Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In April I was not doorknocking in Concord and knocked on the door of a woman in her eighties. She lives on her own and she described how her neighbours helped to create a sense of community and support around her. Her neighbour across the road comes over to mow her lawn, the neighbour to the side of her comes over regularly for a cup of tea, and the kids down the street stop by on their way to and from school. One night she was out at bingo. The neighbours dropped by but didn't see her. They tried calling her and couldn't get through so they started calling her family to alert them that she might be missing. When she finished at bingo and checked her phone, she found a bunch of missed calls and messages from concerned family and neighbours. She loves living on the street but now she makes it a point to let her neighbours know when she is popping out or going away on a trip so they don't get alarmed.

I tell that story because it is an example of how neighbours can help build a sense of community around our older Australians. Not all of us get to live on that amazing street in Concord. Older Australians sometimes need extra help so they can stay living independently longer. Research shows the longer older people live in the community, the higher their quality of life and the lower the cost to government—win, win, win. It is also what older Australians want. They want to stay living at home longer independently. So it is pretty galling to see the member for Casey put forward this private member's motion, trying to spruik the Morrison government achievements for older Australians. He, like me, was not here during the Morrison government years, so let me remind him of what those opposite actually did with home-care packages.

Here is what we learned from the royal commission into aged care. Under those opposite, older Australians needing high level home care were left waiting almost three years for a package. In one 12-month period, 16,000 older Australians died waiting for a package to be delivered. In the same period, a further 13,000 older Australians who had been approved for a high-level home-care package were shifted into an aged-care facility against their wishes. And in 2021, there were almost 100,000 elderly people on the waiting list for a home-care package. Those things I just pointed to are not things that I would necessarily go around spruiking, but, okay, Member for Casey!

Here is a snapshot of how representatives in the aged-care sector described the home-care system under the Morrison government. Council on the Ageing Chief Executive Ian Yates said that the system wasn't working. John McCallum, the CEO of consumer group National Seniors, called the home-care waiting list a running sore and a critical failure. The aged-care royal commission's interim report was scathing, describing the lengthy queue as cruel and discriminatory. These are still not things I'd necessarily be spruiking, Member for Casey. But you are right: the Morrison government did release 80,000 home-care packages over two budgets. It's just a shame they waited until the entire home-care-package system was on the brink of failure before trying to do anything to save it.

We, on this side of the House, are trying to fix the system that we inherited from those opposite. We are introducing a new Support at Home program designed to consolidate and streamline the current home-care packages, short-term restorative care and respite care, so that older Australians are not left waiting and waiting to get their packages. We are providing 24,000 additional home-care packages, with the aim of supporting more people to get support at home. This investment is expected to bring wait times down to an average of six months from assessment. Just remember: their wait times ballooned out to three years. That was totally unacceptable. We are doing everything we can to support older Australians to be able to age in place.

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