David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today with great pleasure to speak on this private member's motion, particularly considering I spent a lot of my childhood in an aged-care facility, having been brought up in one in the little town of Chinchilla, the Illoura aged-care facility. The people who ran that—Col and Daph Taylor—gave more than 25 years of service to the community in establishing and running the Illoura aged-care facility. So I come with some authority, having spent a lot of my time, when my mum and dad were away, staying in that facility and being brought up by Col and Daph Taylor and seeing what important institutions aged-care facilities are in regional and remote areas—particularly those parts that I represent—because a lot of people in rural and regional Australia don't want to move away from their family and friends. They want to be able to have the dignity and respect of being able to spend their twilight years in their home towns, where they have friends and family close to them.

So these types of institutions are quite important, but it's also important to provide choice to those people living in rural and remote as well as metropolitan areas, to allow them to make that dignified choice about whether they want to stay at home as long as they can. That is what we are trying to do. The legislation and the investment that we are making as a federal government into aged care are providing that dignity and respect to those in their twilight years, giving them the opportunity to stay at home and to stay in regional and rural communities. It is important. It's not just a social aspect that we're providing to these people in rural and regional areas as they get into their twilight years; it's also a significant industry and an economic driver within the economies of these small communities. So there is a two-pronged benefit to the rural and regional areas.

Only in February, the government announced the Increasing Choice in Home Care reforms. An important piece of that was that we are giving consumers the choice, not the providers. That's the important thing: we are empowering those that need to make the decision, not empowering those providers to make more money at the expense of the Australian taxpayer and those people that need to make that choice. That's a proud investment that this federal government has made, and it's hitting the ground—60,000 packages since February. That's 1,000 or 2,000 per week that we are rolling out, providing flexibility and allowing those elderly people to make the choice of whether, if they want to move, they can transfer with that package to another state. That's an important initiative. As our societies become more fluid and as our families move around the nation, it's important that we're able to give those elderly people the opportunity to do that.

But we've coupled that with a pragmatic approach around short-term restorative care. Around 475 places were announced in the last budget to ensure that those who are elderly, and particularly those who have been hit by illness or injury, are able to have the flexibility to stay in their own homes and not enter long-term aged-care facilities. That's an important measure to allow people to, again, have that choice. We're continuing to work to provide that flexibility, whether it be in metropolitan Australia or in rural and regional Australia.

Through the ACAR investment that we've made, in my electorate in the last couple of months we were able to announce 40 new beds in Warwick—20 were general, eight were set aside for disadvantaged older Australians, those disadvantaged Australians having trouble affording this type of care, and eight were set aside for dementia patients. As the son of a mother who has dementia and is coming to the pointy end, I am quite proudly able to say that the good people of Chinchilla will look after her at the Illoura aged-care facility. I know that the investment that we've made means that those high-care places will, importantly, be there to give her the dignity and respect that she deserves as she sees this insidious disease affect her significantly. But we've also gone into the smaller communities. In Killarney we have provided eight new beds, four of which are for those disadvantaged people in rural and regional Australia. Their lives will be changed because of the investment we're making in rural and regional Australia. Allora received 25 new beds—five for general access, 10 for rural and remote Australians, and 10 for disadvantaged Australians. That shows a considerate government that cares about its elderly and cares about giving them the dignity and respect they deserve after years of contribution to this nation. It gives people not only the opportunity but the choice to move forward and enjoy the end of their long and illustrious lives.

I commend the member for Hindmarsh for bringing this motion before the chamber. It gives us an opportunity as a federal government to proudly state what we have achieved for elderly Australians and also for regional and remote Australia.

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