Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

BURNS () (): I'm very pleased to speak on this incredibly important motion put forward by my friend and colleague the member for Corangamite, who has a deep connection to and fights for the aged-care residents in her electorate and for the many families who rely on our aged-care sector. I want to thank her for putting forward this motion and for all of her work in that sector.

I want to start by saying thank you. I want to say thank you to the staff in our aged-care sector who are working around the clock to look after some of the most vulnerable and most important Australians that we've got. I also want to say thank you to the staff who are looking after my grandparents. I am deeply grateful not just for the care and effort that they put into supporting my grandparents but for their professionalism, their skill and their commitment to producing high-quality care for people that I love, and not just for them but for all of their fellow aged-care residents as well.

As we all know, our aged-care staff don't have many choices, unlike this government. Our aged-care staff don't have the choice to go to the cricket instead of turning up to work. Our aged-care staff don't have the choice to just take three days off and head down to watch Mitchell Starc bowl a few balls. That's just not a choice that is available for our aged-care staff. Our aged-care staff don't have the choice to, instead of turning up for work, do ridiculous TV appearances playing the ukulele. It's absurd and it's silly, but that's not a choice that our aged-care staff have. They have to turn up to work, in conditions that are extremely challenging, where they are constantly in need of extra support and in need of extra resources. Our aged-care staff don't have the choice to just lay down tools. They have to work their guts out in order to support the people in our aged-care homes. I just want to say thank you to all of them for all of their efforts.

What they need is not just thanks. They also need a significant pay rise, and it would be a profound gesture of support if the federal government, instead of telling everyone in the aged-care sector how good they've got it, actually supported our aged-care workers in the Fair Work Commission in their case for a permanent pay rise—not just some election cash splashes like this government is very fond of but a recognition that the work that they do is important and high skilled, that delivering high-quality aged care is something fundamental that we as Australians respect and hold dear and that older Australians, people who have given this country everything, at the very least should be met with the level of care and support that each and every human being is worthy of.

But, instead, the government will often cite facts and figures and macro figures about how much they're spending, about their record spending in the sector, saying they've sent this many masks and this much PPE, citing 70,000 hours of shifts—all high-level figures that have been put together by some operators in various ministers' offices. But they haven't actually addressed the issues in the sector. It's all very well and good to send X many masks into aged care. That's good—of course it's good, but it's not fixing the problems in the sector. We have chronic staff shortages, staff who are paid less than many of those who work in our supermarkets stacking shelves. Our supermarket workers have been heroic throughout this pandemic, and this is not in any way a reflection on them; it's a reflection on saying, 'We need to value our workers properly in this country,' and at the moment our aged-care workers are some of the most undervalued and underpaid workers, due to the attitudes of this government.

I don't want to hear facts and figures from the minister for health and the minister for aged care. The minister for aged care hasn't actually been able to provide accurate facts and figures throughout this whole thing. Putting that aside, we don't want to hear facts about what record spending this government is doing, because it's rubbish. What we want to see is action that actually addresses the chronic staff shortages, the huge waiting lists in home care, the neglect of some of our most important Australians. We need change, and it starts with this government.

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