Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this important motion and thank the member for Corangamite for her continued tireless advocacy for older Australians. I know that you have been an advocate for a long time as well, Deputy Speaker Sharkie. But the whole aged-care system in the past has been a total mess, and, as governments of all persuasions, we'll be judged in the future on how we looked after our older Australians, who have paid their taxes, fought in wars and basically built the foundations that we stand on today—in some cases literally, through their hard labour.

Since coming to power, the Albanese government has made a commitment and a priority to address and act on the recommendations of the royal commission. Our commitment is to return security, dignity, quality and humanity to our aged-care system, and that is a priority. For example, we've heard the royal commission and are introducing the requirement to have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This will save thousands of stressful, expensive and ultimately unnecessary trips to hospitals, to emergency departments. What happens now if there is no nurse on the premises after hours, if one of the residents needs medical attention and there is no-one there qualified to provide that medical attention? They call an ambulance and they're just taken to the public hospital. This will stop a lot of that. Of course, there will be a mechanism for smaller facilities in some of the regional and remote areas. We understand it could be difficult to implement these changes, but that will be taken into consideration as well. But this exemption will only be on a temporary basis. In time, all facilities will have to be able to facilitate a registered nurse 24 hours a day on the premises. This is really important, because all older Australians, regardless of where they live, have the right to the same quality of care, whether they're in a city, in a rural or regional town or in a remote area.

This brings us to another problem, and that's the workforce issues. The pandemic showed us how stretched aged-care workers are. They often have to work across multiple sites to make ends meet. They are undoubtedly dedicated and committed. I've met some absolutely committed people in aged-care facilities that work there because they love the job and they are committed to older Australians, but they're also overworked, underpaid and undervalued. This is why the government is backing a real pay rise for aged-care workers. We have to make a submission to the Fair Work Commission in support of increased wages for aged-care workers. Importantly, we have committed to funding the outcome. In addition, we have established a wide range of programs to attract staff and support retention, including those registered nurses. Addressing working conditions for aged-care staff is essential if we want a good aged-care system and we want the quality of care to improve.

We are also committed to capping administration costs and exit fees for people receiving home-care packages. One of the complaints I get in my office is that the money that's allocated for a particular home-care package isn't actually going into the home care; it's going into administration costs. It's really important that the money that's given for packages goes into care. The royal commission found that up to 50 per cent of some home-care packages was eaten up in admin and management fees. During the pandemic we saw that, with some of the home providers, people were actually dying and care wasn't being provided, but there were multimillion-dollar profits, and people had Maseratis and million-dollar homes. It's just not fair on our older Australians. It's disrespectful of older Australians who are trying to continue to live independently in their own homes.

Money should be going on aged care or care in the home. Unacceptably high fees lead to older Australians missing out on the care that they need to keep living at home. We want an aged-care system that puts the customer and their care first. As I said earlier—it is so important—we will be judged as a nation in generations to come on how we've looked after our older Australians. It is not fair for those people in their twilight years, when they are putting their hand out for a bit of help and assistance. As governments we should be doing absolutely everything we can to assist these people.

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