Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it quite outrageous, the way this government treats our older Australians. I'll give you an example. Just this week the Minister for Social Services, Minister Tehan, stood up here in question time, when he was asked about deeming rates for part-pensioners, and what did he say? He said that they should get a job. Well, I just heard the member for Lyne, who spoke here prior to me, talking about them building our nation and fighting for our nation. I don't think we should be asking them to 'get a job' after building our nation.

But of course it wasn't just Minister Tehan. Last year we had the government tampering with the pension asset test, which saw a number of pensioners in my electorate lose their concession cards. Thankfully, they got them reinstated, but why did they have to lose them in the first place? How cruel can you be to somebody who built the nation, who fought for the nation?

But what I find truly unforgivable is how this government is mishandling the home care system, which has left more than 100,000 older Australians waiting for care. The government itself concedes that 80,000 of these are people with very high needs, including dementia. People with high needs should be considered a priority by this government, yet vulnerable seniors are still waiting one year, 14 months, 16 months or 18 months for a package. The government knows that this is an urgent situation. But, instead of prioritising it, this government has spent all of its energy giving tax cuts to big businesses and just fighting amongst themselves. This government must make this a priority. This is a crisis that needs to be addressed. This isn't something that can wait until Labor is elected. It needs to be addressed now. Older Australians and their families being forced to wait months and months and sometimes over a year is just unacceptable—and there are many, many stories about how unacceptable this is.

Nearly 20,000 Queenslanders are waiting for their package. Let me share the stories of two people in my electorate. The first person I want to speak about is in her 80s—built this country, and she is now in her 80s. Her husband contacted me. He claims that his wife's been assessed by ACAT at level 3, but she's currently on level 2. Mr Harrison, who contacted me, said that there are no level 3 packages, so they've accepted a level 2. Last year, his wife fell down the stairs and broke her arm. She spent six weeks in hospital and was in an ICU for some of that time. They now need some renovations to their bathroom to help her live at home. Her husband contacted me and said, 'We cannot wait for another accident to happen while we wait for this package.' This is one of those horror stories—taking a lower-level package while they wait for their higher-level package. It is unacceptable.

Then I've got the story of a 76-year-old constituent, another elderly Australian who has worked hard to build this nation. In May this year this constituent of mine was approved for a level 4 home care package. This constituent suffers from Parkinson's disease, diabetes and cancer, and is in very desperate need of some medical equipment, including an oxygen concentrator and a nebuliser. These are the types of equipment that this constituent needs. The constituent tells me that, if they had to buy it themselves, the cost of the equipment would be way out of their reach—absolutely out of their reach. But it doesn't get any better, because they are still waiting, more than 12 months on, and they have been told that it could be another 12 months before they can get their package.

But the system doesn't get any better once you get your package. I am helping a constituent with an issue they have working through the online portal. They've got a package but they need to make some changes. There are two issues that forced this to be quite difficult. One is where they live. They live in a black spot area and their mobile phone doesn't work, so it's really difficult to ring and get some help. But guess what? They can't get onto the portal anyway because they don't have the NBN. It's a bit difficult. So, Minister, I say to you now: we need to fix these aged-care packages and fix them immediately.

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