BILLS – Inspector-General of Aged Care Bill 2023, Inspector-General of Aged Care (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023 – In Committee

 Thank you. I really appreciate that information and especially the minister’s attention to the issue. Just briefly, I will more clearly outline this. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I said in my speech that I might be wrong on a lot of these things; I don’t pretend to be an expert on aged care. But my understanding is that the current exemptions that the government has can only go for 12 months, so Mount Morgan could only have got a 12-month exemption. Is that the case? If it is the case, that, to me, is not a long-term solution for a town like Mount Morgan, for the reasons I’ve outlined. There is just no way it’s going to be able to fill a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week registered nurse requirement, no matter how long you give it. The question I’m flagging is: is there consideration of giving more long-term exemptions? I recognise that might mean greater oversight of those places, but I would love to hear that there’s a determined effort to keep these homes open and to work with a small country town like Mount Morgan on what we can do to keep this home open and keep people like Mrs Sealey close to their loved ones, even if it means being a little flexible on the strict requirements that the government currently outlines.