EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Ageing
Aged Care Act 1997
Information Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1)
The Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) provides for the funding of aged care services. Persons who are approved under the Act to provide residential aged care services (approved providers) can be eligible to receive residential care subsidy payments in respect of the care they provide to approved care recipients.
Subsection 96-1(1) of the Act allows the Minister to make Principles providing for various matters required or permitted by a Part or section of the Act.
The Information Principles 1997 (the Information Principles) is one of the sets of Principles made under the Act.
The purpose of the Information Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1) (the Amending Principles) is detailed below. The Amending Principles are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
Information Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1)
The Aged Care Amendment (2008 Measures No. 1) Act 2008 amended the Act and related legislation to simplify, and make fairer, the fees and charges paid by residents of aged care facilities as well as the subsidies paid by the Commonwealth Government for residents who cannot fully meet their own care and accommodation costs.
Some more minor changes to the legislation were also made to improve consistency and clarity, address unintended consequences of the operation of the legislation, and streamline the administration of the legislation.
These minor amendments included updating outdated references to other legislation that interacts with the Act (for example, social security legislation) and also updating outdated references to the names of Departments responsible for administering such legislation.
The purpose of these Amending Principles is to make similar changes to the Information Principles.
Consultation
These amendments result from machinery of government changes, and therefore, consultation on these changes is not required.
Details of the amendments to the Principles are listed at Attachment A.
ATTACHMENT A
NOTES ON CLAUSES
Clause 1 states that the name of the amending Principles is the Information Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1).
Clause 2 states that the Principles commence on 20 March 2008.
Clause 3 states that Schedule 1 amends the Information Principles.
Schedule 1 Amendments
Item 1
Section 16.5 of the Information Principles sets out the circumstances in which the Secretary of the Department of Health and Ageing may disclose protected information to other individuals and organisations.
Paragraphs 16.5(1)(a) and (b) currently contain outdated references to the Secretary of the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
This item updates these references.
Paragraphs 16.5(1)(a) also refers to the disclosure of information for the purpose of working out whether any amount is payable to a person as rent assistance under the Social Security Act 1991. As a result of changes to social security legislation, rent assistance is now worked out under both the Social Security Act 1991 and the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999. This item therefore updates paragraph 16.5(1)(a) accordingly.
Item 2
This item replaces the existing note at the end of section 16.5 with a new note. The existing note contains information about rent assistance and also about offences.
The effect of this amendment is to remove the note relating to rent assistance. This is because the current note contains complicated and outdated references to the provisions in social security legislation that relate to rent assistance.
The amendments also update the note in relation to offences so that it aligns with changes that were made to the Act as the result of the Aged Care Amendment (2008 Measures No. 1) Act 2008. These changes simply update references to Departments so that they do not date.