William John Newbold, 80, was arrested on Friday and charged with aggravated sexual assault
An 80-year-old man charged with sexually assaulting an 87-year-old woman in a Sydney aged care home has been released on bail.
William John Newbold was arrested on Friday and initially refused bail.
Continue reading...KPMG was among the four firms to have had reports rejected, a Senate inquiry heard, putting pressure on abandoning future outsourcing altogether
Four consultancy firms that were paid more than $40m to audit quality and safety in aged care homes have had reports rejected because they did not meet the standard required by the federal government.
The aged care quality and safety commissioner, Janet Anderson, has told a Senate inquiry the firms were “held to account” for their work and that there is an ongoing review about whether to rely on them as heavily in the future.
Continue reading...Michael Keating to call for revenue review at Australia Institute summit as Labor provides update on multinational tax avoidance
Australia’s taxes are “inadequate” to finance government responsibilities including for aged care and defence, a former head of the finance department has warned.
Michael Keating, the secretary of the Department of Finance from 1986 to 1991, will call for a review of revenue at the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute’s revenue summit on Friday. The call is aimed at sparking debate about methods to close the tax gap including congestion charging, lifting and broadening the goods and services tax and adjusting the stage-three income tax cuts.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Watchdog contracted third-party providers to conduct audits despite a review warning it was a ‘significant risk’
More than two-thirds of safety and quality inspections at aged care homes have been outsourced to consultancy firms, despite warnings this presented a “significant risk” and that some contractors underestimated the standards of work required.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSA) audits residential facilities to ensure they are meeting mandated standards. Since 2021, four firms have been paid more than $40m for this work, which includes conducting interviews and searches.
Continue reading...Australians are expected to live longer and remain healthier to an older age, while having fewer children over the next 40 years
Australia’s population is forecast to grow at its slowest rate since federation, the latest intergenerational report from Treasury has found.
The report, which forecasts what the next four decades will look like, has found population growth is projected to slow to an annual average of 1.1% over the next 40 years, compared to 1.4% over the past four decades.
Continue reading...Consulting firm’s contract to audit the Morrison government’s workforce bonus program remains suspended, department confirms
PwC Australia did not disclose any real or perceived conflicts of interest to the federal government before it was awarded a $2.3m aged care contract that has been suspended since June amid a continuing investigation.
The firm was contracted by the Department of Health and Aged Care to audit the Morrison government’s workforce bonus program, which provided two pre-election payments in 2022 worth up to $800 to attract and retain staff in the struggling aged care sector.
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Continue reading...The 95-year-old died after she was Tasered during a confrontation with police at a nursing home in Cooma in May
Documents show New South Wales police removed mention of paramedics, a knife and a Taser in their first statement about the Tasering of a 95-year-old grandmother.
Clare Nowland was Tasered during a confrontation with police while walking with a frame and holding a steak knife at the Yallambee Lodge in Cooma on 17 May, according to subsequent police statements.
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Continue reading...Anika Wells says taskforce will include consideration of levies but government ‘still not advocating any particular proposal’
The aged care minister, Anika Wells, says Australians want more “choice” on aged care and would be prepared to pay for it, as the government mulls the introduction of a user-pays system.
Wells told ABC’s Insiders the Albanese government’s position on aged care was consistent, playing down calls for a levy before the election because it was “still not advocating any particular proposal”, merely establishing a taskforce which will consider how to make aged care sustainable.
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Continue reading...Treasurer points finger at inflation, adding ‘people are under pressure and the global economic conditions are not helping either’. Follow live
Parts of Victoria and South Australia are being warned to expect heavy rainfall today.
The heavy rain that’s already hit Western Australia is sweeping across the country, with South Australia’s Riverland and Murraylands warned to brace for heavy rainfall to last until Friday.
We want to see productivity get going. We have had the worst decade, I think, in productivity growth in the last 60 years in the previous decade so there’s a lot of work to do. We can’t turn that around in one year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: spokesperson says six units more will open by the end of 2024 but declines questions about cause of delay
Just 12 of a promised 35 specialist dementia units the government committed to have running by 2023 are operational, a health department spokesman has said.
To respond to a growing number of people with dementia and suffering from severe behavioural and psychological symptoms, the federal government in 2016 announced the Specialist Dementia Care Program [SDCP].
Continue reading...Dr Kay Patterson questions whether mental health team would be more appropriate while David Shoebridge says police tools are ‘wrong resource’
The age discrimination commissioner has said the deployment of police officers to respond to incidents in aged care homes should be reviewed after the Tasering of 95-year-old Claire Nowland.
Nowland, who weighs 43kg and lives with dementia, was Tasered by police after she was found armed with a steak knife in her home at an aged care facility in Cooma. She is in end-of-life care at Cooma district hospital after the incident caused her to fall and sustain life-threatening head injuries.
Continue reading...Calls for reform grow with daughter of patient saying families should be notified when police are deployed to aged care homes
A family who say they were not told when police were deployed to help control their 79-year-old mother in a Sydney dementia unit are calling for a change to make it mandatory for family to be notified about the use of law enforcement.
On 4 June 2020, paramedics attempted to subdue an agitated Norma Robertson, who had only been in the care of the dementia unit at HammondCare in a Sydney suburb for about four weeks.
Continue reading...Woman, 95, is surrounded by family and still in critical condition as calls grow for broader investigation of police treatment of dementia sufferers
Clare Nowland, the aged care resident who was Tasered by a police officer in Cooma last week, remains in a “heavy sleep” and is comfortable, surrounded by her family, who held a bedside mass for her on Sunday as she continues to receive end-of-life care.
Calls grew on Monday for a broader independent investigation of police treatment of dementia sufferers after revelations in the Guardian that six officers handcuffed a second nursing home resident, Rachel Grahame, in 2020 after she took a staff member’s lanyard.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: footage from body-worn camera shows police restraining confused dementia patient Rachel Grahame in 2020
Six police officers used two sets of handcuffs on a distressed and frail 81-year-old woman with dementia after she took a lanyard from a staff member at her Sydney nursing home.
Body-worn camera footage shows Rachel Grahame, who has advanced dementia and weighs just 45kg, howling in distress as a team of police surround and handcuff her late at night at St Basil’s aged care home in Randwick on 31 October 2020.
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Senators Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell have agreed to back the government’s housing affordability legislation.
The housing minister, Julie Collins, has told ABC Radio the deal was struck after the government agreed to build 1,200 social housing homes in every state and territory:
We’ve agreed to make sure that every state and territory gets a fair share of housing from the housing future funding from other federal government programs.
What we want to do is make sure that every state and territory gets their fair share of funding.
Many of these deaths occurred in the home. There is opportunity for others present to avert death and reverse the effects of an opioid overdose if they administer a medicine called naloxone.
The Australian Government has funded the availability of naloxone for free, without a prescription, for anyone who may be at risk of witnessing or experiencing an overdose.
Continue reading...Former royal commission adviser says ‘no reason’ money from providers can’t be transferred to affiliated companies, which could be used for purposes other than aged care
Aged care providers should not be allowed to charge wealthy residents higher fees until they can demonstrate the money goes towards providing care, a former senior advisor to the royal commission has warned.
Industry lobbyists and one of the biggest aged care providers in Australia believe the change would help address a funding crisis in residential aged care, improve conditions and boost staffing levels.
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Continue reading...Analyst suggests some in the industry are misleading the public about their financial position to demand higher fees
Australia’s aged care industry has been accused of misleading the public about its finances, with analysis revealing one of Australia’s biggest providers recorded significant earnings and acquisitions last financial year, despite reporting a loss.
The sector has pointed to data from accounting firm StewartBrown showing 70% of providers are running deficits to lobby for more federal funding, but industry analysts say it is an unreliable reflection of the sector’s financial performance.
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Continue reading...Board of treasurers’ submission to employment white paper taskforce suggests making training flexible and promoting regional jobs
Targeting men to work in the child, aged and disability care sectors is one idea proposed by the state treasurers to boost productivity, challenge gender stereotypes and address workforce shortages.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will release more than 400 submissions made to the employment white paper taskforce on Saturday.
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Addressing gender stereotypes, workforce shortages and productivity in the care sector by targeting mid-career men for retraining and upskilling.
Making training for the job you want (as opposed to the job you have) tax deductible.
Providing incentives for employers to hire employees from underrepresented cohorts.
Creating pathways for First Nations people to work on major regional projects.
Exploring incentives for university graduates and highly skilled migrants to work in regional areas.
Continue reading...Health department data shows deaths have progressively increased from October, with 738 outbreaks now active in facilities
The number of Covid deaths in residential aged care has again surpassed 100 a week, spiking to levels not seen in months.
Health department data, published late on Friday, shows 738 outbreaks are now active in residential aged care facilities, down from 915 outbreaks in the week to 23 December.
Continue reading...Greens senator David Shoebridge has criticised notable absences at a Senate committee looking at privacy laws today. Follow the day’s news live
ADF personnel to help in NSW as government works on dedicated disaster workforce
Murray Watt is asked about a permanent disaster workforce to assist during national disasters and their clean-up, given the pressure put on the defence force.
The ADF does certainly play a role, particularly in the recovery phase. And just yesterday we activated more defence forces to go into western New South Wales to assist so over the next couple of days, we expect to see 200 defence force personnel helping there to top up these state-based services. But the reality is all of this is putting a huge amount of pressure, whether it be on those state-based services or the ADF. And that’s why in this budget, we committed over $30m to a volunteer veteran organisation called Disaster Relief Australia to sort of top up the kind of services that are available for communities, particularly in that clean-up phase.
But we’re going to be keeping on doing some work on this about what we need to put in place as a country to supplement the ADF and I’d be hopeful that we might be able to bring that to a conclusion around about the budget next year.
There’s insurance costs so let alone the huge damage bill that individuals are going to be incurring themselves.
So I think everyone is unfortunately going to be having to put their hands in their pockets for for this unfolding event that just won’t go away.
So even if we weren’t to get any more rain, we’re going to be looking at even more damage from the existing flood waters. And, as I say, I think we’re likely to see more. We’ve also got to remember that we haven’t yet seen the cyclone season start whether that be in north Queensland, Western Australia or Northern Territory. So unfortunately I haven’t got a lot of good news for people except for the fact that there is unlikely to be a lot of rain over the next couple of days. So that’s a good thing.
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