Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is only one truth in this chamber today and that is our aged-care system is in absolute crisis and that for five years this government has failed to act, time and time again. In fact, the story of neglect is appalling. It is a story of cuts, $2 billion worth of cuts out of the aged-care sector. Since the 2014 budget, this government has been on notice that its work in this sector is coming up short. When first elected after the 2014 budget, I have a clear memory of visiting one of the not-for-profit aged-care facilities in my electorate to hear from the management there about the drastic impact the dementia supplement cuts were going to have on their day-to-day operations. I raised it in this House, as did many others on this side of the chamber. We knew that those cuts were going to have radical implications on the ground, particularly in the not-for-profit sector where they were going to be dealing with more and more high-care dementia patients with less and less funds to do so. It only got worse from there. We had a crisis around retirement villages that the member for Franklin spoke about often, as did I, and we called then for an ombudsman to look into that sector to make it easier for people to make complaints and to have their concerns heard.

We then come to the aged-care facilities and, again, we've had cut after cut after cut. The government signalled their intent in the 2014 budget and then, in the 2016 budget and the MYEFO, we saw further cuts. When the current Prime Minister was Treasurer, they looked for savings of $1.2 billion over four years with their changes to ACFI.

In contrast, in May in this chamber in the budget reply speech, Labor leader, Bill Shorten, announced that a Labor government would make dementia and ageing a national priority, and here we are today talking about the royal commission into aged care. After failure after failure after failure, we find ourselves with the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. This is despite the Carnell-Paterson review, commissioned by those opposite, that was delivered in October 2017. It is now October 2018, and we're here talking about a royal commission but failing to act on the recommendations of that review until this week, when legislation will be brought into this chamber.

Our ageing population need to know that they will be able to age with dignity. They need to know that they will be able to stay in their homes for as long as they can, living independent lives, with support. We know that home care packages are the way to prevent people having to go into aged-care facilities for a longer period of time. They give people the best chance of staying in their homes and living a dignified life, and this government have failed in that space. In home care packages, they have failed. They've come up short at every opportunity. They then make announcements with a list of 121,000 people waiting for home care packages, 50,000 of those waiting for level 3 and 4 home care packages. They make an announcement that will put some home care packages into the system but go nowhere near covering the needs of our community.

In contrast, in 2012, Labor went with Living Longer Living Better, an evidence-based policy about quality staff, about quality care, about dignity, about home care packages meaning people had preventative things put in place to avoid those accidents, to avoid those broken hips, to avoid the trips and falls, and to ensure that people could stay at home longer.

Rather than put itself in a positive position, this government has failed to act for five years now across the entire space. The royal commission is necessary, but we know already that there are areas that could be fixed today if this government so chose. I join the member for Franklin and call on this government to take the actions we know will assist today, to increase the number of home care packages, to get this system out of crisis as quickly as possible. Yes, we need a royal commission, but we already know some of the faults and we already know some of the solutions. This government needs to act today.

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