The Coalition will introduce legislation to restore human decision-making in the aged care assessment process to fix a glaring failure in Labor’s aged care reforms.
The Federal Member for Hinkler David Batt MP has told Parliament that elderly Hinkler residents deserve a fair go.
“Hundreds in Hinkler are on waiting lists to enter the aged-care system, but the system is broken,” Mr Batt said.
“We must put the assessor back in charge and make sure decisions about aged care belongs to the human, not the computer.
Hinkler is the third oldest electorate in the country with an average age of 49. Almost 40 per cent of the electorate is living with one or more long term health setbacks.”
The Aged Care Amendment (Restoring Human Override for Aged Care Needs Assessments) Bill 2026 will be introduced by Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Senator Anne Ruston to amend the Aged Care Act 2024 and ensure that any computerised tool supports – rather than replaces – the judgment of qualified needs assessors.
Senator Ruston said the Coalition will not stand by while more older Australians were shortchanged on the care they deserve.
At Senate Estimates it was revealed the Albanese Government’s aged care assessment algorithm, known as the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), was rolled out without consultation, without a trial and without any mechanism for trained professionals to override its decisions.
Department officials also confirmed there had been 989 requests for review of the IAT decisions in the five months since it was introduced on 1 November 2025. Under the previous assessment system there were only 170 review requests for the full 2024-25 financial year – a fivefold increase in half the time.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has also launched a formal investigation into the tool and Australia’s peak geriatric medicine body had declared the IAT a clinical safety issue.
The Bill makes three targeted amendments to the Aged Care Act 2024:
- It restores the discretion of qualified assessors to vary algorithm outputs where their clinical judgment indicates an error;
- It requires classification decision notices to detail how the tool was used and how professional judgment informed the outcome; and
- it creates a right of reassessment for anyone assessed since the faceless algorithm’s introduction on 1 November 2025 and who believes it produced an inaccurate result.
“We urge the Albanese Government to take up our Bill and immediately restore human override into this life altering assessment process,” Senator Ruston said.
“But it should only be a first step as it’s clear the IAT is fundamentally flawed and the Government needs to go back to the drawing board to improve outcomes for older Australians as a priority.”