Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This change to the PBI status affects local government and nursing homes. Because nursing homes are not benevolent societies and are run by local governments, they are affected by this ruling in a big way. In my electorate of Hindmarsh, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get nursing home beds in the western suburbs, but to be losing staff as well makes it even harder for us to recruit and to get the nursing home beds that are required in the area. With a bit of incentive, as was recommended by The blame game: report on the inquiry into health funding, we might be able to retain staff by offering better facilities in one of the oldest electorates in the country. This would ensure that we had enough aged-care beds for those people who need them. Currently, because land is fairly expensive in the inner western suburbs, new nursing home beds are being provided in outer suburbs. This is making it very difficult for people to stay in their community with their loved ones and others whom they want to remain close to.

If staff in these nursing homes are not getting the same tax breaks as other employees in the health industry, they will be attracted by ‘sweeteners’ or packages to leave these institutions to work in other areas. This will cause a loss of employees in the sector. There is a shortage of nursing home employees. This sector has one of the highest turnover rates of staff. We want to maintain those staff and the good facilities offered by the nursing homes that are run by local governments in my electorate and all around Australia. One of the recommendations of the report into health funding was that the government take this issue into consideration. Recently in parliament we tabled a petition with over 1,000 signatures which called for that recommendation to be taken into account by the government. Perhaps the minister could look at this area and let us know where we are heading with it so that we can at least maintain some of the staff who are already working in these nursing homes and also maintain some of these good institutions and their facilities. These institutions do a lot of good work, not only in my electorate in South Australia but all over Australia. I would appreciate a response from the minister at some stage, although he might not be able to give one off the cuff if it is an issue he is not aware of.

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