Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Our population has been slowly ageing for the last 35 years. Since the 1970s, the number of people aged over 65 has increased by 143 per cent. In the four decades to 2045, the number of Australians aged 80 years and over—the bulk of aged-care residents—is projected to jump from 680,000 to 2.6 million. I know this is the reality in my electorate of Chisholm, where I have a significant aged population. The shift in the proportion of people aged over 80 in the next 35 years from 13.1 per cent to 24.8 per cent will be more marked than in the past due to the relatively lower growth of younger age groups.

In the immediate future, the rapid growth of the population aged 80 years and over will put enormous pressure on aged-care programs and facilities. Most of us see people come through the doors of our electorate offices facing this problem every day. So we know what the situation will be for the population in the immediate and long-term future. There are no surprises. The policy challenge is to prepare for these changes. The Treasurer released his great Intergenerational report some time ago, but we still have not seen great action on this front.

The government has conducted numerous reviews into aged care, but we still have not seen a great deal happen over the last 10 years. While I welcome the government’s announcement of $1.5 billion in funding for aged care over five years, and this motion before the House today, we have waited 10 years or until the sector is at crisis point—beyond crisis point—for it to happen. It has taken the government far too long to act, and it is a burden for the community and for those aged people who are sitting in acute care hospital beds and for the families who are trying to care for them. I spent last week moving my father from hospital into respite care and I can speak from firsthand experience about the traumas of trying to achieve this end.

In 10 years the Howard government has presided over a serious decline in the number of aged-care beds available. When Labor left government in 1996 there were 92 beds for every 1,000 people aged 70 years and over compared with only 85.6 now. In 1996 there was a surplus of 800 beds compared with a shortage of nearly 5,000 now. For the last 10 years the aged-care industry has been waiting for a decision to be made by the government on funding arrangements. Since 1997 there has been deep concern in the sector about whether they will be able to continue to provide aged-care services with government funding arrangements that they have been receiving. Three years ago Professor Warren Hogan, in his review of pricing arrangements in residential aged care, said that funding increases had to happen. The government has only acted now. The Howard government has created this aged-care funding mess. Bronwyn Bishop, who was minister for the portfolio at the time in 1997, planned to introduce bonds for all aged-care residents. But faced with a backlash from voters, who did not want to sell the family home for this purpose, the government retreated. Since that time we have had review after review but no action. As a result, no action has been taken to fix the problem. We have ended up with a patchwork funding system that does not work. And we are still waiting for a response to the Hogan review in respect of pricing.

While I welcome additional community aged care, because most people want to stay in their home and services in homes are greatly needed, the truth is that when people need a residential aged-care bed they need it straightaway and generally cannot wait. The government has consistently failed to provide sufficient residential aged care for frail and elderly Australians, and this continues with the latest measures announced by the government. While government members can wax lyrical about the progress that has been made in this area over the last few years, I can safely say that it has been too long coming and it is not good enough. There are still huge problems in the sector.

The 2005-06 Productivity Commission report on government services released in January shows that waiting times to get into a residential aged-care bed have increased significantly over time. Over 28 per cent of people who have been assessed as requiring a bed wait three months or more to actually receive one compared with 15 per cent in 2000. So, even though the Howard government continually claim that they have provided more aged-care places, they have failed to keep residential beds in proportion to the increased number of frail elderly in Australia. Many government reports have indicated that there is a crisis and a shortfall in places.

We have also seen the lack of provision of funding and skills within the area. We have seen numerous reports of exploitation of care workers who have been brought from overseas to work in nursing homes, because we simply have not provided enough aged-care nurses within the sector. And nor is there pay parity for those individuals. Attracting and retaining staff in aged care is one of the biggest issues facing aged-care providers. Under the Howard government, aged-care workforce planning is nonexistent and aged care is being compromised by the lack of trained aged-care workers. We should be providing the greatest benefit to our elderly Australians, who have looked after us in our greatest times of crisis. The elderly within my community are Australia’s great backbone, and we should be respecting them. (Time expired)

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