Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Aged care is a vital issue in regional Australia and probably in the metropolitan towns of Australia but particularly in rural areas. I know because I recently experienced the problem once again in some of the country areas that I visited last week. I was given a sharp reminder from the people of Mundubbera in the North Burnett shire that nothing has changed since I last visited two to three years ago. The issue is that there are not enough beds in Mundubbera or in fact in the nearby towns—towns like Gayndah and Mundubbera, Eidsvold and Biggenden, Theodore and Taroom, and I could go on with many other rural country towns that face the same situation.

There are not enough beds under roofs to cater for the people who have lived their lives in these country towns and want to live in these country towns, close to their families and close to their friends. They do not want to be separated from their husbands or their wives, whatever the case may be. But this is in fact what is happening in these towns. There are simply not enough beds to go around. Whilst they live in regional aged-care surrounds, back on the coast there are beds available at places in Maryborough and Bundaberg, but this does not extend to the regional areas. Because people look at the overall situation, we cannot get any beds in these small towns.

The Mundubbera Health Centre is a multipurpose facility, one of the first to be built in Queensland. It caters for acute care as well as initial trial for aged care. It has been a highly successful partnership between the state and the federal governments on this account. As a result, more were built including in the town of Bickerton, but they have now been outgrown by the number of people wanting these facilities. As we know, we are all living longer and growing older. This is adding to the problem. There is a rapidly ageing population in the area of North Burnett. The Mundubbera Health Centre is currently operating at maximum capacity. In fact, they are at overcapacity. There are only 15 places at Mundubbera. Acute beds are being used to house residents who need urgent care. This leaves only three beds for sick patients who come in for normal hospital care and the waiting list for nursing care is growing longer.

I have heard stories from people who are frustrated by the situation, people who have parents reaching the age where they must have aged care, people who have lived there lives in the towns, people who have built legacies in those towns, people who have even worked in the aged care facility to find now that there is no space for them in the facility they have worked in for 30 to 40 years. In one case, a man in Mundubbera who actually built the facility is denied a place in that hospital because of the overcapacity.

I am bringing this issue to the attention of the chamber because I know that this is a situation the government takes very seriously. Again there is great pressure on the budget but this is one area which does need attention. New aged-care approval rounds open in August this year. I have encouraged the Mundubbera Health Centre to submit an application. The federal government can supply homecare packages but we need the state government to put infrastructure in the confines of the hospital to make the whole thing work together. It cannot be just the state government and it cannot be just the federal government; it needs both parties to work together. They have to invest more money in rural and regional centres to make the lives of the people who have worked very hard over the years, to give them a decent retirement in a place that suits them.