Commissioners welcome Ombudsman probe of automated aged care assessments
Commissioners welcome the Ombudsman’s probe into automated aged care assessments, stressing the need for human oversight, fairness and accessible review.
Summary
- Commission welcomes Commonwealth Ombudsman's probe into Integrated Assessment Tool used in aged care.
- Scrutiny needed where automated decisions affect access to care and costs.
- Human oversight, along with transparency and review are essential to protect older people.
The Human Rights and Age Discrimination Commissioners welcome the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s decision, announced last week, to investigate the use of the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) in aged care.
What is the IAT
The IAT is a national digital system designed to make decisions about an older person's needs and their eligibility for home-based government-subsidised aged care services, as part of the government’s Support at Home program.
In practice, the IAT can shape decisions about what services a person can access, and how costs are shared between them and the government.
Independent scrutiny is critical where automated or algorithm-based systems are used in public administration in ways that shape access to services and have financial consequences. For older people, aged care assessments often determine both the level of support received and the costs they must meet, frequently at times of heightened vulnerability.
Practice concerns
Recent public reporting highlights concerns about how the Tool operates in practice. These include whether human reviewers are being prohibited from overriding automated decisions, and whether review pathways are accessible and effective when people’s circumstances change or errors detected.
Experience across Australia’s public systems shows that risks arise when automated tools are used to make significant decisions, particularly where they materially shape outcomes, are difficult to explain or navigate. Even where tools do not explicitly take age or other protected attributes into account, the use of data patterns and correlations can produce unequal or unfair outcomes that are difficult for people to identify or challenge.
Australia’s human rights framework requires that governments and decision-makers respect equality and guard against discrimination. People affected by decisions must also be given enough information to understand those decisions and access meaningful review.
These obligations do not diminish when technology is introduced into government processes. Responsibility remains with the public institutions that design and implement on such systems, to protect the rights of the people who rely on their outcomes.
Assessing safeguards
The Commission has consistently emphasised that AI-informed decision-making in government must operate within clear legal authority and be supported by effective human oversight, transparency and review. These principles are directly relevant to digital tools used in aged care, where decisions have enduring consequences for people’s dignity and wellbeing.
The Ombudsman's investigation provides an important opportunity to examine whether current practices reflect these standards and where safeguards need to be strengthened.
As governments continue to adopt automated tools across service delivery, ensuring that decision-making remains human-centred, understandable and open to review is central to protecting older Australians.
Media contact
Email: media@humanrights.gov.au or phone: 0457 281 897
