John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Aged care is fast becoming one of the most important policy areas faced by the nation. Australians have enjoyed unprecedented extensions of their lifespans over the past few decades. This has created challenges, as more and more people require care in their old age. We are fortunate to have the Honourable Ken Wyatt as our Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, a man of great integrity. The minister is absolutely dedicated to the cause of improving aged care.

It is also an area of great interest for me. Last year on my Bennelong 100-kay walk for the Leukaemia Foundation I not only visited every school and most local shops in the electorate but also visited many local aged-care facilitates. In fact, Minister Wyatt joined me for a day on my walk for the charity—it's probably what did his knee in—and accompanied me on visits to local aged-care providers. BaptistCare Shalom Aged Care Centre, St Catherine's Aged Care Services, Southern Cross Care Marsfield Residential Aged Care and Willandra Village were visited. Ken engaged with the residents and listened to them intently, as he does on all of his visits to providers that he has completed over the past few years.

After these visits he then fronted an aged-care forum in Ryde that I'd organised for the local community. He provided representatives from DHS and the Department of Health for this forum as well. It was a robust forum, with full feedback provided to Ken by those present. He engaged with my local community on this important issue and did not try to avoid any difficult question. Ken and I are committed to listening to the aged-care community and improving their lot as much as we can. Ken is not interested in playing politics with aged-care residents. He doesn't want to score political points with the challenges of improving aged care; he is simply committed to improvement of aged care. Through his many interactions, he has developed and delivered excellent policies that have improved the lives of many senior Australians. He's also received feedback on some terrible situations regarding the provision of care in aged-care facilities.

Ken Wyatt is not afraid of the truth. He wants the entire unvarnished truth. That is why the government has commissioned a royal commission into aged care. This is not about covering up anything. This is about exposing everything so that he, so that we, hopefully in a bipartisan way, can improve the system for all Australians, because improvement is critical. The numbers involved are staggering. The 2015 Intergenerational report identified that people aged over 85, the group most likely to need aged care, will be the fastest-growing group in Australia over the next 40 years, with the number of senior Australians who require aged-care services projected to reach 3.5 million by 2050. The number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to more than one million by mid-century. And it has been estimated that the aged-care workforce will need to grow from around 366,000 today to 980,000 by 2050.

There are huge issues and challenges involved in addressing the aged-care sector. The government is committed to seeing the sector improve, led by the most committed aged-care minister I have witnessed in the eight years that I've been here in this place. This royal commission is an opportunity for all sides of politics to gain the facts from which better policies can be developed to improve the lives of older Australians. This vulnerable community of elderly and frail Australians deserves better than to seemingly be used as a political football by the mover of this MPI motion. I look forward to working further on aged care with this committed minister. I look forward to reading the recommendations of the royal commission and then working with all sides of politics to make the system better.

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