Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

The Interim report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety describes the current state of Australia's aged-care service as 'a cruel lottery in which some people die before they ever find out if they have in fact won'. What a shocking statement from the royal commission. While this statement applies to both residential aged-care services and in-home care, the greatest need clearly lies with those who find themselves waiting for a home care package in the government's own form of purgatory: the national prioritisation queue.

The queue is a waiting list for individuals who have been assessed for a home care package but are yet to receive a package at their assessed level—or indeed any package at all. The waitlist figures are released quarterly. As at 30 June 2019, there were just shy of 120,000 people on the waitlist. While I appreciate the government has recently announced another 10,000 places, we have 120,000 elderly, vulnerable Australians waiting for care at home—dying while they're waiting for care.

While the Commonwealth home support package is providing at least basic supports to 96 per cent of individuals on the waitlist, this is a poor substitute for the care required by many older Australians. The approximately 120,000 people waiting on the prioritisation queue face a lengthy wait. According to the department's quarterly report of the Home Care Packages Program, individuals assessed at a level 1 package can expect to wait approximately three to six months for an interim package and a further three to six months for their final package. For those assessed as requiring a level 4 package, the individual can expect to wait 12 months for an interim level 2 package, and at least another 12 months for a level 4 package. That's effectively two years for the package that they were assessed as needing—not wanting; needing.

The royal commission noted in its interim report that those who are in greatest need must wait the longest. The situation worsens when consideration is given to the home care package data produced by the department to the royal commission, as these figures provide a more accurate representation of home care package waiting times than those disclosed to the public. While the publicly available data shows the wait time for a level 4 package to be in the vague vicinity of 12 months plus, the meaningful waiting time was actually 22 months, and it's unlikely that the average waiting time would have decreased in 2019. This uncertainty has a huge impact on older Australians. The royal commission heard evidence of avoidable hospital admissions, high risk of mortality, early admissions to residential aged care and a detrimental impact on the health and finances of family carers.

One of my own constituents spent over 18 months waiting for an approved level 2 package. During that time his health slowly deteriorated and he was no longer able to dress, feed or bathe himself. He received no supports, and his elderly wife struggled to meet his everyday care needs. When I raised this matter with the minister, I was advised my constituent would remain on the national waitlist as a medium priority with an approximate wait time of three to six months. Five months later, my constituent is still waiting. Regarding the challenges faced by his elderly wife, she can call the helpline or she can visit the Carer Gateway—the website—and try and seek further resources. This is unacceptable. It's not like we can say we don't know—because we do know. These are the most vulnerable people in Australia. They have worked all their life; they have worked so hard. As one gentleman said to me, 'I'm in my 90s, Rebekha—if I can't get a package, who can?' And what do we have ahead of this? We have the surplus: 'We need to have a surplus.' We have a government who is ensuring that we have a surplus, but they're doing it on the back of elderly people and they're doing it on the back of people with a disability. We are doing this on the back of our most vulnerable Australians. In my community, I know we want this money to go to people who need a package—who need help showering, who need help getting dressed. It's not that hard. It's a question of priorities, it's a question of values, and I think the values here are skewed and they need to change.

See this speech in context