Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are here today to discuss a variety of appropriations put forward by the government in Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2010-2011 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2010-2011. I would like to take this opportunity to speak on an area where the government continues to lose its way, and that is the issue of aged care. Whilst there is, I note, $24 million for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, there is still a lot more that needs to be done. Aged care in Australia is a topic that is close to my heart. When I first arrived here I spoke about the importance of social connectedness and active ageing in my maiden speech. I said:

Just to put the potential impact—

of an ageing population—

into perspective, it is worth noting the statistics: by 2050, one in two voters will be aged over 50 and, by 2055, 78,000 Australians will be aged over 100. We need to acknowledge not only the cost but also the potential benefits of age. Australians aged 55 and over contribute an estimated $74.5 billion per annum through voluntary, unpaid and caring work. We must not dismiss their enormous contribution and potential. That is our challenge.

The ageing of our population is the biggest social issue facing Australia, and potentially one of our biggest fiscal issues. Our population is ageing rapidly, living longer and experiencing more complex health conditions. This is resulting in increasing and changing aged-care needs. Society itself is changing. We are experiencing a shift in the size and composition of households. As Bernard Salt points out, the time we spend in each phase of our lives has shifted inexorably. Whereas life used to consist of birth, childhood, adulthood, retirement and then death, technology and modern society now see us experiencing birth, childhood, teenage years, young adulthood, middle age, retirement and beyond. More and more, life after retiring from work is long, vibrant and full. It is no longer a matter of simply having a few years to put your affairs in order.

Whilst this, of course, can be a huge benefit to our society, it unquestionably affects the aged-care industry. There are more and more people needing these services and this demand will only continue to increase. And, unlike our parents, you can be sure that the soon-to-retire baby boomers will be very demanding and not accepting of basic care. There will also be fewer taxpayers to support this increased burden. The dependency ratio in 2007 was six working people to support every person aged 67 years and over, but by 2047 this will have almost halved to 3.2 people of working age. With fewer people generating taxation revenue, care options of concessional and assisted aged-care residents—those with the least resources—will be jeopardised.

The implications of an ageing population and the need to increase aged-care services are challenging. It is vitally important that we formulate policies that can actually be delivered. There is growing and alarming evidence that the aged-care sector cannot provide the care that Australians expect. Until there is structural reform of the sector, the care and wellbeing of senior Australians is at risk. The industry is already close to crisis, with 40 per cent of aged-care providers operating in the red as at June 2010. Senior Australians are increasingly finding they are unable to access the services and care they need, when and where they want. Two thousand aged-care beds and 786 bed licences have been lost since 2007. It is a concern that, at a time when there is an increasing demand for services, some providers are walking away from the sector due to the lack of viability of providing high-care beds and the increasing compliance demands of government. The outlook is bleak in terms of growing the capacity of aged care in Australia.

Within this industry there are many dedicated and committed individuals doing an inspiring job under difficult circumstances. My local aged-care providers do a tremendous job with limited funding and resources, and I am committed to giving them a voice. I have seen firsthand the frustration of the sector with the approach of this government to aged care and its failure to deliver on promises and take hard decisions. I am concerned about the current government’s lack of attention to the aged. I am concerned about the expectations that the Rudd and Gillard governments have raised and their subsequent failures in not meeting those expectations.

I am also quite disappointed that, both in Mr Rudd’s first round of health reforms and in Prime Minister Gillard’s recent rebadging of the program, aged care and mental health missed out. It is no longer good enough for this Labor government to continually point the finger at the Howard government. The ALP has had a full term of government and has been in power for four years now, and it is simply no longer acceptable to blame their own failings on the previous government. Kevin Rudd went to the 2007 election with his own agenda for aged care. There is no-one else to blame for the expectations and standards he set for his government, just as there is no-one else to blame for failing to achieve these standards, failing to achieve any reform and failing to make any improvements.

The costs the ageing population will cause the economy is a major issue facing Australia. This of course raises further concerns given the absolute waste and irresponsibility with which this government treats public funds. A mainstay of the Howard government’s policy agenda was to start preparing today for the financial demands of tomorrow. A spendthrift government today puts us all at risk tomorrow. This is not an area that can be funded tomorrow by yet another great big new tax or levy. How responsibly we manage and spend today has an enormous impact on our capacity to properly fund aged care in the future.

Currently the budget simply cannot sustain Australia’s demographic changes. The declining workforce will generate insufficient tax revenue to meet the healthcare and aged-care demands of our ageing population, yet the need for reform has never been greater. Any reforms must be fiscally responsible—although I have little faith that this Labor government can achieve that. We need to make improvements without being financially irresponsible. To quote Mike Woods:

… the system is expected to provide care to over 3.6 million older Australians by 2050. It is inevitable that government expenditure will rise. The challenge is to reform the system, while keeping that expenditure within sustainable limits.

This is obviously of huge concern, given the current debt and spending levels of the government.

The federal government has said that it would manage its fiscal exposure by setting the criteria for needs assessments, the resource levels for approved services, the co-contribution schedules and the standard for basic accommodation. Yet again, the coalition has some concerns about the government’s ability in this area given their track record. Reforming the system raises challenging implementation issues. We have seen the government fail with the implementation of their home insulation scheme, with BER and with the Green Loans Program—and I note in this appropriations bill there is a re-appropriation of $25 million, and that is due to unspent amounts from last financial year in this program—and we have seen countless other broken promises. The aged-care industry is vitally important to our nation and as a society. There is a better way to deliver for this industry than what the Rudd and Gillard governments have shown.

We all acknowledge that there is a need for reform for the aged-care industry. We should never walk away from a challenge or bury our heads in the sand when things get tough. This is particularly apparent when it concerns elderly Australians who have contributed so much to our society. We can and must meet this challenge to ensure that we as a society live up to our duty to protect the elderly. That is a self-evident truth but it needs to be said again and again, because we must prepare today for those significantly increasing demands of tomorrow. We cannot afford the Gillard government’s continuing poor and reckless financial management.

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