Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to speak about the Aged Care (Single Quality Framework) Reform Bill. I've spoken about these issues in this place many, many times. In 2004, when I was first elected, I had one of the oldest electorates in the country, and it remains so. That's why issues that deal with aged-care support and issues that deal with older Australians and the assistance they require in their older age are very important to my electorate—and to all of us on this side of the House, I must say.

What we know is that these people worked all their lives, contributing to and building our nation, making it one of the best countries in the world and helping the next generation to prosper. It is very important that we as legislators in this place do whatever we can to ensure that these people are given the services they require in old age in a way that gives them dignity and helps them continue their lives as best as possible. We need to put the services in place to ensure they are looked after in their old age. We look after children. We look after workers. We look after people who are unemployed. We look after people who go to hospitals. Aged care and aged-care services are no different. It should be a priority to provide every service we can to these people. I will always do my best in this place to ensure that I represent older Australians and that they're dealt with in a compassionate and respectful way.

We've heard different members from this side speak. I applaud the member for Dobell, who made such a passionate speech and told her father's story. There are thousands of similar stories around the country of people who have parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents who require care. This bill goes some way towards assisting them and ensuring we have a system in place that ensures services are provided in a proper way and there are mechanisms in place for checks and balances.

The bill will also vary the functions of the chief executive officer of the Aged Care Quality Agency to reference the Aged Care Quality Standards. Currently, there are standards that cover-off on all three different areas of aged care. They include residential aged care, with four standards; home care, with two standards; and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program quality review, with two standards. The eight new standards in the bill, across all areas of care, will be effective from 1 July 2019. This is an amended date, as there were concerns from the sector that the original 1 July 2018 start date would give stakeholders and providers little time to prepare the necessary work.

So we know that it's already delayed by one year. The government has dragged its feet on this. The new standards will focus on quality outcomes for consumers. We know that since September 2015 the Department of Health has consulted with stakeholders and all other agencies to seek input into the content of the quality standards. Peak stakeholders have been contacted to garner their views. At this stage they are still assessing the bill and the explanatory memorandum that's with the bill.

I have to say that although we support the bill, there are a few areas of concern. Certainly, there are concerns that I have and that the opposition has. I mentioned earlier the length of time that it's taken the government to introduce legislation into the parliament. This was a 2015-16 measure. Here we are in 2018, and it won't start until 1 July 2019.

There are many areas that this particular government hasn't concentrated on. There are gaps in our aged-care reform bills and gaps in the regulatory system, and one of them is the home care that is required by so many retirees and older Australians around the country. We heard the minister announce 14,000 aged-care packages in the budget. I have to say that when I think of those 14,000 aged-care packages, as welcome as they are, it's the biggest con that I've seen in this House of Representatives. I say so because there are approximately 110,000 people waiting for packages currently. There is a list with 110,000 names on it for people who require packages. That list is growing by 10,000 to 20,000 every quarter. Every quarter it's growing, so we could have anything up to 160,000 or 180,000 on that list by the end of the year. Yet the minister announced the 14,000 new packages with a party-type atmosphere—hoo-ha, hurrah!—that this was the pinnacle of aged-care reform and would solve all the problems.

What a joke! It's an absolute joke, and a disservice to our older Australians. This is the biggest con since the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I can just imagine the minister sitting in cabinet with all the other ministers around him, telling him about how good this would be—the 14,000 new places—and all laughing amongst themselves because they knew it was a con. And it is a con. Every Australian can see through this. There are 100,000 people waiting on a list for aged-care packages, and the list is growing by 10,000 to 20,000 every quarter. And we announced 14,000! It is a drop in the ocean, and will do absolutely nothing to support those people who have worked all their lives, who have built the foundations of this nation and who have ensured that we live the lives that we live today because of their hard sweat, blood and tears in past generations.

I think that as a nation and as a government we can do better than that. As a nation, we should be doing all that we can for these wonderful people who are our mothers, fathers, grandparents, great-grandparents and people close to us who we love—our neighbours—because that's the way that it is here in Australia. These are people that we have to look after. We'll be measured in the future by the generations to come on the standards and on the support that we gave to older Australians, and I have to say at this point that we're not heading on the right track. It's getting worse, and it will be worse unless we make some drastic changes.

We heard the member for Dobell say how we are becoming an ageing population. We are living a lot longer, and that's a great thing. But if we're living a lot longer we also have to put services in place that will look after our older Australians. And the services, I have to say, are not there. We're not funding them properly and not providing adequate packages to keep people at home, and we know that people want to stay at home. If you ask the majority of Australians, 'What do you want to do when you get older and frailer?' they will say, 'I want to remain in my house: the house that I've lived in my entire life; the house that's close to my family; the residence that's within my community—my community groups, my friends, my relatives and my neighbours.' It's a natural thing to want and to aspire to, and it should be natural for us in government and in parliament to try to produce some policies and a framework to make sure that that happens. But, to do that, we have to fund these services adequately, and, as I said, we're currently not doing that.

We have to think outside of the square and try to come up with a system that is funded properly to provide those services and to treat these people with absolute dignity, because, as I said, they're the people who worked hard and built the foundations of this nation that we stand solidly on today. We are a great nation. When you look at the history of Australia, we are one of the best nations in the world. That's due to our forebears who worked so hard. In many cases they fought in wars. They paid their taxes and, because of their blood, sweat and tears, ensured that today we have comfortable, good lives.

Residential aged-care facilities are mirrored in the homes of those who choose to receive care as part of the home care packages. We look forward to hearing how the government will integrate home care into this newly established commission as well. This new agency is not due to begin until 1 July 2019, so it has already been delayed by 12 months. The government has a lot of work to do to ensure that this commission is the right way to go and that the correct systems are in place. It's really unfortunate that this bill won't do much to address the home care package crisis, but it is important for me to mention it all the same. It's a topical issue. It comes up many, many times on talkback radio. There are letters to the editor. People talk to me when I'm having street corner meetings, visiting shopping centres and doorknocking. Constituents who contact me say, 'My parents'—or an aunt or grandparents—'are waiting for a package.' What happens is that, when you're waiting for 12 to 24 months, as people who have come to my office have told me, you become frailer and weaker. If those mechanisms aren't in place to support you, you will become frailer very quickly. What does that mean? It means you will end up in the acute emergency department of a hospital or in an aged-care facility, which then costs the government and every taxpayer a lot more. So isn't it better to ensure that we have the packages that people require to keep them at home and keep them healthier? They will also keep the expense down.

This is what will happen and what happens currently when people aren't getting the required packages: I've heard of people who've been on waiting lists for over a year and have passed away before they have even received their packages. I have many examples, which I have sent to the minister. I've sent all of them in writing. Unfortunately, we get back standard responses and nothing much is done about them. It is very sad to see people come to my office to talk to me about their parents who are very frail and want to stay at home. They want to give their parents the assistance that they require. They want to make sure that they do everything they can to care for them. What happens in many cases is those carers also then become ill and sick through the pressure and the work that they do. It's very disappointing to see that this particular area in this bill did nothing to address the home care packages.

A lot of good work has been done by Leon Byner on 5AA in South Australia. Leon is currently running one of the highest-rating programs on radio in Adelaide and he has been running a campaign on this for a long time. Many people call in and he refers them to us. We write letters to the minister, but unfortunately these falls on deaf ears.

I worry that this is the new norm with the government. There are issues that are pressing for our communities, issues that we need to deal with, and we just fluff them away, like we did with this particular announcement during the budget of 14,000 home care packages when we know that there are 100,000 on the waiting list and that that number is growing by 10,000 to 20,000 every quarter. This government funded the 14,000 new home care packages over four years in this government's budget, but it was nothing but a big hoax. It's particularly cruel, after promising older Australians it would address the waiting list. These were promises made by this government, but, to date, we haven't seen anything. Even the Minister for Aged Care was forced to admit what we already knew: the home-care packages announced in last month's budget wouldn't come anywhere close to solving Australia's aged-care crisis. It's certainly a crisis that exists within my electorate, being an electorate with one of the oldest populations in the country.

Responding to whether the new home-care packages announced in the budget would be enough to solve the crisis, the minister could only say that the Turnbull government would have to consider new measures. That is an admission in itself that it's not working, that the new announcements are not going to work and that we need to do a lot more in this area.

We also know the government's delaying the public release of the next quarterly data wait list for home-care packages. We know they're doing that, and we know why: because the list and the numbers on that list are growing. They're growing and we're not doing anything about it. We're asking the minister many questions. Where is this data? Why is it being delayed? Is there something that you're hiding? I don't think there is anything that he's hiding, because it's common knowledge. Everyone knows that this list is growing, and will quadruple before we know it.

The Minister for Aged Care must be honest with older Australians. I know the minister. I know that he cares. I know he has real empathy for our older Australians. But it's his own side that's letting him down, that's not assisting him or supporting him in coming up with good measures to ensure that we look after our older Australians. We know, through the estimates process in the Senate, that the Department of Health has previously committed to releasing data two months after the period that the data covers, yet the government won't do it. With the latest quarter ending in March, this means the data is already a fortnight late. Again we ask: what is the Minister for Aged Care hiding in the latest round of data? The last package of data revealed almost 105,000 older Australians were waiting for packages, and they know that those numbers are blowing out each year.

As I said, the demand for packages grew by 20,000 in the last six months of 2017 alone. As our national demographic ages, we know this will become a bigger issue. We know that the Turnbull government has promised the world to older Australians waiting in the queue for these packages but they're getting nothing. I've already mentioned that, sadly, the Minister for Aged Care has already admitted the government will need to consider other interventions. That's an admission that you need other interventions to reduce this waiting list. I'm personally sick of waiting, and the minister— (Time expired)

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