Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the chaos in the aged-care sector caused by this shambolic Abbott government. This is a government more interested in progressing an ideological agenda than implementing policy—policy which was developed by the member for Port Adelaide, who is at the table, when he was a minister in the previous Labor government and policy which was legislated with bipartisan support. Let us look at the Abbott government's record in aged care since they have come to power. The first thing they did was to axe the $1.2 billion Aged Care Workforce Supplement which was designed to address serious issues in the sector and promised to develop a workforce strategy, which the sector is still waiting for. They axed the $17 per day dementia and severe behaviours supplement paid to residential aged-care providers, after a blow-out—with no consultation and no warning. Until we notified them about the problem with the dementia and severe behaviours supplement, they did not even know about it. They announced some flying squads in their place to deal with residents with severe behaviours, with no evidence or trialling of the program. They asked for tenderers for the flying squads to come up with a model about how they might work. In this budget they cut $20 million from their newly-formed Dementia and Aged Care Services Fund, which was previously known as ACSIHAG, and they have abandoned the National Younger Onset Dementia Key Worker program.

The first thing the government did was to get rid of the $1.2 billion Aged Care Workforce Supplement. It was an ideological decision. This supplement was designed to help the lowest-paid workers in the country—those who work in the aged-care sector. Those opposite said, when they did this, that they would see vastly improved pay and conditions for the aged-care workforce because the market would let rip. There has been no such thing. We have seen a further casualisation of the workforce rather than greater certainty. The ageing of our population has put incredible pressure on the sector, and we need in the next eight years another 55,770 aged-care workers. We need a trebling of the aged-care workforce by 2050. This is a big challenge in the sector—a sector under pressure and facing increasing competition. It needs growing use of technology, development of leadership, a focus on wellness, reablement and not just traditional care. But, in a moment of unguarded ideology-free honesty, the assistant minister with responsibility for this $14 billion portfolio, said in an online journal that everyone in the sector reads, Australian Ageing Agenda, on 20 May 2015:

Government can't escape their obligation in terms of funding workforce. Building a better skilled, more appropriate aged care workforce will improve outcomes for older Australians.

I agree, but the government has an integral role to play here. Like many on that side of the chamber, he says one thing and does another, and actions speak louder than words. The assistant minister has just seen a 15 per cent reduction in the Aged Care Workforce Development Fund.

Almost 18 months ago, following the realisation that he had no strategy in place to develop the workforce, he needed to have a workforce strategy. He had said in February 2014 that he would develop that. It is now June 2015 and we are still waiting for the plan. In fact, as a first step to the strategy, he announced a grand plan to undertake a stocktake of the current government funded workforce initiatives. And we are still waiting for that. Instead, the only workforce measure that this government has delivered since he made these grand plans and announcements is, in fact, a $40 million cut to the Aged Care Workforce Development Fund. It is a fund that provides programs: that provide vocational education and training for aged-care workers; that funds the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Employment Program; that provides training and educational programs to upskill the workforce to meet the growing complexity in aged care, including programs such as Dementia Care Essentials.

I am truly concerned that the government's dithering, delays and disarray will cause even further anxiety in the sector for aged-care providers, for aged-care workers and for older Australians. The government have under two weeks before the programs currently funded under the Aged Care Workforce Development Fund end. They have two weeks to stump up with a mystery stocktake, two weeks to stump up with an aged-care workforce strategy and two weeks to demonstrate that they have a plan for aged care. I think they have nothing. I think this is an assistant minister who has taken his eye off the ball. I look forward to seeing the strategy implemented, wherever it may be. The tender is called. I just wait with baited breath. I do not expect much.