Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to speak on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Bill. I want to support the wonderful aged-care providers in my electorate, and I want to thank their staff, who genuinely care for their residents and often spend many hours, over and above their actual shifts, caring for people.

One of the toughest decisions you make as a loving family member is the decision you have to make when your parent or grandparent needs high-level or permanent care, especially when your mum or dad doesn't want to go into care or is struggling to understand why they need high-level care. It's a traumatic time, and it's one that our family faced when our much-loved mother's Alzheimer's made it impossible for her to live at home. She fell in an aged-care home while on respite and broke her hip, and then she fell in hospital and broke her spine. She did not walk again, and she couldn't remember that she couldn't walk and needed high-level care. It broke our hearts to have to make the decision to put mum into an aged-care facility, and we know that we broke her heart as well, because this was the last place that she wanted to be; we'd already had that discussion. In spite of the fact that our family knew there was no alternative, we do carry that hurt today, and I know it's the same for so many families that I speak to.

Given Mum's condition and how much we loved her, my sister and I decided that one of us would visit her every single day and spend as much time as possible with her. We knew it would not be possible for the staff to spend the amount of time with her that we thought she needed. We also knew that for her, with her Alzheimer's, the only real thing that she recognised in her surroundings every day was us—her long-term memory kept us in her mind. My sister and I did an Alzheimer's workshop to better understand how to help her. We learned at the time that where she was mattered far less than who was looking after her. Some of the staff were amazing, wonderfully caring people. On the nights they were on duty, we left the nursing home with a smile on our faces. On other nights I would cry on the way home knowing she would have a long and lonely night.

My mother, because she couldn't walk and was at great risk of falling, was strapped into her chair and her bed. One night she tried to get out of the bed but became entangled in those straps. She hung over the side of the bed in the straps for far too long. She bruised much of her body between the bed and the floor, suffered a stroke and died several days later in 2002. The staff were not allowed to talk to us at all about what had happened or how. Mum had died at night, and we were told that we could clean out her room the next morning. We were told we had until 11 am to do so, but when we got to the aged-care facility, first thing—we were early—her belongings were in a black plastic bag on a trolley and another family was already inspecting and in her room.

What we also saw the whole time mum was in this facility was that some of the other residents never had one visitor. My sister and I frequently did the rounds to simply say hello to those lonely people, and there were some staff members who also spent as much time as possible with them. We know that how we treat our senior and older Australians is a measure of our society. We were taught to respect our elders, most particularly the elderly who need our care. All of us need to show this respect and care, not just staff in aged-care facilities. It applies to each one of us—the family members, the friends, the people in our community as well as those entrusted with the care of our seniors and who provide the formal care.

There are different models of care depending on different cultures. In some countries, families have elderly family members living them, like many in the Italian community. We see this both in Italy and in places like my hometown of Harvey, with its strong Italian population, where local families do everything they can to keep their loved and respected older family members in their homes as long as possible. Some people, like those I've met in India, have several generations living in the same home—grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren. Others build facilities to provide care, like the facilities we see in our electorates around Australia.

With the calling of a royal commission into the aged-care sector, our government is determined to ensure the care of elderly Australians in aged-care facilities is of the highest quality. The royal commission will primarily look at the quality of care provided in residential and home based aged care for senior Australians, but it will also include—and I think this is particularly important—young Australians with disabilities living in residential aged-care settings.

Providing care for young people with severe disabilities is really important. One fantastic example of care for young people with disabilities is Treendale Gardens in Australind in my electorate, and I hope this model is considered by the royal commission as a model for delivering future projects around Australia. This project was a combined effort of the then Liberal state government, the local Rotary Club of South Bunbury and the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the result of the persistence and hard work of John Castrilli while he was the Liberal member for Bunbury. John Castrilli worked closely with Leanne Maher and the CEO of MSWA, Marcus Stafford. With John's strong advocacy, the then WA Liberal government provided the land. MS committed to building, equipping and operating the facility. And what a great model this is: the state government working with a genuine organisation geared towards, and with experience in delivering services to, the community.

This should be the model explored by the royal commission and the government for delivering services Australia-wide for young people. MS built double the originally planned capacity. They saw the need. MS then committed to further investment in our region, building another facility in Bunbury as well providing additional services to the community. In my opinion, this is a win-win model. People throughout the south-west really understand how important it is that we now have the first high-care facility for young people outside the Perth metro area. There was and is a very real need for this facility. Local girl Kylie Berryman was only young when she had a major car accident. She suffered brain trauma and needed permanent care. Her mother, Helen Demarte, worked tirelessly with John Castrilli to find the right facilities for her daughter. Unfortunately, both Helen and Kylie passed away before Helen was able to realise her dream with the facility in Treendale.

In his speech at the opening of the facility, John said, 'A dream came true today: Treendale Gardens, an accommodation and respite facility for people who have high-care needs due to disabilities but are too young to live in nursing homes.' The Rotary Club of South Bunbury contributed over $82,000 to the project, which were the proceeds from their charity house project, which involved an enormous amount of work by club members, and, as always with this type of project, very generous and direct support from the local business community. In this respect, I also want to acknowledge and thank key contributors and Rotary members Kevin, Annette, Terry and Jennifer Coote. It was land at their Treendale development that was bought by the then state government to build Treendale Gardens.

In relation to aged care, it is really important to put the facts on the record. Funding for aged care is at record levels. In 2017-18 alone, aged care spending will reach an estimated $18.6 billion, and funding will grow by $5 billion over the next five years. The sum of $1.6 billion has been provided to create an additional 20,000 higher-needs home care packages and in excess of $50 million is being provided every year for dementia-specific programs.

The issues facing both the aged care sector and people in the later years of their lives are very many and very complex. Those of us who have or have had relatives in aged care really understand this. It is very, very complex. The royal commission will see Australians providing a great deal of evidence in this space. In my view, in many instances our aged care sector provides some of the very best care in the world. I can think of many such facilities in my electorate. There are many in which I would be more than happy to spend my last days, weeks, months and years, if it comes to that.

The incidence of elder abuse and people not being provided appropriate care will be examined by the royal commission. Our government has made some significant changes in the aged-care sector, legislating for new Aged Care Quality Standards, the first upgrade of standards in 20 years, and has introduced a bill to create the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, supported by $106 million to support better facilities, care and standards in aged care. We have ensured that the department has the power to inspect facilities and to conduct spot audits. This has led to the closure of one aged-care service per month, with more under sanction to improve their services. This is a really important part of what the government is doing. We are putting in place clear requirements for better standards and we are providing the resources and powers to police those standards and to shine a light on the problems that exist. That's the whole point. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures we've been taking. I want to congratulate the Prime Minister and Minister Ken Wyatt for taking this decisive action.

This bill is a further step in our government's efforts to provide better quality care for consumers of aged-care services in Australia. It establishes a new single, independent commission that brings together, streamlines and makes more efficient the functions of the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, the Office of the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner and, from 1 January 2020, the aged care regulatory functions of the Department of Health. It brings together all issues relating to regulation in one body, which has the power to police the regulations it sets.

The commission will be responsible for promoting the confidence and trust of aged-care consumers in the provision of services, including Commonwealth funded aged-care services. It will also promote engagement with aged-care consumers and representatives within the aged-care sector about the quality of care and services that are provided. It will be led by the independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner. A single statutory office will enable flexible and responsive regulatory powers—flexible and responsive; those things are really important in the aged-care sector. This will enable a holistic risk based approach to aged-care regulation.

Many of the facilities I see, and some in my electorate, were built many, many years ago. We know that the expectations of family and people who are in aged-care facilities have increased significantly. The government is determined to ensure that the aged-care system has, at its heart, the consumer and the consumer's care. Consumers are at the heart of this reform, and, to me, that is the key in this space.

On the complaints side, the commission will have the powers to enforce the regulations it makes as a tough cop on the beat. The commission will engage with aged-care consumers to promote best practice models for engagement and for providers, again showing how consumers are at the heart of this—and the government's intention. Consumers are at the heart of these reforms.

But, in concluding my remarks, I believe that it is up to all of us. Whether we're family members, whether we're members of the community, whether we're the wonderful people who work in aged care—we all have a role to play. I'll go back to the comments I made about the numbers of people who are in aged-care facilities who never receive a visitor. If your families are not in the area, in some instances I can understand this. But when our relatives and when our dearly loved people are in aged care, it is up to each one of us to make sure that we get there as often as we can and love them in the same way when they're in aged care as we did when they lived in their own homes.

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