Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for his question and for his work supporting the aged-care workers in his electorate looking after older Australians in Western Sydney.

The aged-care royal commission's final report told a shocking story into neglect in action and a lack of ambition from those opposite. One of the commission's key findings was that unacceptable staffing levels created horrific environments of substandard care. When we came to government, we sprang into action to clean up the mess left by those opposite. We have been working for older Australians and those who care for them ever since.

We supported a pay rise for aged-care workers, which led to a 15 per cent increase to the award wage. We legislated a requirement for 24/7 nursing to make sure aged-care residents could get the clinical care that they required around the clock. Our first set of data for our 24/7 nursing mandate revealed staggering improvements. On average, there is a nurse on site 98 per cent of the time, or 23½ hours a day. On average, 86 per cent of all homes who have reported data have a nurse 24/7, and the majority of the remaining homes are extremely close to meeting that target. Most are only one or two hours off.

This is having a real tangible effect on the ground. In the past year there has been a reduction in the number of pressure injuries. There has been a reduction in the number of physical restraints. There has been a reduction in the number of significant unplanned weight loss, in falls, in polypharmacy and in the use of antipsychotics in aged care. We are also seeing improvements in the star-ratings data that we introduced, with fewer one- and two-star rated facilities and more four- and five-star rated facilities. This is just since December, when we launched the program. That is what 24/7 nursing has always been about. It's been about fewer falls, fewer pressure injuries, fewer avoidable hospital admissions, more older people feeling safe and respected in aged care.

These improvements have taken a whole-of-government approach, pulling every lever that we have to build the aged-care workforce, but the real heroes of this mission have been the aged-care workers. Aged-care workers voted with their feet at the election. They elected an Albanese Labor government to put nurses back into nursing homes. For too long these workers have been overworked and they have been underpaid. They've seen their colleagues work in other parts of the care economy with better pay and better conditions, but they stuck with it because they love their residents. So today, on 'Thank you for working in aged-care day', to those workers we say: 'Thank you. Thank you for waiting it out and thank you for working in aged care.'

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