Aged Care (Conditions for Residential Care Allocations) Determination 2014 [F2014L00433]-New and continuing matters [2014] AUSStaCSDLM 107 (18 June 2014)

• Aged Care (Conditions for Residential Care Allocations) Determination 2014 [F2014L00433]

Aged Care (Conditions for Residential Care Allocations) Determination 2014 [F2014L00433]

Purpose	Removes the distinction between high care and low care residential aged care places from 1 July 2014
Last day to disallow	15 July 2014
Authorising legislation	Aged Care Act 1997
Department	Social Services

Issue:

Insufficient description regarding consultation

Section 17 of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 directs a rule-maker to be satisfied that appropriate consultation, as is reasonably practicable, has been undertaken in relation to a proposed instrument, particularly where that instrument is likely to have an effect on business. Section 18, however, provides that in some circumstances such consultation may be unnecessary or inappropriate. The ES which must accompany an instrument is required to describe the nature of any consultation that has been carried out or, if there has been no consultation, to explain why none was undertaken (section 26). With reference to these requirements, the committee notes that the ES for the instrument states:

The Department has consulted on this change as part of the aged care reforms.

While the committee does not usually interpret section 26 as requiring a highly detailed description of consultation undertaken, its usual approach is to consider an overly bare or general description, such as in this case, as not being sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003. The committee therefore requests further information from the minister and requests that the ES be updated in accordance with the requirements of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.