AUSTRALIA | The newly appointed Aged Care Quality and Safety Complaints Commissioner, Treasure Jennings, has been welcomed by COTA Australia.
COTA Australia has welcomed the appointment of Treasure Jennings as Aged Care Quality and Safety Complaints Commissioner, saying it is an important step to ensuring all older Australians get the quality aged care they deserve.
Treasure Jennings will take on the new role on 1 November, coinciding with the new aged care reforms.
Patricia Sparrow, Chief Executive of COTA Australia, the leading advocacy organisation for older people, said having Treasure Jennings in the important role of Complaints Commissioner will help ensure the rights of older people accessing aged care are front and centre of the system.
“Central to improving the way aged care is delivered in Australia is having a robust, independent, mechanism for hearing and dealing with complaints,” Sparrow said.
“We welcome Treasure Jennings’ appointment to this crucial role.”
COTA, along with other organisations, advocated strongly for an independent Complaints Commissioner because it believed it was essential to ensure the rights of older people are upheld.
“Having a Complaints Commissioner is important in order to restore trust in the system. Treasure Jennings, with her very strong track record of leading consumer complaints and dispute resolution processes, is well-positioned to help uphold the rights of older people in aged care,” added Sparrow.
“There’s still a way to go when it comes to ensuring we have the aged care system all Australians expect and deserve, but this is yet another positive step towards that.”
COTA Australia also recently welcomed the Age Pension indexation increase and noted the Government’s decision to stage increases to deeming rates, a move which, while not without concern, will give older Australians greater certainty to plan and budget.
“Older people have told us that they want visibility of the government’s intentions to give them the opportunity to forecast and plan ahead. The staged approach to the deeming changes and the announcement ahead of its impact shows that the Minister has been listening.”
The Government has stated that the changes to the deeming rate will reflect rates of return that pensioners and other payment recipients can reasonably access on their investments.
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