Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Moncrieff, who has given so much of her first six months to focusing on the needs of the elderly and made this a deep, personal passion since she has commenced her time in this place.

I want to acknowledge that the royal commission was called by the Prime Minister as one of his first acts after coming to office. It was something he set out at the time as a priority, a need and a matter of great importance. I also want to thank the royal commissioners, Commissioner Briggs and Commissioner Tracey, who has since passed, for their work in bringing together the interim report. Indeed, Commissioner Tracey, even in his sickest days, was determined that he would complete the work of crafting the interim report. That report sets out real challenges for this country. It talks about our national culture over a long period of time and the challenges for successive governments. In particular, it identified three areas of need to which the government is responding today.

The first is in relation to home care. We have accepted the directions set out in the royal commission interim report, and we will unify the home care and home support programs. This is an important step forward to make sure that we are tailoring the care for our oldest Australians, for our most vulnerable Australians, to give them the support they need, when they need and where they need it: in their own home. As part of that, we are also going to provide $496 million for 10,000 home care places, which is an immediate response. Those places are in line with what the royal commission noted was absolutely essential: that we build the workforce at a pace and in a scale which is commensurate with safety and quality. This is based on not just this royal commission's findings but also those findings of a previous royal commission.

As well what we're doing in relation to those 10,000 places, the first of which will be available on 1 December, we are taking action in relation to dementia and medication management. On day 1 of the royal commission's interim report, we made with the states the safe and quality use of medicines a national health priority. From 1 January, we will make prescription of Risperidone, which is an antipsychotic, for longer than 12 weeks subject to a second-phase approval through the Department of Health. This is about making sure that chemical restraint is not misused. That is backed up by $35 million, including $25 million for medication management and $10 million for ensuring there is funding for dementia support in our workforce, as well as committing to the goals of getting younger Australians out of care by 2022 and 2025 respectively.

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