Senator CROSSIN (2:16 PM) —My question is to Senator Patterson, representing the Minister for Ageing. Senator, what action does the government propose to take to reduce the paperwork burden directly brought about by the Howard government's introduction of the resident classification scale, which has created an additional four million hours of paperwork for aged care staff every year?

Senator PATTERSON (Minister for Health and Ageing) —It is interesting to me that Labor seem to have taken an interest in aged care. When I was shadow minister, I went out to various aged care facilities and saw some of the disastrous situations and noted the fact that we required a large number of facilities. The Gregory report indicated that standards had not been reached in nursing homes, that there were insufficient nursing homes, that there was a lack of capital funding, and that there were not appropriate accreditation or certification standards. The coalition felt that work needed to be done to ensure that older people within our community were cared for in an appropriate manner. Some of the nursing homes that I visited when I was shadow minister were, I thought, totally unacceptable in Australia.

During the term of the Howard government, we have put in place accreditation processes which mean that we have raised the standards of nursing homes. I admit that there has been some concern, and it has been expressed to me by people working in nursing homes, that the paperwork load can detract from the work they are undertaking with their residents. But it is very difficult to get a balance. There was the same complaint, when I was shadow minister, that there was too much paperwork. It is hard to get a balance in a Commonwealth funded facility between ensuring that people achieve standards and ensuring that what we ask to be done is done and is recorded. When Labor were in government, there were people running nursing homes and there was a lack of information. I have always given credit where it is due: Labor did make some reforms, especially to hostels, but they failed to carry it through to nursing homes. There were changes to hostels which were improvements, but they were not able to carry it through to nursing homes.

We have seen incredible changes in the standards in nursing homes. Minister Andrews and I have discussed this issue, and I know that he is looking at it very carefully, but it is a very difficult balance to achieve to ensure that we have accountability for very large amounts of Commonwealth funding.

Senator CROSSIN —Madam President, I ask a supplementary question. Minister, my question went to excessive paperwork—in excess of four million hours per year. My supplementary question is: why has the government tied trained aged care staff to the desk instead of allowing them to provide high quality care to the vulnerable and the elderly? Isn't it a fact that 63 per cent of nurses surveyed by the Australian Nursing Federation nominated excessive documentation as one of the primary reasons why they did not want to work in, or had ceased working in, aged care, with the result being an estimated shortage of 5,000 qualified nurses in the sector? Given that the Howard government belatedly acted to address small business anger towards the BAS, why hasn't the government also acted to remove the paperwork burden on aged care staff and to free them up to do what they do best: provide quality care to residents?

Senator PATTERSON (Minister for Health and Ageing) —As I have said before, each service has to have appropriate records of the care needs of each individual. We have to be assured that the services are delivered to them and that we have in place a system of documentation that will meet professional nursing requirements.

The resident classification scale industry liaison group has been exploring ways to assist the industry to apply the RCS appropriately. Minister Andrews is currently considering the release of a video to assist industry to streamline documentation, and he is addressing it assiduously to ensure that it is not too onerous. But we always have to remember that we must have accountability in a system where we require standards to be met and that we are not funding facilities that are below standard.