services they deliver or in line with the services their funding agreement requires at the time of deeming. Deeming allows for a planned, orderly transition between regulatory frameworks that will maintain the continuity of service, ensuring all older people receiving care experience no interruption in the aged care services on which they rely.

New clauses 85ZZGP, 85ZZGQ and 85ZZGR provide prescribed persons and bodies with exemptions to Divisions 2 and 3 of Part VIIC of the Crimes Act, which would otherwise prevent the disclosure and consideration of pardons for persons wrongly convicted, quashed convictions and spent convictions.

In response to Royal Commission recommendation 88, clause 2 omits references to the old Act and the Commission Act in Schedule 3 to the FOI Act. This ensures that the exemption in section 38 of the FOI Act, which prevents the public disclosure of documents covered by secrecy provisions, will no longer apply to the old Act and the Commission Act. Existing provisions within the FOI Act will continue to provide protection to personal information and business affairs.

Subclause 65(3) limits the timeframe under which rules made for the purposes of subclause 65(2) may be made to 12 months starting from the transition time, however, it does not limit subitem 65(2) in any other manner.