Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Aged Care (Single Quality Framework) Reform Bill 2018, which Labor supports. It amends the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency Act 2013. Earlier today I made a contribution in this place on the Prime Minister's comments yesterday about an aged-care worker aspiring to management, and later in my contribution I will refer to some observations from my electorate. Before I do that, I want to recognise that the member for Dobell, in her contribution a little while ago, gave a really excellent insight into what it was like for her—someone who herself was a health professional before coming into politics—when her own parents were faced with these challenges. I really learnt a lot from listening to that.

What I've seen with my own eyes in my electorate is that the people who work at the coalface—the aged-care workers who care for our elders, our seniors—are doing an absolutely vital job. It's not necessarily an aspiration to become a manager that might, in some cases, be screwing those workers by not paying them much and not doing the right thing in terms of conditions of work—having them in casual, insecure work and having them look after too many of our elderly and so becoming stressed themselves. I've seen that happen. Perhaps the Prime Minister needs to get out a bit more and have a look at how people are working and operating and how the actions of some for-profit residential aged-care providers are conducting themselves.

When I visited a residential aged-care home in my electorate, I was, quite frankly, shocked at the way the management was conducting their business. At the same time, I was incredibly impressed with the way the aged-care workers were conducting themselves—giving of themselves and loving their job, which is incredibly important when looking after our seniors in the latter years of their life. That was a good experience for me. I now have a better idea about what we need to do in this sector having visited that residential aged-care home and having listened to the shadow minister, the member for Franklin, and heard her passion—and I'll reflect on that later.

Focusing on our seniors who are receiving aged care—whether it be in their own homes or in residential aged-care facilities—rather than focusing on the provider and the provider's processes is incredibly important. The fact that we have new standards is a good thing—and, as I said, we support the bill and the establishment of these new standards. But, like some of the other contributors from our side, I am a bit concerned, as I've seen with my own eyes the crisis that aged care is in and have learnt from my colleagues and from talking to people in the sector that there is pressure on facilities and pressure on providers. More beds are needed, more places are needed and, in short, action is needed. Unfortunately, what we've seen from the budget is that this government is not aware of the gravity of this situation or doesn't care. I'd like to think it's the former—that they aren't aware—but I hope they get up to speed quickly.

We're supporting this legislation in a bipartisan way, and my contribution is made in the spirit of bipartisanship. I do acknowledge the work of the Minister for Aged Care. I think he does mean well and has been trying hard. My impression, though, is that either he has not been persuasive enough in gaining the support of his colleagues or his colleagues are just not listening. I know, Mr Deputy Speaker Hastie, that he is a compatriot of yours from the west. Being from the north and from a regional part of Australia, I hope that he is being taken seriously and being listened to. However, it appears that the government, under the Prime Minister's leadership, is not seeing the aged-care sector as the priority that it should be. As I said, from the experience that I've had, urgency is certainly needed, and the fact that there has not been an extra dollar put into this sector is of incredible concern.

As some of my colleagues have mentioned previously, the Australian population is ageing. Newsflash! The Australian population is ageing; there are more and more people who need support. The bankers are going to be all right. The bankers are making record profits, so with $17 billion going to the banks they're going to be okay. What's in the budget about priorities? What you've said to our Australian elders—to our parents and grandparents, to those who have paid their taxes—is that you're not going to put an extra dollar into the system that provides them with dignity in their later years in life, but you're going to help out the banks and just shovel billions of dollars their way, even though they're doing very well. I don't know how you reconcile that, but there you go.

There is a crisis in aged care. We want to know how the government intends to ensure quality care for those who are remaining at home. We are very concerned that there is no real plan for aged care across multiple settings. But, as I said, what we do know is that there is not one extra dollar for aged care in this year's budget. In fact, under the last two governments—the Turnbull one and the one before that, the Abbott government—there has, in fact, been a cut of funding to aged care by billions. Cutting aged care and giving billions to the banks doesn't compute with me and my value system, nor, obviously, with the principles of those on this side of the chamber.

The government sort of pretended that there would be $100 million more for aged care in this year's budget. There was not. The $100 million was already there, provided in the forward estimates. We've heard a lot of talk about the new packages—14,000 new packages over four years. Now, these new packages, 3,500 a year, are not enough to keep up with demand. The waiting list grew by 20,000 senior Australians in the last six months of 2017 alone. I know that there is a big waiting list in my electorate, and if you're not aware—if you do not have friends or family in this situation—just two days ago I had a phone call about it with a family who is fifth-generation Territorian. This lady's children are fifth-generation Territorians, but she is contemplating leaving the Northern Territory because she can't get care for her elderly and very unwell mum. That is significant—that is incredibly significant. The Territory is a tough place; to be a pioneering family that is so deeply connected to the Northern Territory and to consider moving south so that your aged mum can get the care she needs tells us that there is a crisis. It is just one example of this crisis.

It's just unacceptable for people—for our elders who have given us so much. This family is one example. They built modern Darwin and, unfortunately, because of the lack of resources, the lack of priorities and the lack of value that this government has given to this sector over five years, real people like them—real families—are being affected.

I mentioned before that I have been visiting an aged-care facility. I went to visit the lady at the request of her family. She's passed on now, but her kids are very determined that there is going to be more scrutiny in this area, more accountability for some of these providers, because the crisis is really affecting families. When I read the minister's second reading speech, unfortunately I didn't pick up any hint of concern about some of these underlying issues in our aged-care system. When Labor were in government, we delivered significant improvements to aged care through our Living Longer Living Better reforms.

By the way, when we were in government we increased the pension by a record amount. We wouldn't contemplate cutting the pension and taking $14 a fortnight off seniors, for example, because we understand the lived reality of people on the age pension in this country. We just would not take resources off them because we understand the costs for people to live in a comfortable environment. In my electorate—it's up in the tropics—a lot of Territorians on the age pension don't even run their aircon, even when it's really sticky and really humid, because they can't afford it. So they are better living with their electricity bills when they're running their fans. These are real people, and ripping $14 a fortnight off them is not helpful. I digress, but I wanted to use that as an example of the priorities that must be given to making sure that our seniors are respected and are cared for if they're in residential care facilities. We need to make sure that the workers are respected and valued—not valued only if they aspire to management, but respected for the job they do, which is caring for our elders.

In the time I have available, I want to quickly flag that we have a lot of postwar migrants. In my electorate there are a lot from southern Europe, and Greece in particular. We need to be very aware of that so that, as that postwar population goes into aged-care facilities, we make sure they have the services they need. It's the right thing to do, so let's start looking after our people in aged care a lot better. (Time expired)

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