It takes real courage to speak truth to power. Frank and fearless advice may be a public service aspiration, but all too often it is clothed in easy-to-misunderstand bureaucratese. So when a statutory officer decides to use plain, clear language to call out fundamental flaws in the legislation she is charged with overseeing, it is important to pause and really listen.

That is what Natalie Siegel-Brown did in her first report to the parliament as the inspector general of aged care.

The human rights lawyer, former public guardian and productivity commissioner says she is thrilled that the new Aged Care Act is couched in never-before-seen language, respecting the human rights of older Australians and codifying these rights in law. But she worries about the yawning gap between promise and delivery, that the low-hanging fruit of the old system may have been lopped but the structural flaws remain in place and may even be exacerbated.

Siegel-Brown declared “despite the volume and pace of reform, a number of actions that would have seeded transformational change have not yet been delivered. Other actions are not actively being considered, and indeed the manner of implementation in some areas may bring about unintended consequences.”

The second part of the report details the responses to each of the 148 recommendations but, as the first part of the report demonstrates, this misses the “transformational, whole-of-system change called for by the royal commission”.

We should all be grateful that the person charged with overseeing the delivery of the aged care reforms recommended by the royal commission is a straight-talking Queenslander. We should urge the government to pay serious attention and respond........

© The Guardian