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

I strongly support these bills finally passing into the House. It has been disappointing that it has taken so long for them to finally make it to the chamber, but I hope that they do pass this House and the other place relatively quickly, because I know there are many, both in the workforce and as aged-care providers, in the sector who are very keen to see this legislation pass.

In my electorate on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales and, indeed, on the east coast, aged care is the boom industry of the moment. Quite often, it is not seen as an economic driver and an economic sector, but for my region and, indeed, for the east coast, we are seeing more growth in aged care than in industries such as mining and more jobs in health and community services than in the mining sector. It does fly under the radar, but this is an incredibly important economic driver for the east coast and for regions like the mid-North Coast of New South Wales as service provision for our ageing demographic becomes more and more important in Australia over the coming years. I am certainly a strong advocate of getting the aged-care sector right and making sure that we provide the best quality of care possible for the many residents in our area who, in a number of different ways, require services.

By way of a stocktake, in the Lyne electorate on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales, we currently have 409 community aged-care packages; 40 Extended Aged Care at Home packages, known as EACH packages; and 24 Extended Aged Care at Home Dementia packages. All of those touch only the surface of what is really required. I think that is a mood shared by all members in this chamber. Whilst each of these packages is certainly welcome, the need far outweighs what is being provided to date by all levels of government and by both sides of parliament. Ensuring that a quality level of service is provided in what is a growing market in communities such as those on the mid-North Coast is an enormous challenge. In 2012-13, 144 home care package places were also advertised in the mid-North Coast aged-care planning region.

I am not one to criticise the aged-care sector at all. At times, various stories emerge in this parliament or in various communities that shock you, but they are rare. I believe that the quality of care in Australia today is at a level of excellence that we as a country should actually be very proud of. Both our monitoring and reporting standards are some of the best in the world and, again, I do not think we sing the praises enough of our culture of care for the various stages through the ageing process.

Every day on the mid-North Coast I see quality providers, a quality workforce and families of carers who really do rally around their family members, who work their way through the spectrum of care and who really want to see the best outcome possible for them. We as Australians should enhance that culture and, hopefully, this range of bills today will be another step along that journey.

I have tracked these bills pretty closely with the support of some local aged-care providers, whom I would like to mention: Dennis Marks, the CEO of Bundaleer Care Services; John Butler, the CEO of Nambucca Valley Care Ltd; Errol Curran, the Director of Residential Aged Care Services and the Chief Financial Officer of the Bushland Health Group; and Steven Quirk, Chief Executive Officer of St Agnes' Parish, Catholic Care of the Aged, in Port Macquarie. Others have been involved at various times in our roundtable meetings that we have been holding. The group wanted to take up with the government a range of detailed issues that have emerged, in particular with Minister Butler, to the point where, three or four months ago, I brought them down to Canberra and the minister kindly met them. It looks as though, as a consequence of some of those meetings, there have been some changes to the final bills. That has been a worthwhile process. The feedback from the group at this stage is that this package of bills is not going to cure all ills. It is not going to get the workforce pay to the level it should be, to be competitive to attract the absolute best staff possible, but it is a step forward.

Likewise, there are some issues for mid-tier residential providers in lower socioeconomic communities. There are still some question marks about this aged care reform package continuing to allow those very noble and important providers to stay viable. But I am fully aware that the government is watching and tracking that and, if there are issues that emerge, hopefully all governments will be very quick in responding to that. As one part of a suite of measures, this package of reforms I think is one to support, and hopefully the House supports it relatively swiftly.

This fits in well with some local work that we have been doing. The mid-North Coast is one of the first regions in Australia to develop a dementia care plan. We do have an epidemic in Australia coming, if not arrived, in the area of dementia. Rather than just wallow in the concerns of the epidemic hitting us, I am really pleased that our community has come together and put a bit of a strategy together that will align well with these aged care reforms. And I would encourage government to have a look at the work we have done and to provide what resources are possible to allow our region to maximise the work we have been doing locally in trying to deal with the very high number of dementia patients now, and with the significant growth expected in the near term.

The other point I did want to make is on the jobs plan we put together locally. As I said before, the health and community service area is our boom industry of the moment on the mid-North Coast, and so aged care workforce needs are really important to us. I wanted to take this chance to thank the many people who have been involved in the many meetings in making sure our workforce needs meet the demands. They include the local employment coordinator, Renee Hawkins, the aged care workforce coordinator, Jan Johnson, and the new group that has come into town, the Aged Care Workforce Innovation Network. This group is now funded by the Australian government and led by the aged care peak bodies in partnership with the Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council and is now starting to pull together some really good work in our region to address a lot of these workforce needs today and into the future.

I am pleased that, because our region has been working so hard with so little and had to collaborate a lot, we have now become one of the regions to lead in this workforce innovation network. Collaboration is one of the keys that allows that industry development work to take shape. Very quickly, of the 10 regions funded, the mid-North Coast is looking like one of the standouts because we have been collaborating on the smell of an oily rag for a long time, and had to do that to basically survive as a region. I thank everyone involved in that process, both within and around government but also more importantly at a committee level, for really investing time and energy into the many meetings—everyone hates meetings, but they have made a difference and they certainly are setting us up as a region where our aged care workforce will be viable and strong, our providers will be viable and strong and our quality of care, therefore, will be viable and strong.

I think the mid-North Coast is one of the best places in Australia for anyone to hit retirement age. That is not only for the healthy living issues and all of our wonderful beaches and rivers, but also for that spectrum of care around aged care, when and if required. I hope these bills go through, I hope they go through with bipartisan support and I hope they make a big difference in once again taking a step forward in the quality of care for the aged care sector in Australia today.

Debate adjourned.

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