Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will pick up from where the previous member was speaking. He is frustrated that he's got to defend this government's appalling record. He wants an honest conversation about what's happening in aged care in this nation. Well, I'm going to give him one, and I'm going to give him some honesty, because, whilst the government is 'annoyed' about motions in this parliament, I wish they'd be annoyed about the 120,000 Australians who are waiting for home care packages on their watch. That is practically an entire electorate of people who are not receiving the care that they desperately need. Perhaps most shocking of all is that 72,000 elderly Australians have no home care package at all. There are 72,000 people in this country with their names on a list—parents, loved ones, people with children and grandchildren—and the government comes to this chamber and says, 'We're frustrated that we have to get up and talk about these issues.'

I bet you they're frustrated! How about the people who are frustrated and worried about their parents, their mothers-in-law and grandparents who are frail and invalid in their homes? I tell you what: that's frustrating—not sitting in this chamber and lecturing everyone about, 'Just wait until you get a stronger economy.' Where is it? Where is the stronger economy? When's that happening? The last time I checked, our economy is starting to tank.

Let's not have any more weasel words from this government. Get on your feet and start apologising to Australians. That's the first step you need to take. The number is growing. In their time, in almost seven years in government, the waiting list for home care has grown from 88,000 to 120,000 older Australians. We have been calling for action on reducing the waiting list since the first release of data, and we are not alone. Doctors and nurses are banding together to call for immediate action to fix the nation's aged-care system. Fine: ignore what Labor has to say, but listen to what the health professionals are saying. Listen to what doctors are saying about what we need to do with regards to fixing the aged-care crisis in this country. The AMA President, Dr Tony Bartone, said that the peak medical body 'can no longer wait and watch the aged-care system in Australia deteriorate.'

That is part of their detailed submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which has been extended for six months and has so far received more than 6,000 submissions and heard hundreds of hours of evidence, including of alleged neglect and mistreatment. People are sitting in aged-care facilities being malnourished. People in aged-care facilities are dehydrated. And we hear from this government that they're frustrated that they've got to come and debate a motion today. I'll tell you what's frustrating: when you're in an aged-care facility and you're being dehydrated and malnourished, or you're a son or grandchild worried about the care of your parents or your grandparents in their own home. There is no more serious statistic in the AMA submission than, when they called for a big investment in home care packages and we heard that there are 119,524 older people waiting for the level of package they had been assessed for in June and 16,000 people had died waiting for one. And the previous member says, 'You shouldn't politicise this issue.' Well, it is political. You're in charge; do something about it!

So not only would we be saving people's lives this would also help the budget as well, because at the moment many older Australians are waiting for more than 12 months for the package they have been approved for and some are waiting for more than two years. This is unacceptable. We know that 14,000 elderly Australians have had to enter residential aged care because they could no longer stay at home waiting for the care that wasn't there. Others enter the hospital system and emergency departments. A week does not go by without another disturbing account emerging about the mistreatment or neglect of older Australians in residential care. Review after review has been ignored. Recommendations after recommendations have been ignored. What's worse is not only the government not putting extra money in aged care, the government are cutting funds meant to find ways to improve the system.

We see time and time again that the health and wellbeing of our eldest Australians should not be a political football. I will agree on that. But this should hardly come as a shock when we have a Prime Minister with an awful track record when it comes to funding for aged care in this nation. We know that the government has ripped billions of dollars out of the aged-care sector for the past five years. Funding for residents has indeed gone backwards. The Prime Minister cut $1.2 billion from aged care in his first budget, as Treasurer, backing in a $500 million cut in the 2015 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. Not with a mediocre handout but with a decisive response that this crisis deserves, this government should be hearing these messages. I commend the member for Parramatta for sticking up for older Australians—I'll continue to do so, as every single Labor member will.

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