Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is recognised on 15 June; and

(b) this day is an opportunity to increase awareness of the different forms of elder abuse, whether they be financial, psychological, physical or neglect; and

(2) acknowledges that the Government is committed to:

(a) implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety; and

(b) ensuring that older Australians are afforded the proper care and respect they deserve.

15 June last week marked World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. It's a timely reminder for all of us in this place that we must do everything that we can to end the scourge that is elder abuse. Elder abuse is any act which causes harm to an older person and is carried out by someone they know and trust. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was established on 8 October 2018. One of the terms of reference for the royal commission referred to examining mistreatment and all forms of abuse. Many of the commission's findings were shocking, not the least when it came to uncovering the prevalence of elder abuse.

The office of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety estimates that around 39.2 per cent of people living in Australian aged-care facilities experience elder abuse. They experience it in any number of ways. They can suffer neglect, emotional abuse and physical abuse. But elder abuse is also more wide ranging than just these three forms. Financial, social and sexual abuse may also be experienced. Internationally, the UN estimates that about one in six people over 60 years of age experienced some form of abuse in community settings in the past year. Worse still, rates of elder abuse increased during COVID-19. No older person should ever be subjected to abuse, never, and it beholds each of us to be on the lookout for elder abuse, to look out for the signs and to see the red flags in whatever settings they may be found. The Elder abuse phone line is an excellent initiative and one I commend. In New South Wales we have our own Ageing and Disability Abuse Helpline, and I'm aware of other services around the country.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is a day that we can highlight the needs of our elderly in general, and I'm proud of the government's record in this area. The most recent budget is a good example because it is a budget that very much addresses the recommendations of the 2018 royal commission. We are helping our elderly by providing them with up to $500 towards their electricity bill. We're helping them reduce the cost of their medicines. But the one I'm particularly delighted with is the Albanese government's $11.3 billion commitment over four years to fund a 15 per cent increase to the wage of many aged-care workers. The wage increase will take effect from 30 June. This initiative will help build a skilled aged-care workforce, one that can better deliver the high-quality aged care older people deserve. This is transformational change. It is a change that will make a real difference, a life-changing difference, to thousands of elderly Australians around the country.

But this government's record goes further. This year's budget also allocated more funding for an additional 9,500 home-care packages. The initiative will allow more elderly Australians to get the care and help they need to live at home with dignity and respect. This government leaves no one behind. That's why the budget also included funding for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program. This additional funding recognises the higher cost of delivering residential care in remote locations.

I do not pretend that the job of improving our aged-care system is completed—far from it—but the royal commission provided us as a parliament and as a nation an opportunity to stop, assess and, more importantly, commit to do better. Our oldest Australians deserve nothing less, and they deserve to age with dignity. The journey to delivering a world-class aged-care system is well underway, and I look forward to future Albanese Labor budgets, which will take us further along that journey. We should all commit to improving the quality of our aged-care system, and by acknowledging that elder abuse still exists we can also ensure that it is not acceptable and, moreover, ensure that there are enough safeguards to stop it happening at all.

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