Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by acknowledging the families, friends and loved ones of those who have been affected by the aged-care media that we have seen in recent weeks. I will be very blunt. The LNP government's involvement in the care of older Australians is now clearly evident because the sector is in meltdown. This LNP government cannot cut billions of dollars from aged care and then wonder why the issues are so serious. Surely, older Australians deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, because in fact this is a human right.

This government created this mess and now finally has decided to carry out a royal commission to investigate how the sector got into such a disastrous state. Well, let me give the government a hint: under now Prime Minister Scott Morrison's watch as Treasurer, the aged-care budget was used as an ATM to try to prop up the budget. As Treasurer, he ripped $1.2 billion from the aged-care system. Aged-care industry bodies warned at the time of the 2016 budget that cuts would result in declining standards of care, and—no surprise to anyone—that is exactly what has happened. It was always inevitable that these massive cuts would sadly lead to standards of care for older Australians slipping under the weight of the cuts.

These cuts have also led to huge waiting lists for access to aged care—120,000 people across the nation are right now on waiting lists for access to in-home aged-care packages. In northern Queensland, there are more than 323 people waiting—people in my electorate, like Christine's mother. Sadly, Christine's mother passed away last year whilst she was waiting for approval of her aged-care plan. Christine's mother was on a plan in New South Wales, but when she moved to Townsville her mother had to apply again for an aged-care plan. What was really disturbing was the fact that Christine was notified by mail four months after her mother's passing that her package had been approved. This was both disgraceful and distressing.

Labor fully supports the royal commission, but the royal commission must take a holistic analysis of the sector. Last week I met with my aged-care reference group and they formulated the following list. The act needs a review as there is serious concern that it is not fit for purpose in terms of the expectations of contemporary practice. It should investigate the provision of in-home care services, including the purchase of goods and services that are out of scope—capital works and renovations to dwellings, such as new bathrooms, and internal and external house painting to name a few. It should investigate the opportunity to implement emerging and innovative models of care and best practice across the entire sector. It should review the audit process related to aged-care standards, as the focus appears to be on financial and compliance aspects and not on service delivery and feedback from older persons and their families. The audit must include evidence of the voices of older persons who actually live in residential facilities. It should focus on workforce development and training. There needs to be a strong focus on quality and relevance of competencies to deliver a person-first approach. There should be staff ratios that recognise an effective skill mix and cultural competencies that meet residential needs. There should be a focus on access to aged-care services and facilities for people with complex mental health issues, including those who have been imprisoned. It should investigate the establishment of a funding model that is focused on the development of a co-design model of care, as opposed to services that simply meet a proposed funding envelope. It should investigate the growing incidence of elder abuse in both community and residential settings, including the use of chemical restraints; investigate ready access to advocacy services for older persons; and investigate access to appropriately skilled and qualified gender-relevant translators and/or interpreters.

The Herbert electorate has an ageing population, and the issues associated with respectful care of our older persons from a human rights perspective are absolutely critical. We are an ageing population. In my electorate of Herbert, we have so many people who are in desperate need of aged-care services, particularly in-home care services. Our older persons are in desperate need of services and facilities in our community that help them live safely in their own homes for as long as is humanly possible. Older Australians cannot wait until after the royal commission; they need action right now. The government could start right now by reversing the billions of dollars that have been cut from the aged-care sector across the board, because this would make a significant difference to those people who are ageing in our communities as I speak.

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