Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to also contribute to the debate on the Aged Care (Single Quality Framework) Reform Bill 2018. In every single budget, this government has attacked older Australians and ripped out funding from critical aged-care services. Since they've come to power, the Liberal government have cut more than $2 billion from aged care. On their watch, the waiting list for home care packages has ballooned to over 105,000, and older Australians have been left to languish for well over a year to access packages that they have already been approved for. Some have been forced into residential care too soon, and, in some circumstances, against their wishes, when they simply couldn't wait any longer or their families were in no position to lend further support. This is a tragic outcome. It decreases the quality of life for older Australians. It hurts their families and the extended networks that these people belong to within their neighbourhoods and communities. It is also, of course, a much, much bigger impost on the federal budget to place people into residential aged-care facilities, when it was, firstly, not their desire, and, secondly, in many cases, a premature move into residential aged care.

In May, it looked like the government was finally going to invest properly in aged care in the 2018 budget. We were told that there were great things to look forward to. Well, what an absolutely cruel and shameful hoax that turned out to be. In fact, it very soon became clear that there was no new money for aged care. Instead, the government was funding the new packages by ripping funding out from other parts of the aged-care budget. The government could not find a single cent to solve the aged-care crisis, yet it had time to find $80 billion to give tax cuts to big business, to those multinationals and to the four banks. Talk about twisted priorities! Not a single cent for aged care, but it can give tax cuts to those who, frankly, don't need them and haven't even requested them.

The bill before us today establishes a single set of aged-care quality standards for all providers that are covered under the Aged Care Act. They represent a change in focus, moving from provider processes to the quality of outcomes for consumers. These update a number of standards that currently apply to different sorts of care, including two for home care, four for residential aged care and two more for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Care Aged Care Program quality review. These changes will come into effect in July of next year, 2019, which, of course, is an extension already on what was the government's planned start date of July 2018. This is to give providers the time they needed to prepare. There was no way that the government could achieve its initial intentions, and already we have moved into having to get extensions of time.

These changes are because of the results of some consultations that took place with the aged-care sector and other stakeholders. Those consultations have been taking place since 2015, so some three years ago. Most of those consultations were not controversial, but, in fact, we are only seeing this legislation now, three years later than first announced, and that is completely unsatisfactory. It is a massive time lag between intention and delivery into this House. And over those three years we have seen waiting lists grow longer for those aged-care packages, with people struggling with increased out-of-pocket expenses to access care. All of these issues have been compounded at a time when inaction becomes, sort of, the default position of this government.

There is, of course, a tendency for this government to drag the chain when it comes to important aged-care issues. In October last year, the Carnell Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes was given to the government. The review, which focused on quality care, put forward 10 recommendations. One of the most notable of these was a recommendation to establish an independent aged-care quality and safety commission, which Labor thoroughly supports. While the government has agreed to this, we are yet to see any details of the commission, which is due to start on 1 July next year.

We are also concerned that the minister seems to be very focused on residential aged-care providers at the expense of those Australians who choose to stay at home. This is a critical point. The government needs to pay as much attention to ensuring that the same quality aged care that Australians get in residential facilities will also be available to those who choose care as part of their home care packages. And, of course, we still need more information about how home care will be integrated into the new commission, because, quite frankly, with the botch-up the government has made of home care so far in its tenure, we have good reason to be concerned. The Australian Medical Association were right when they said:

… much more needs to be achieved to ensure older Australians receive the care they need and deserve in their later years.

But I suspect that calling what the Turnbull government has done to home care in this country a botch-up is way too kind. Those opposite have known about the relentless growth in the waiting lists for home care packages for a long time. Instead, they went ahead with their decision to spend $80 billion of precious public money on tax cuts for corporations rather than fixing this appalling aged-care mess of their own creation.

As I mentioned earlier, in the week leading up to the 2018 budget, Australians were led to believe that the terrible crisis facing aged care was finally going to be addressed, that there would be a substantial investment to reduce Mr Turnbull's home care package waiting list. On 6 May, the Minister for Health even went on the record to promise, 'It's going to be a very good budget for health and for aged care in particular.' On this side of the chamber, we were cautiously optimistic at the early budget news. Regretfully, our hopes were thoroughly dashed on budget night when we learnt that the figure that had been referred to was already in the forward estimates. There was absolutely no new money at all. Not a single dollar. Nothing. Zero. In fact, more than 21,000 residential care places are set to be cut over the next three years to pay for the very modest increase in home care packages that has been made available.

Independent budget analysis by Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy found:

The Australian Government must also invest more in home care packages and residential aged care places. The additional high level home care packages falls way short of the 82,237 consumers currently awaiting an approved high level package. There is also a projected 94,200 gap in residential aged care places by 2025.

Not only did the government not spend a single cent extra in aged care; they tried to pull a swift one by trying to convince us that aged care was actually the good-news centrepiece of the budget. The absolute gall is breathtaking. Let's be very clear: this is a hoax, pure and simple. The government knew that not a red cent more of funding was being given to aged care in this budget. They knew that their so-called investment was being shamelessly ripped out of other parts of the aged-care portfolio. They certainly knew that this shuffling of money wouldn't result in any net benefit to older Australians, yet they still proudly backgrounded journalists with leaks of billions of dollars in extra funding. The government's utter duplicity was confirmed once and for all in Senate estimates last month, when department officials confirmed that there is no new funding and agreed that the funds had all come from existing resources that were spent otherwise. This is appalling. Government members have treated older Australians with utter contempt, and they should hang their heads in shame.

At this point, I would like to point out that there is only one government member to speak on this legislation. One single member was willing to back in their own government's action in this important area, and I think that speaks volumes. One solitary person on the government benches volunteering to justify the inexcusable. It is unbelievable. Actually, it is quite believable, really, because government members would know as well as I do that their budget announcement was a rort, a cynical attempt to make people believe they were doing something about a crisis without having spent a dime. They would be acutely aware that their leadership has again backed in big businesses and the banks ahead of older Australians. They would know exactly what this continued negligence is doing to their older constituents in the communities and their families, because, just like me, government members will be seeing the real-world impacts of the Turnbull government's neglect of our aged-care system in their electorate offices every day.

In Newcastle, I am regularly contacted by older people or family members who are at their wit's end—people like Richard from Elermore Vale. Richard is in his 70s and requires permanent oxygen. He wants to stay at home, but he needs help to do so. A level 4 package would give Richard access to a portable oxygen tank to use when he has to leave his home, when he attends his medical appointments and when he goes about regular day-to-day business that we would all take for granted. It would help Richard maintain his independence and ensure that he was able to get to external appointments without ever worrying that his oxygen was going to run out.

I couldn't think of something more terrifying than to be timing all of the business you have to do outside of your house on the basis of how long your oxygen tank can last, but that is what Richard faces every day. If he were able to access the level 4 package, which he is entitled to, he would be able to have a portable oxygen tank that would give him so much more independence in our community. He's been waiting for more than eight months for this level 4 package. When he calls My Aged Care, he is told that he is the 'highest priority' and that he will have a package within one to three months. So far every month has passed with no good news and no package.

This is not good enough and the government must fix it. Instead, they are devoting their energy to pretending that it is being fixed. It is no surprise that the government seem to be sticking with their chosen strategy of spin and obfuscation, because now we see the government trying to dodge scrutiny by delaying public release of the quarterly waitlist data for home care packages. Australians deserve to know where that data is. Why is there a delay in releasing this data? What is the government hiding?

It is time for the government to come clean with older Australians and immediately release that waitlist data. We learnt during estimates that the department has committed to releasing the information two months after the end of the quarter. Given than the most recent quarter ended in March, we should have had that data in May. It is now 19 June and no data has been made available to the Australian people. One might be cynical enough to think that perhaps this data is not going to see the light of day before certain by-elections that might be occurring around the country.

It's not good enough. It has been a cruel hoax on older Australians to pretend otherwise. The government needs to do the right thing, invest properly in these home care packages, release this data and come clean with all Australians.

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