EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 427
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
NATIONAL HEALTH ACT 1953
NATIONAL HEALTH REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 140 of the National Health Act 1953 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters which are required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-section 47(1) of the Act provides that Commonwealth benefit at the rates, or such higher rates, as are prescribed by regulations, is payable to the proprietor of an approved nursing home, in respect of each qualified nursing home patient, for each day on which the patient receives nursing home care in that nursing home. The rates of benefit for each State and Territory have been increased annually by regulations since 1977, the last such general increase having taken effect on 1 November 1984.
Since the increase in the rates of Commonwealth benefit for nursing home care throughout Australia from 1 November 1984, legislation has come into force in Western Australia which increases the statutory minimum staffing levels for nursing homes in that State. Increased costs in the provision of nursing home care arising from the new requirements have required a compensatory increase of $4 per day in the rate of Commonwealth benefit in respect of Western Australia.
The regulations amend Regulation 28A of the National Health Regulations to provide for the rate of Commonwealth benefit in respect of Western Australia to be increased from $27.55 to $31.55 per day.
The regulations came into operation on 15 December 1984.