Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Indi for bringing this motion forward today. Indeed, ageing, along with death and taxes, is right up there in the inescapable realities of our human existence. I'm also very pleased to take this opportunity to mention my wife's nan Maxine Mitchell, who passed away last week at the very ripe old age of 96. She did extremely well. All the best to Warren, my father-in-law, and the rest of the family. Maxine, along with Peta's other nan on her maternal side, aged in residential settings. We are seeing this as increasingly one of the trends in modern Australia. So it's absolutely appropriate and very welcome that the Morrison government is continuing to invest in aged-care settings in the home, and of course that includes regional and remote areas as well.

I note that a component of the motion today speaks to tangible progress on aged care in rural and regional Australia. Now, this government certainly understands that senior Australians in regional and remote areas want equitable access to the care that they need, regardless of where they live, so that they can stay close to their loved ones and communities for as long as possible. This government also recognises that there are significant challenges facing aged-care providers in rural and remote areas and that there's a need to strengthen and support aged-care workers in those communities.

In response to the final report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the Australian government is delivering a $17.7 billion package for a once-in-a-generation reform of aged care, and this includes measures aimed at improving aged care in regional and rural Australia. In particular, recommendation 54 from the royal commission calls on the government to identify and address gaps in services to ensure equitable access to aged care in regional and remote locations. So the government has responded to this recommendation in the most recent budget, including through measures like the $630 million investment to make the aged-care system more accessible for senior Australians, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or living in rural and remote areas.

The government is strengthening its capacity to understand rural and remote service gaps and to develop policy solutions. The government announced recent results of the 2020 ACAR, which included the allocation of $150 million in capital grants—the single largest investment in residential aged-care infrastructure in Australia's history—and 97 per cent of this funding was allocated to services located in regional and remote Australia to fund projects that improve access to quality and sustainable aged-care services.

The government's $17.7 billion package of aged-care reforms will benefit senior Australians, and some of these initiatives are specifically targeted to promote sustainability and choice for the uptake of services in regional and remote Australia. For example, the budget measures include $396.9 million over five years to enable aged-care providers to make the needed improvements to their buildings and to build new services. This is in addition to the $150 million I mentioned earlier in capital funding. An investment of $106 million is also in place over four years to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumer experience and uptake of and access to aged care. There's $62 million over four years to support the delivery of viable high-quality aged care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and this will assist, in particular, those consumers to stay connected to country and culture and to meet travel needs of those who need to travel to deliver services. There is also $64 million to deliver a viable, high-quality, integrated care package to older Australians in regional and remote locations.

The government's investing in very practical support measures, including $5 million to support professional workforce capability development and also $25 million for the Rural Locum Assistance Program, and the key intent here is to lighten the burden and increase staff retention. So these are some of the many measures by which this government remains committed to supporting the aged-care sector.

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