Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Demand for aged-care services is accelerating across the country, with an ageing population, longer life expectancies and the increasing prevalence of conditions such as dementia. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Shortland, with more than 20 per cent of my electorate being over the age of 65—more than 30,000 constituents. My office deals with complaints about the My Aged Care system, with concerns about the transition from the NDIS and with people who have been on home care package waiting lists for far too long every single day. Providing an accessible, affordable and high-quality aged care system is one of the greatest challenges facing Australia over the coming decades.

That's why I'm glad to speak in support of the Aged Care (Single Quality Framework) Bill 2018, which makes clear the high levels of quality expected from aged-care providers and encourages the accountability of such standards. Getting this right is a step towards providing a dignified life for older Australians and allowing them to contribute their valued experience to our communities. If we get it wrong, we let down a generation of people who have built this country, and we put far too much pressure on hospitals and residential care to provide services. As the Western world confronts the rising issue of ageing populations we have seen many worrying instances of elder abuse, neglect and hopelessness become all too common, both here and abroad. We have a chance now to put in place frameworks and policies that will ensure a sustainable and quality future for all Australians, no matter their age.

In 2016, there were 3.7 million Australians aged 65 and over, a significant increase from the 1976 figure of 1.3 million. We have struggled to keep up with this increase, and with projections indicating that this demographic is set to grow by another five million people to nearly nine million people, or 22 per cent of our total population, by 2056, the lack of policy leadership shown by this government is worrying. It is essential that we have sound, consistent frameworks in place to deal with the inevitable increase in demand for home care packages and residential care over the coming years. There are two main priorities in this area. The first is a guarantee of quality which gives older Australians the dignity they deserve. The second is accessibility, which at the moment is sorely lacking.

The difficulty in accessing aged care in this country is unacceptable. Whether it is sitting on endless waiting lists for the packages you need, being left behind by transitions to new funding models, or the continuing failures of the My Aged Care portal, many Australians feel fed-up. Of all the mainland Labor states, my electorate has the highest number of residents over 60, and my office has been hearing about these issues over and over again. While we always try to help those who come to us with issues, the volume of complaints demonstrates that there are systemic issues that require legislation if we are to see consistent improvement in aged care.

One of my many constituents failed by this government was Joyce Simmons. Joyce initially received care of five to six hours according to her approval for a level 2 home care package, with her daughter Beverley taking on the rest of the caring duties herself. As of March 2016, Joyce had been approved for an upgrade to a level 4 home care package, but this approval was never realised and, after waiting a full year, her daughter contacted my office seeking help. Joyce, who had recently turned 99, had fallen and cracked a vertebrae, making the provision of level 4 care all the more essential, yet My Aged Care was unable to provide her with this care and was unable to provide any information regarding her position on the waiting list. With some assistance from my office and great persistence by Beverley herself, Joyce was finally granted the hours of care she was entitled to in April 2016, over a year since her initial approval yet only a matter of weeks after my office became involved.

My office has also spoken with Hilary Wills and her daughter Kathy Smith about their ongoing struggles to be upgraded to a level 4 home care package. After being unable to get any assistance from My Aged Care, Kathy reached out to my office for assistance. A representative from My Aged Care phoned both Kathy and my office to inform us that Hilary should be upgraded to a level 4 package within four weeks. Having heard nothing from them for a number of weeks, Kathy followed this up only to be told that no-one had mentioned the four-week time period and all they could do was place Hilary on a priority waiting list. This directly contradicted advice given to both her family and my office and has left her family and us feeling very frustrated with the system yet again. It has now been a year and Hilary is still waiting for her package to be upgraded. It should not be this hard. When the only way to get sufficient aged care services delivered is by contacting your local MP's office, something is wrong with our system. We have dealt with many complaints and frustrations like Hilary's and Joyce's, and I'm determined, like all of my Labor colleagues, to fight for a system that will make this process easier.

Labor is committed to making sure that people have proper access to high-quality aged care in this country, and I support this bill accordingly. The coalition's recent budget did nothing to address these glaring issues. Not only are the measures it announced entirely insufficient to make any long-term impact, they are funded from within existing aged-care budgeted resources. This budget simply takes funding from residential care to pay for its home care packages. That's right; not one new dollar is being spent on aged care in Australia by this government. Taking money from other aged care services to fund a mere 14,000 new home care packages over four years is a cruel hoax on those who have been already waiting too long. This represents funding for only 3½ thousand new packages per year, when we know that demand grew by 20,000 in the last six months of 2017 alone. So, despite the song and dance this government has made about new packages in this year's budget, it will not even tackle the current issues faced though seeking quality aged care, let alone provide effective long-term policy for this country. We have over 100,000 people in this country on the wait list for home care packages. This is disgraceful. This is unacceptable. The people in my region, as do people in every part of this country, deserve a better system. They deserve a system that gives them a dignified retirement, that treats them appropriately and that recognises the great contribution they have made to this country.

As I said, I represent the electorate of Shortland, which has the highest number of people over the age of 60 of all mainland Labor seats. My residents, my constituents, deserve better than a government who use smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that they are not taking aged care seriously in this country. This bill goes some way to improving quality in this sector, but much more needs to be done. Unfortunately, I have no expectation this government will take it seriously.

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