The Australian Greens have demanded that Labor go back to the drawing board on aged care assessments after a damning Four Corners investigation revealed that the government's new assessment tool had been designed to under-assess need and priority.
The controversial Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), which uses an algorithm to automate decision-making, has repeatedly been shown to provide assessments that have left thousands of people without an appropriate level of funding for their care needs.
Last month Labor suffered a humiliating parliamentary defeat when the Senate passed a bill co-sponsored by the Greens to restore human override to the IAT.
Now, a Four Corners investigation has revealed the test has been designed in a way that systemically under-assesses older people with mental health conditions, cognition issues and frailty. Most of the questions asked in the test are not even considered in the outcome.
This tool was not live tested, and the department has been unable to name any clinical experts that validated it.
Comments As put by Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Greens Spokesperson for Older People:
"The Four Corners investigation is yet another damning indictment of Labor's reckless aged care reforms.
"Labor's aged care assessment tool is broken, and the problems go beyond a simple fix. The IAT needs to be scrapped.
"This is the same tool that has denied essential funding to older Australians with lifelong degenerative conditions like MND and dementia.
"This tool was untested, fatally flawed and implemented with the absolute minimum accountability - all in the name of cutting costs.
"Labor must replace the IAT with a new assessment tool that centres the human rights and care needs of older people.
"Instead of penny-pinching from older people and withholding essential care, Labor could choose to properly fund aged care by taxing gas corporations and making billionaires and the 1% pay their fair share."
