Source: The Guardian

The federal government’s push to deploy algorithmic and automated decision-making across services is producing concrete harms in aged care, with the department of ageing’s automated integrated assessment tool (IAT) failing after only ten months and operating without human oversight or override options. The article reports that state health officials compiled spreadsheets documenting inappropriate and “misaligned IAT outcomes” (NSW), and quotes the head of WA Health warning that “without a pathway for discretion, a small but vulnerable group of older people might experience catastrophic outcomes while waiting for algorithmically determined access to services.” The piece links these operational failures to legal and regulatory gaps: current reforms and the proposed digital duty of care do not require disclosure of business rules or algorithms nor a right to human review, and fall short of robodebt royal commission recommendations.

The commentary notes broader governance moves—hundreds of thousands of public servants trained in AI, a requirement for every department/agency to appoint a chief AI officer by July, and a December deadline to update privacy statements where AI is used—while highlighting that the information commissioner found few departments declared their use of AI. It contrasts the Aged Care Act’s opening commitments to dignity, respect and independence (the act came into effect last November) with backend implementation that reduces rights to “transactions” and complaints mechanisms that are not fully legally enforceable. Kate Chaney’s private member’s bill is identified as the sole significant parliamentary pushback mentioned in the piece.