Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion because I know from many older aged constituents in my electorate of Chisholm that they want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. They also want a practical and pragmatic solution to enable them to remain in their own homes. Mental health, as we know, is so important to longevity, wellbeing and quality of life, and the overwhelming majority of people desire to remain in their own homes for this very reason. They want to stay somewhere where they feel comfortable and where their quality of life can remain. They want a homecare package that works, and that's why I'm so delighted about the Turnbull government's reforms that we introduced.

Labor think that the panacea to any issues in relation to this are Labor's Living Longer Living Better reforms, but under Labor the ratios set for the release of their homecare packages were inadequate and severely underestimated the real demand. The waiting lists for homecare packages are not new. They existed under Labor, and there was no way to determine the extent of the waiting period. Labor like to spin this as the solution, but it isn't. We have introduced practical, pragmatic solutions to the homecare package system. All Labor did was uncover a number of problems that existed under their watch that this government is having to fix. Australians were still waiting for homecare packages under Labor, and they did nothing to fix the problem. The introduction by the Turnbull government of the new national prioritisation queue has uncovered the extent of the problem left by the former Labor government, which this government is working on to fix. We inherited a homecare system from Labor with predetermined ratios that didn't work. Our 2017 aged care reforms and commitment to transparency have exposed the extent of the homecare mess left by Labor, and we are working to fix it.

How are we fixing this? In September 2017 we announced the release of 6,000 additional level 3 and 4 homecare packages over 2017-18. This more than doubled the planned growth of high-level packages this financial year already assigned to consumers, and we are releasing almost 2½ thousand homecare packages on a weekly basis. In addition to this, in the 2017 budget the Turnbull government provided an investment of $5.5 billion to extend the Commonwealth Home Support program, CHSP, for a further two years to June 2020. The Turnbull government is committed to quality care for senior Australians, including a record $18.6 billion aged-care investment in 2017-18, the first part of a near-$100 billion commitment planned for the next five years. Previously homecare waiting lists were administered by aged-care providers, but the Turnbull government's new national queue system is a pragmatic and practical solution which has brought much-needed visibility and accountability, providing consumers with greater capacity to plan for their aged-care needs. With this greater transparency, people can see where they are on the queue, and it has a practical reality rather than dealing with the great unknown.

The Turnbull government remains committed to older Australians and to keeping them at home, and this is what senior Australians continue to tell us—certainly the older constituents in my electorate of Chisholm and, indeed, their families who are dealing with the situation at this time in their lives. That's why in September 2017 we announced the additional packages. The $5.5 billion investment in the continuation of the CHSP actually provides a range of essential services to support older Australians who wish to remain living in their homes. This range of services includes Meals on Wheels, community transport, personal care, nursing and allied health, domestic assistance, cleaning, shopping, home maintenance and modifications, and a range of respite services. All of these services are essential to all of our daily lives, but they become particularly acute in older age. To stay at home rather than to go into institutionalised care is always the preferred option for older Australians, certainly in my electorate. So I'm very, very proud of the Turnbull government's commitment to quality care for senior Australians.

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