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Today the Greens put up our amendment to the government’s escalation pathway bill to finally put clinical human override back in aged care assessments. It was very disappointing to see the Coalition fold, and side with the government to defeat our amendment, and pass this half-measure unchanged.

The experts have been clear, this escalation pathway is entirely inadequate. It lets the Department mark its own homework and set its own rules. It doesn’t fix the broken Integrated Assessment Tool’s algorithm. And it doesn’t put clinicians back in control of assessments.

Our amendment was an opportunity to use the leverage of the Senate to secure human override and deliver fair outcomes for older Australians. But the Coalition folded, and voted with the government on this, even though they recognised in debate on the bill that “it does nothing to fix the problem”.