This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Aged-care minister Ken Wyatt is open to placing security cameras in all nursing home rooms so any potential abuses can be detected.

Wyatt is also supportive of a star-rating system for residential aged-care facilities, ahead of a royal commission into the sector, which will begin by the end of this year.

However, the federal government has distanced itself from a union proposal to legislate staffing levels.

The minister believes were it not for secret cameras hidden in aged-care suites by family members, several high-profile cases of violence and neglect would never have come to light.

He acknowledges there are privacy concerns around installing mandatory cameras, but says the discussion is not off the table.

“I can appreciate the families who are very strongly supportive now of cameras within those rooms,” Wyatt told ABC radio on Tuesday, a day after Four Corners broadcast hidden camera footage from inside aged-care facilities.

“None of this would have been known – without that footage – as to how those individuals were treated.”

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The minister is on board with an aged care star-rating system similar to the My School website, which profiles almost 10,000 Australian schools.

Wyatt said the majority of aged-care facilities provide quality service, but there is an “insidious” side to some centres which the public does not see.

A rating system would be considered, similar to that operating in the UK, he said.

Wyatt is also considering ordering safety and compliance officers to perform unannounced night-time spot checks on residential centres, to make sure the number of staff and levels of care are adequate.

Submissions to the aged-care royal commission close on Tuesday.

The minister will then hold a series of meetings to finalise the terms of reference and identify the commissioners, with a view to kicking off the inquiry this year.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says the commission will investigate staffing levels, but pointed out two previous inquiries into the sector rejected minimum requirements.

“But you know, it’s not for me to pre-judge what the royal commission thinks is a good way to go forward,” he told reporters in Sydney.

Morrison said Australians were increasingly going into residential aged care at a much more acute level of need, and high standards were important.

Council on the Ageing’s Ian Yates said the commission must investigate appropriate penalties for neglect, excessive restraint and abuse in residential aged care.

Yates said the inquiry must also examine the need for more effective monitoring of staff and use of CCTV cameras.

He wants older Australians and their families to be able to easily see the history of complaints and serious incidents levelled against nursing homes, to guide their decision-making.