Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] The member for Dawson just asked us all to be careful what we wish for. I'll tell the chamber what I wish for. I wish for an aged-care system where every member of my community feels that their parents can go and live the last five, 10, 15 or 20 years of their lives, with dignity, being respected, in comfort, fed well and getting the medical care that they need. I wish for a system where the people who work in it, who are predominantly women, are paid what they deserve, are given the respect that they deserve and have the training and the career opportunities that they deserve. I wish, on behalf of my community, for an aged-care system where people who want to spend the last few years, weeks, months or even days of their lives at home are able to do so, whether or not they are rich or poor, whether they are workers or whether they are people who have investments. My wish on behalf of my community is for an aged-care system where everyone is treated equally and has equal access to the care that they deserve as members of our community. My community doesn't think that's too much to ask for. I don't think that's too much to wish for. Member for Dawson, that's what we on this side of the chamber are calling for.

When I stand up and say that the aged-care system is in crisis, I say that because day after day I have members of my community contacting me because the aged-care system is letting them down. I say it because people like Joanne from Frankston contact me and say that their parents are still waiting for a level 3 and 4 My Aged Care package. They were offered level 1 in the interim, but it turns out that they're better off not taking the level 1 because it's not as good as the assistance they're already getting, and they have to wait for a level 3 and 4 for who knows how long. Phil from Frankston is still waiting for a level 3 package. He was initially told it was 12 months away, and now it will be at least another four- to 12-week wait. His service provider has exhausted the funding, and he's got to wait to see if he can get the next level. Vishna and Margaret from Skye contacted the office because they've been in the system, trying to get the appropriate My Aged Care package, since 2018.

My wish, for my community and for Australians everywhere, is that people like Joanne, Phil, Vishna and Margaret don't have to be anxious for their loved ones and for themselves but can access a system that works. My wish on behalf of my community and my electorate is that the residents of Mount Eliza who had their parents and their grandparents living in an aged-care facility that was being run by people who had been banned from running chicken farms because they were cruel to animals didn't haven't to go through what they're going through now, as that facility has been put into administration. My wish is that local residents didn't have to contact my office, saying: 'How could this have happened? How could the government have let, for so many years, people who clearly should not have been running an aged-care facility run an aged-care facility? Now we are worried about what it means for our parents.'

This government was dragged kicking and screaming to a royal commission and seems to now want to say that throwing money into the gaps that it caused itself is going to be enough. It's not. In order to get the aged-care system working properly we have to fix the crisis in the workforce. We have to treat workers with respect and value their work and deliver them a career path. We need minimum staffing ratios. We need a minimum number of people in aged-care facilities caring for some of our most vulnerable Australians at every point in time. We need nurses 24/7. And the Morrison government should stand up now and support wage cases brought by workers before the Fair Work Commission so that the predominantly female workforce in aged care can get paid what they deserve. This government won't fix workforce issues, but it must. Administration and workforce—two really important things that this government is walking away from.

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