Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Now those in the House might not know this but I actually worked in aged care when I was putting myself through uni. My mum worked in aged care for 20 years before she retired, so she got me a job when I started uni in her nursing home and I worked in the kitchen. I worked across two different nursing homes in the kitchens as a casual. It was a good job, and you get to talk to all kinds of people who work in the kitchens and the various sections of the nursing home.

However, what I think about now about that time is that sometimes people in the admin office would be on leave, so they'd get me in to cover them because I could type as I was a law student. Sometimes the diversional therapists would be on leave and they'd get me in to cover them. When you think about getting residents in and out of their rooms and the kinds of activities that we put on for them each morning, you think—I'm sure it was all fine—I wasn't qualified. And sometimes the occupational therapists were on leave and they got me in to cover them. When you think about the qualifications they have and the work that they do in nursing homes—mobilising residents and their bones and their muscles, the kinds of movements that they're required to do and the care they're required to provide—I didn't have any of those qualifications. It didn't raise an eyebrow that I was doing that kind of relief work. That was in the mid-2000s; that was 20 years ago, and it seems like the systemic issues in aged care have gotten worse since then. So when I visit these days, as the federal member, and I talk to residents, I can only think of trying to get back into the kitchens to talk to the workers about what their experience is like and who's covering what shifts when I can't see. When I try to talk to my centre directors about the aged-care crisis now—this week, this year—I can't get them on the phone. I'm sure my colleagues have the same experience. When I try to call my centre directors to find out if there are ways I can help, if there are messages they want me to bring to this place, I can't get them on the phone because they're back on the floor. They are ex-nurses who are now centre directors who are having to cover shifts.

Yesterday lots of us went to a rally for aged-care workers outside the building. Those workers were telling us they are being asked to do things that are criminal under Australia's industrial relations law. They are being asked to cover double shifts, triple shifts. They are beside themselves. They want to do the right thing by their residents, but we are in a situation where they just cannot juggle everything. What worries me amidst all of that is that we have an aged-care minister who is completely missing and who in the other place, just this week, has said that the sector is not in crisis. I do not know what crisis looks like if not this—a one-in-100-year pandemic. Reflecting on personal experiences suggests to me that systemic issues in the sector go back at least 20 years. I don't know what a crisis is if it isn't that.

And people say now that residents are not getting food and water, and their wounds are not being attended to. They're dying, and their deaths are preventable. Aged-care workers are doing their very best, and their unions are fighting for them, but they are exhausted and they are burnt out. There is no adequate staffing safety net. Providers across the country are estimating that 140,000 shifts are now unfilled each week. That's almost a quarter of aged-care worker shifts. I know that we hear about the surge force, and it is a good measure that has been put in, but it is covering less than one per cent of the shifts that are currently short-staffed.

I remember, when the royal commission report came in last year, being absolutely shocked by the statistic—which I have just called up again—that we need 17,000 more direct workers each year in aged care over the next 10 years and altogether we need 400,000 additional workers in aged care by 2050. We need 400,000 additional workers in this besieged sector by 2050, when we currently have 140,000 shifts a week going unfilled in 2022. It needs focus. It needs funding. It needs priority. It needs commitment. It needs a whole lot more than it's getting right now.

I spoke earlier in the day about several stories from my constituency of various families who are struggling in the current situation. Let's talk about what they want us to do. We've got nine sitting days left in the 46th Parliament. What do they want us to do? They want us to stop kicking the can down the road. They want us to treat all recommendations in the royal commission report with the respect, the funding and the priority that they deserve. They want minimum staff ratios. They want direct employment of staff, with enforceable labour standards, training and professional development.

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