Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank members for staying behind to support this matter of public importance. It is time for the greater Commonwealth involvement that has been talked about for so many years not only in this place but right throughout the pubs and clubs of Australia for many years. There is now an urgent need for the Prime Minister and the government to deliver on their health and hospital reform package. The term ‘takeover’ is one that seems to have taken over this debate. I do not think it really matters whether it is a takeover not. What we all certainly want to see is greater Commonwealth involvement—in whatever form, but hopefully one showing greater care and responsibility for the taxes that Australians are paying and for the desire of the Australian community to see the money that washes through the Commonwealth deliver real and practical outcomes on the ground for residents and recipients of health care.

I start by noting aged-care concerns. On the mid-North Coast of New South Wales we are the litmus test for this country. We are Australia in 20 years time. We are the demographics that everyone is saying Australia will be in 20 years time. It is critically important that we get aged-care funding right on the mid-North Coast and that we get it right over the coming 20 years for this country. The Intergenerational report released in the last fortnight by government once again affirmed the importance of this issue.

I want to highlight the way aged-care packages are distributed to local communities such as mine. Whilst we all in this place would take more residential packages for our electorates, the way of the future is the Community Aged Care Packages and the EACH packages, both of which provide for low-level or high-level care within the community to allow people to live as independently as possible for as long as possible. We have received on the mid-North Coast a good round of CACP and EACH packages, but if we are going to tackle this issue seriously there need to be greater resources provided through the Expenditure Review Committee and the budget process, particularly on the low- and high-care CACP and EACH packages. Please, Government, take that on board and find money wherever possible for regional aged-care living and for better independent lifestyle outcomes. Those two types of packages at a community level are critically important.

The other aged-care issue I want to raise in this health and hospital reform context is the enormous frustration in my community—and I imagine it is shared throughout the country—about aged-care type patients taking up beds in the public health system, which shows a complete breakdown of Commonwealth-state relations. There is this bed block because of a lack of aged-care places, therefore placing enormous pressure on the public hospital system and leading to less than optimum clinical outcomes for communities such as mine. If there is one change that the Commonwealth could make with regard to health and hospital reform, it is resolving the issue of aged-care type patients being in beds in the public hospital system of this country. It is a lower level of appropriate care for the aged-care patients involved, who do not need to be in hospital. It is also placing enormous strain and pressure on an already strained and pressured public hospital system. Please make sure that is part of this upcoming package.

The third issue I want to mention with regard to aged care is the national insurance scheme Bill Shorten has been talking about. Whilst it is targeted specifically at people with disabilities, if taken up it will be a complementary program with regard to many aged-care services. I endorse the scheme and I congratulate the member for Maribyrnong for the work he has done. It will expand the amount of resources available within communities such as mine and it will help deal with the full range of issues and challenges faced by people who are ageing. Please, Government, make sure the upcoming health and hospital reforms include improvements in all three: the community packages, the aged-care type patients in the public hospital system and the national insurance scheme for people with disabilities.

With regard to hospitals in particular, I want to get on record the importance of the Commonwealth starting to take a bit of care with and control over the way Commonwealth taxes hit the ground in communities, particularly growth communities such as, again, the mid-North Coast of New South Wales. Every state, in every department, has a resource distribution formula. It is their own formula. It is based on a whole range of demographics in the field and, before you come to a place like this and start to look at the detail of what government does, you would just assume that state governments followed their own funding formula. Sadly, in growth areas such as the North Coast—and the member for Page will endorse this as well I hope—the state government does not follow its own funding formula.

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