Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wish to speak about aged care in my electorate. Mayo is the oldest electorate in South Australia and the eighth oldest in the country, with a median age of 46 years. Over 22 per cent of my electorate is aged over 65 years. Compare this to South Australia's rate of 18.2 per cent and the Australian rate of 15.8 per cent and you start to understand that my community feels the impact of aged-care policy more than most. To be honest, the federal government's handling of the My Aged Care rollout has been troubling. There are over 100,000 people in the queue for appropriate home-care packages. My office has supported many constituents who have had to wait more than 12 months to get a package. By the time they do, they often find the package offered to them doesn't suit their current needs.

Nowhere is the government's need to better address aged care highlighted more than in the town of Strathalbyn in my electorate. Currently there are just 30 home-care packages being delivered to the people of Strathalbyn. Population data suggests that the township needs 50 packages right now and, by 2021, 97 packages will be needed. If home-care packages aren't being delivered then elderly people are more likely to have spells in hospital and to need access to residential care, which is far more expensive.

Unfortunately, Strathalbyn has seen a dramatic reduction in the availability of aged-care support. The closure of Kalimna Hostel led to its 24 Commonwealth-government-funded aged-care beds being placed in limbo. In January 2017, an update of the fire safety code resulted in the building being no longer fit for purpose. The closure meant that its residents were moved to towns sometimes hundreds of kilometres away from their families in Strathalbyn. It also led to the deactivation of the 24 aged-care beds. While these beds are still technically designated to Strathalbyn, they are currently lost. One year on and only six of those Commonwealth-funded aged-care bed licences have been reactivated. Those beds have been designated to the Strathalbyn hospital, and I'm reliably informed that, as a result, they are unable to be used for their aged-care purpose as the hospital requires the beds for the treatment of patients. This is not good enough.

While the federal and state governments delay providing support to the community, the people of Strathalbyn contact me nearly every day concerned about their future or their parents' future, as they grow older with little or no support available to them in their home town, the home town many were born in. This is good cause for concern. According to the 2016 census, there are 1,060 people living in Strathalbyn who are older than 70. Population projections show that this number will rise to more than 2,100 people by 2021 and, by 2031, there will be over 3,000 people aged over 70 in this small town. That is a 190 per cent increase over the next 13 years.

Following the closure of Kalimna Hostel, the Kalimna Working Group was established to identify a solution to the problem and provide recommendations on how to best address the growing aged-care needs in Strathalbyn. The final report revealed some frightening statistics. As many of my colleagues here will know, the federal government controls the number of aged-care places used under the aged-care provision ratio. I understand that, by 2021, the goal is to have 125 aged-care places per 1,000 people aged 70 years or over. Nationally, there are 112 operating aged-care places per 1,000 people aged over 70 years. Of the 112, 81 are residential packages. There are currently 104 high-level aged-care places in Strathalbyn and, based on population data, there should be 134 now. In 2021, there should be 167, and by 2026, which is not that far away, there should be over 200 places.

Strathalbyn needs our support, and I urge Minister Wyatt to expedite the process of reactivating the remaining 18 beds and I urge him to ensure that the licences are available and are used in practice. I call on the federal and state governments to work together to fund the construction of a new 36-bed facility in Strathalbyn to meet its growing needs. Strathalbyn is just one of my communities where we need to do better for our elderly residents.

Finally, I am pleased that Minister Wyatt has verbally accepted my invitation to visit my electorate to meet with stakeholders and meet with my community. The lack of aged-care support is not an issue that appears on the front of our newspaper and it's rarely mentioned in the evening news, but it should be. It's an issue that drastically affects our senior citizens and their families and we need to give them the support that they so richly deserve.