Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I think much of the public think that we down here in Canberra are partisan and don't get along. I think it is quite the opposite. We try our very best to work together, and I'm sure the member for Corangamite sitting across the table would agree. This bill is one of those times that we have tried to work together and have done. Labor have taken on many of our amendments in the best interests of older people—those people in aged care. We do work well together down here, despite what you see in question time—and I quite often question that question time gives the wrong impression to people, because we work well in communities, we work well together and we are all here for the benefit of Australians and to make Australia a better place. We've certainly taken a huge step forward in terms of this bill and what we're providing for older people.

During my maiden speech—and, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, we came in at the same time, and my maiden speech feels like 10 years ago, not five years ago—I spoke about aged care. I spoke about aged care being little more than a balance sheet, a ledger with profit and loss. I think we have come some way since then, in terms of the royal commission into aged care, but we have a lot of work to do.

I think back to when I was a boy. My father was a GP in a small country town, and, on a Sunday, after church, we would go and do the rounds with him, and that included going to the nursing homes. I distinctly remember the smell of the nursing home, and it was sterile. It wasn't a home. It was like a hospital where people went to die. It was almost like palliative care. And we would walk around with dad and speak to the older people, and quite often we'd be the only people, outside the nursing staff, they would've seen all week. To be perfectly honest, I hated it because it was so sad. You would go around and speak to these older people, sitting in their chairs or lying in their beds, who had nothing and saw no-one apart from the nursing staff. I've spoken about my father; he said we needed to do better for those people who'd built our country, who were at the end of their lives, and he was exactly right.

I know we have come a long way since then—a very long way. On that point: I recently went to the 50th anniversary for Nambucca Valley Care, or NVC, who have nursing homes in Nambucca, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey and Macksville. They were set up as a not-for-profit and remain not-for-profit, and the services they provide for our community are absolutely wonderful. I cannot imagine our community without them. It was a great night, a wonderful evening. I give a shout-out to the Pacific islander nurses and nurses' aides, who put on a wonderful performance that night. It shows the importance of the PALM scheme and our immigration scheme with our Pacific neighbours.

Those services that are provided by NVC are second to none. And they are part of our community. When you look at not-for-profits, as opposed to for-profits—and getting back to that statement, that ledger or balance sheet—their clients aren't treated like a number. They're not treated as profit and loss. They're treated as people—people who have built our country; decent human beings.

In recent times—speaking of a high level of quality of nursing homes—the coalition, when we were in government, were fortunate enough, in St Agnes' parish in Port Macquarie, to secure over $11 million in both state and federal funding, to go towards a dementia village based on a project and a design from the Netherlands. I'm sure, Deputy Speaker, you've been to dementia wards. They are not nice places to go to. But this facility—and I use that word loosely—or this place is eight homes, which are open. I would be proud to live in one of these homes. The 94 residents are free to walk around. It doesn't feel like a hospital or an aged-care home, and it is absolutely first class. If today were the last day I stood in this place, that would be one of my major achievements. In Cowper, we have over 30 per cent of the population who are over the age of 65, but we also have one of the highest dementia rates in the country. So to have a place where people can go and truly call it home, where they can go outside and garden or go and collect the eggs from the chicken coop—it is actually like being at your home. It provides that relief and comfort for the families as well. You're not walking into one of those cold, sterile homes or hospitals; you're actually going into a home to see your mum, your dad, your grandma or your grandpa, and they are happy in there. That's one of my greatest achievements, and that is what we need to be working towards. This bill goes a long way towards that.

While I'm talking about aged care and home hospice, only last week I met with the home hospice ladies in Port Macquarie. They raise funds for people who can't afford the equipment they need when they are at home in palliative care. I experienced palliative care very early because my father died when I was still a teenager. He was at home, and we were able to give him home hospice because we could afford it. But many can't. I had an afternoon tea with these wonderful ladies from home hospice, and they raise money so people can stay at home in palliative care. So thank you to the home hospice ladies for the work that you do and the fabulous tea and sandwiches that you put on.

This bill was a bipartisan effort, but I do commend the coalition on the changes that they put forward and I thank the government for accepting those changes. I will just run through those. This bill aims to ensure that the Commonwealth aged-care services remain accessible to those who require them now and into the future. We'll continue to consult with older Australians because that's the only way to keep up to date with what is required. One of the major things that we suggested and that was accepted by the government was the grandfathering clause. The coalition actually fought to include the grandfathering arrangements to ensure that every Australian who had already commenced their journey in aged care would not be impacted by these changes. That means that, if you're in aged care now, these won't affect you, so you don't need to be worried. There will be no changes. You'll continue to stay where you are and enjoy, hopefully, the services and the care that you're being provided.

There are contribution caps, which are extremely important. The original proposal saw no cap on home care and a cap of $184,000 on residential aged care only. We gained a concession that no older Australia will ever pay more than $130,000 for home care and the non-clinical care in residential care combined. We secured $300 million in additional capital funding through the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program for regional, rural and remote aged-care providers to upgrade their facilities as well as additional aged-care funding, particularly for regional, rural and remote aged-care homes.

I make the point on regional and rural aged-care homes that what we don't want to do is overburden them with regulation. While I agree with the implementation of 24/7 nurses, the timing for that made it very, very difficult in regional and rural areas. We saw the closure of over 40 aged-care homes across Australia because of that. So, if you overburden regional and rural providers, you might not have the services in some of the smaller towns. We've actually seen that in Cowper. We need to have that really delicate balance between having rules for service providers and making it so hard that you're concentrating on box-ticking rather than looking after your clients and your residents. Again, I did agree with the implementation of 24/7 nurses. There are some exceptions there, but we don't want to close down our residential aged-care facilities because of a box-ticking exercise.

It was pleasing to see the removal of the criminal penalties that were proposed under the original bill. On criminal penalties, as a former police officer and a lawyer, you do need a specific and general deterrence in certain circumstances. But, in aged care, do we really want to penalise or make it a criminal offence for some of our volunteers—people who go in there and work with the right intentions? Here we are saying, 'If you do the wrong thing, whether that be accidentally, then you're open to criminal penalties.' I think that's the last thing that we wanted. Again, that was taken on board by the government, and those criminal penalties have been removed, which is very pleasing to see.

But there are other facets of this bill that I could go through. At the end of the day, we are, as I've said, all here to improve the lives of our older Australians, to improve aged care, and we have come a long way, but we do have to take further steps. At the end of the day, it is pleasing to see that all sides of government have worked well to see this bill pass. I commend it to the House.

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