Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the latest:

(a) waiting list for Home Care Packages (HCP) indicates that more than 100,000 older Australians are waiting for the package they have been approved for; and

(b) figures showed that the HCP waiting list grew by more than 12,000 between 1 July and 30 September 2017 and it is likely to continue growing without funding for the release of more packages;

(2) recognises that the majority of older Australians on the waiting list are those seeking level three and level four packages, who have high care needs including many with dementia;

(3) condemns the Government for failing to stop the waiting list from growing; and

(4) calls on the Government to immediately invest in fixing the HCP waiting list and properly address this growing crisis.

I want to highlight the slow-motion disaster that is unfolding right before our eyes—and that is the government's failure to adequately address home care for older Australians. While the government is failing to act, its own figures released recently tell us that 100,000 older Australians are languishing, many of them in limbo, waiting for aged-care packages, for appropriate care or for the care they need. This includes around 80,000 older Australians with very high needs who are waiting. Some of those with high needs have dementia. This is absolutely unacceptable in our nation. As I have said before in this place, these are some of our most vulnerable people. These older Australians have worked all their lives, paid their taxes and built the foundations on which we stand today for the lives we lead.

This government's own website states that most of these vulnerable older Australians will be waiting more than a year for a package that is appropriate for them. Deputy Speaker, you may recall that last week in this place I told you about a constituent of mine—and one of the reasons I have raised this issue in a private member's motion today is the many constituents who have contacted my electorate office—Mr Middleton, of Seaton, a man in his 90s, who contacted me after trying to access a package for his wife. She was placed on a level 4, after an assessment back in 2014. Unfortunately, she passed away last year, in 2017, without any assistance from this government. It is a cruel thing for someone who has worked all their life and brought up a family and done everything by the book for this nation to ask for a bit of assistance in their last few years and have absolutely nothing given to them. That is a complete outrage. This government just walked away with Mrs Middleton. Again today I stand with Mr Middleton to highlight this issue.

The government's commitment in September to readjust the ratio of aged-care packages to create 6,000 additional packages has proven to be woefully inadequate. We know there is a prediction that, every quarter, 10,000 more people will be put on the waiting lists The waiting list has grown by 10,000 in just the last quarter, meaning that these additional packages won't even come close to reducing the number of older Australians waiting for care. I acknowledge that the Minister for Aged Care is here. I know that he is committed to this issue but, unfortunately, his cabinet, his own side, are letting him down with the many cuts that have taken place.

There is growing concern from across the sector about the waiting list. Aged Services Australia and Aged and Community Services Australia have both used pre-budget submissions to urge the Turnbull government to fix the crisis. We know there is a crisis and it needs to be fixed. The latest data was quietly released, a month after it was promised to be released, as parliament rose at the end of the year. The government must urgently make a genuine financial commitment to address this crisis. More than 100,000 aged Australians have been assessed to be eligible for home care, and the Turnbull government is absolutely letting them down. The government has known about this urgent situation for months but has yet to turn its attention to this growing issue. Older Australians and their families are being forced to wait months—and many are waiting well over a year—for carers. Mrs Middleton went three years without anything, and there are horror stories emerging across the country.

Older Australians awaiting home care packages deserve to know when they will get access to these vital services. We know that keeping people home, giving them the care they require and the things they need in their old age, gives them a better lifestyle and more happiness in those last few years. If we don't do this, they become frail, they get hospitalised and they get put into aged-care homes, which costs governments much more than what a bit of home care would cost.

The minister's commentary on this crisis to date has been to point out that some older Australians waiting for care are receiving an in-term package. That might be the case, and it is better than nothing; but when they get assessed for a level 4 and they are receiving a level 2, the care isn't adequate; we know that. We need this to be fixed. It is not acceptable. These are some of our most vulnerable people who have worked all their lives, paid their taxes and built this nation. We need to do better than what we are currently doing.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his private member's motion. This is a complex issue in respect of the number of ageing Australians who are now reaching a point in their life at which care is needed. But in the past, as I have indicated previously, what families used to do when they were assessed and allocated a package was list their names with a number of providers—and a number of providers would often tell you that they had a waiting list of a significant number. In transitioning to the national list, it became important that we looked at the number of people requiring the different levels of packages, and the report, which the member opposite points out, wasn't released on the basis of a delay at all; it was looking at the integrity of the data to make sure that the information we had was correct and accurate, because it gave us the basis for considering what were the next steps required in the provision of care for older Australians. Certainly that also required a drilling down on the ratio levels that were introduced into the legislation under Living Longer Living Better. In looking at what the ACAT assessors were assessing, we've taken that into consideration as well.

The Turnbull government hasn't failed. It's working through a number of measures that will address the growing need. But I think this is a challenge for all governments in the future, whether on this side of the House or the other side. The baby boomer generation will reach 80 in another seven years time, and the numbers are significant. The release of home care packages encourages people to remain at home for as long as possible so that they remain independent and their mobility and way of life are built around family and being within their community and not isolated.

Our work on dementia builds on the work of the Rudd-Gillard government in recognising the importance of giving serious consideration to the needs of Australians who have been diagnosed with dementia. What we're seeing is a model of dementia programs and services that are community based. We see the incredible initiative in Tasmania, where there is now a community that will provide independent living within a community where they're not isolated. I see the use of technology, with which we are able to have people living at home and being provided with a level of care from a provider. Innovation in aged care is important, but I would still encourage people who are assessed at level 4, if they receive a lesser package than they anticipated and expected, still to take that package. It provides you with access to the levels of care that you need to remain independent and living in your home longer.

There are ways in which we also harness other resources. For any member in this chamber who brings to me issues relating to people within their electorates, I certainly work with my agency and key officers to look at how we use the range of aged-care services to enable people to have access, to ensure some certainty around their independence and also to ensure that they receive services that will meet their needs and provide for the health circumstances that they find themselves in.

Certainly there are instances where I'm advised of the progression of an illness. In one incident recently, a member in this chamber came to me about a couple where the husband was dying of liver cancer. We worked with his wife, who needed support as a carer because of the pressure, but we also made sure that there were other services wrapped around him in order to allow the journey that he was on to be lived with some degree of comfortability, and that included palliation.

We are working to look at how we progress what is required for the future. Aged care has always had a bipartisan approach, because both sides of this chamber recognise the incredible endeavours that senior Australians have put into building the nation that we have built. They are due recognition and support, and I will work to make sure that that happens. I certainly look forward to working in a bipartisan way on this issue.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to be able to rise and speak on this important motion moved by my colleague the member for Hindmarsh this morning, because waiting lists around home care packages have become one of the critical issues in my electorate of Newcastle. My electorate of Newcastle is not unique in this regard; I know this is an experience shared around the country.

I thank the minister for his contribution. I was horrified when I walked into this chamber and saw that not a single government member was listed to speak on this motion. Fortunately, the minister was on duty and so happened to be in the chamber, saw the opportunity and took it. I thank you for that, because you are the only member on your side—the government—who thought it worthy enough to invest their time and speak on this motion this morning. That is shocking.

I note at this point that the very reason we are able to have this debate today is the result of Labor reforms that were put in place before we lost government. The fact that we have waiting lists now is because of action taken by a former Labor government. Whilst I acknowledge the minister's genuine efforts, I am sure, around seeking bipartisan support when it comes to aged care reforms in Australia, we are not joining him on a race to the bottom on this one. We can't sit and wait any longer. Tomorrow is in fact the 12-month anniversary of the waiting list being known to the Australian government, so the minister has, as has all his colleagues, had access to this information for 12 months now. That is why Labor have brought this motion to the table today. We are not prepared to wait any longer, in the same way that older Australians should not have to wait any longer.

If there is anything that demonstrates the Turnbull government's total disregard for vulnerable Australians, it is this very issue—the lack of action on addressing what is a looming crisis in aged care in Australia. There are now 100,000 Australians waiting to access packages—packages which they have been assessed as being eligible for but maybe can't get the right level or maybe can't get any package whatsoever in their area. Eighty thousand of those people have high care needs, including dementia. The government has had data on these people for 12 months and has failed, failed, failed to do anything. They are the people we are talking about here. This isn't some kind of esoteric group of Australians who are somehow not known to us.

Recently, the government announced an additional 6,000 packages—but that is clearly woeful. There are 100,000 Australians who need these packages and 80,000 of them have complex needs like dementia, and we have on the table an offer from the government of 6,000 additional packages. Not good enough. This is a competition that no-one wants to win. New South Wales, which tops the list, has close to 35,000 Australians who are unable to access packages. The terrible shameful truth about aged care in Australia is that people will literally die as a result of waiting for these packages. As I said, these are packages for which people have already been approved as being eligible.

In my electorate of Newcastle, too many constituents are reaching out to me in desperation after waiting fruitlessly for support packages to become available. One gentleman who contacted my office was totally at his wits end after waiting close to a year for a high-level package for his 90-year-old mother to be approved. This package would have allowed her to maintain her independence by providing in-home support for things like cleaning and personal care. My constituent said that, in the time he had been battling to get an outcome for his mother, he had logged more than 300 hours on the phone to My Aged Care and Centrelink to no avail. The only satisfaction he got was when my office became involved and was eventually able to resolve this for his mother. Why should people like him and his mother continue to suffer as a result of a government that is floundering? It is so busy with its own problems that it can't resolve issues for older Australians.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm obviously up on my feet because, as the member for Newcastle indicated, there has been only one government speaker on this motion. It appears that not enough of those on the other side care about older Australians waiting for home care packages. I must say I am flabbergasted that they have no speakers for this motion other than the minister, who just happened to be here on duty. But I do thank the minister for his contribution.

As the member for Hindmarsh and the member for Newcastle have pointed out, Labor is very concerned about this waitlist. This government has followed through with Labor's reforms—the Living Longer Living Better reforms. Indeed, it is these reforms that, for the first time, have given us a national priority queue for people waiting for home care packages. But what the minister hasn't said is that this queue started 12 months ago tomorrow. On 27 February last year these reforms were implemented, so the government has now been collecting this data of people waiting for home care packages for a year. Indeed, we've only had two releases of data about the numbers on these packages and, in between those, in that three-month period, the waitlist grew by 10,000. So not only do we have 100,000 people waiting on the list; we know that last time it grew by 10,000. We're expecting another release of data, the December quarter, so we can find out how many people are waiting now, because we don't know how many more older Australians were added to that list last year.

I am particularly concerned that this list continues to grow. To date the government's only response has been to add another 6,000 packages, and that has been by adjusting level 1 and level 2 packages to create more level 3 and level 4 packages—that is, the high-care need packages. But what we're really concerned about is that our offices are being inundated by people contacting us because their parents are too frail to contact us themselves directly. They're saying, 'Please help me help my parents. Please help me.' We heard from the member for Newcastle that one of her constituents had spent over 300 hours talking to My Aged Care, desperate to get help for their parents.

As the shadow minister for ageing, I am inundated daily by requests from people saying, 'Please help me help my parents.' People want their older parents to receive the care they need. We are a wealthy nation. We should be able to fix this. The government should be able to fix this. After all it is cheaper for the government to fix this than to let older Australians languish in their own homes without the support that they need, because the alternatives to this are, of course, the acute hospital system—where many older Australians end up if they're not getting the care they need at home—or residential aged care. Many older Australians who want to stay at home—and, with the right supports, could—end up in residential aged care when they don't want to.

It is simply not good enough for the government and the minister to come into this place and say, 'We'll cobble together some support—just a little bit—for them while they wait for what they actually need.' In this nation in this day and age that is not good enough. If we can afford $65 billion in tax cuts for big business, we can afford to look after older Australians. It is not good enough that we have 100,000 older Australians, many with dementia, at home, waiting for care. Their children are coming to our offices absolutely desperate to get help for their parents, and this government is sitting by. They had options last year; they had MYEFO last year, and we're hearing, 'We'll fix it in the budget.' Well, they'd best be fixing it, because I will not stand by while older Australians continue to suffer in their own homes and while their children ring our offices desperate for that help and care for their parents.

It is not good enough, and to have just the minister come into this place and say, 'We'll cobble together some support; that'll be alright for a little while till we fix it,' is not good enough. That waitlist continues to grow, more older Australians are added to it every day, and the government needs to do something to fix it. It needs to act, and it needs to act today—not in May, not in July, not later in the year, but today. It can do something about this. It should have done something about it last year. I will continue to get on the government's case and the minister's case until they do something about it.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are here to talk about the motion today, because the coalition government are doing a range of excellent things in the healthcare space, including giving people more choice over the sort of care that will best suit them, their families and their needs. In February last year we transitioned to a new home care system which gives consumers—individuals and families—more choice and control over the care that best suits their needs. The new system means that packages are released directly to consumers rather than to providers, and people who have the most urgent needs or have been waiting the longest receive care packages first. We know that there is a strong demand for the higher levels packages, and it's important to note that people needing these packages are receiving interim support packages which allow them to access services while they wait.

In September last year we announced the release of an additional 6,000 level 3 and level 4 homecare packages over the year 2017-18. This more than doubled the planned growth of high-level packages this financial year, and a number of these have already been assigned to people. The minister and the government are releasing almost 2,500 homecare packages on a weekly basis. In addition to this, in the 2017 budget, the government provided an investment of $5.5 billion to extend the Commonwealth Home Support Program for a further two years to June 2020.

I want to note some other very important points that relate to the care that we provide to all members of our community but which are particularly important to the older members of our community. We have record rates of bulk-billing under this government. Something like 85.9 per cent of all GP visits are now bulk-billed. That's a remarkable achievement that helps many people, particularly our older community members and our pensioners. We have added more than 1,500 new and amended medicines worth $7.5 billion to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which means greater access to medicines for people who need them most—often our older citizens.

Also, under the coalition government, the funding for public hospital services, which is also of course of great importance to our older citizens, has increased from $13.8 billion in the year 2013-14 at the end of the failed Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government to a record $22.7 billion for 2020-21. This is a 64 per cent increase in funding. This means more doctors, more nurses, more surgeries and fewer wait times in hospitals across the nation but particularly in my home state of South Australia.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Minister for Health announced some really exciting news at the COAG meeting about an additional $30 billion for public hospital funding, which would provide almost $128 million over the five years from 2020. But unfortunately this was apparently not enough for the Premier of South Australia, who is only interested in cutting funding to public hospitals and shutting them down. One of the most important and iconic community hospitals in my electorate of Boothby which particularly serviced a lot of my older residents was the repat hospital, and the state Labor government have shut it down. It is one of the most disgraceful things the state Labor government have done. My community remain terribly distressed about this, and I am really pleased that when we see the state Liberal Party elected on 17 March they will reopen a number of key services at the repat hospital including things such as orthopaedic surgery, which for a lot of our older president is just absolutely a critical service that they use quite a lot. The repat hospital was built for our returned service men and women, and they are many of the people who are suffering from the fact that this hospital has been shut down.

Providing these sorts of services, particularly through the repat hospital, is how we look after the older members of our community, working with the support that the government is providing through homecare packages which give people choice over their care.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an important motion, and I congratulate the member for Hindmarsh on moving it. Already what we've seen that it's having an impact because previously there were no government speakers listed at all. The minister just happened to be sitting around doing some paperwork and went: 'Oh, my God! It's my portfolio. I might start talking.' Now the government have sent backbenchers in to read out random dot points and press releases.

I was going to take a point of order on relevance, because most of what the previous speaker talked about was not to do with home care; it was about hospital funding and the PBS and whatever other random pages she'd had shoved into her hand to come here and read to the House. But let's make an important point: I didn't take a point of order, because I think she is digging a hole for the government here. The point of properly funding home care is that it saves money, because people can stay in their own home instead of having to spend more on hospitals. That is an important point.

This is a growing crisis, by anyone's measure. There are more than 100,000 senior Australians right now sitting at home without proper care. This includes 60,000 people with absolutely nothing—no care whatsoever. Forty-thousand people are on a lower level of care than they actually need and 80,000 people need high-needs care, including people with severe dementia. It's important to remember that these are people—human beings—not just numbers. We often bandy around statistics—we need that many billion and there are this many thousand people—but these are human beings: senior Australians who have served our country, worked for decades, built the country and paid taxes, in most cases, and they deserve decent treatment.

This is especially important in my electorate. My electorate has a much older demographic than the surrounding areas in south-east Melbourne, with over 35,000 people aged 60 and over. There is the despair and pain, as the member for Franklin said, of people calling our offices, usually sons and daughters, saying, 'Please, can you do something to help my aged parents, who are living in despair at home without proper care and with no timeline as to when this will be fixed.'

The government should not see this as a surprise. It's been raised before by the shadow minister, by local governments across the country, by aged-care peak bodies and by many Labor MPs. But we've had zero action from the minister. In fact, it's worse than zero action. Despite the minister's polite waffle—he told us it's complex—it's actually not that complex: find the funding and you clear the backlog. He admitted that when he was asked only a few months ago, 'Why is this backlog there?' He said, 'There are budgetary and fiscal pressures.' So, that is the truth of it. He's already said what the problem is: the government have not prioritised funding for senior Australians. That is the fact of it.

They have prioritised, as the member for Franklin aptly said, a tax cut—a $65 billion tax cut for big business. The other thing they prioritised in their budget was a tax cut for everyone in this chamber. The top two per cent of Australians, those earning over $180,000, got a tax cut from this mob in the budget. They got a tax cut—

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you kidding? That was not a tax cut—

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, sorry. 'We removed the deficit levy.' Is that what we're hearing? You removed the two per cent deficit levy—which is a tax cut—and guess what? The budget is still in deficit. Maybe we should have kept the deficit levy there. I'll put my hand up and say, 'I, for one, would be happy to pay an extra two per cent tax.' I don't think anyone in Australia would begrudge senior Australians decent care and a decent homecare package to put that levy back on.

Government members interjecting—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar will be quiet. So will the minister.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I encourage you to just take what you can get. I encourage people on waiting lists to—whatever level you're offered—to just take that offer. Like it or leave it. It doesn't actually matter if you need four days a week of care and you can't shower yourself. If you can get someone to come for two hours a week and clean the kitchen, well, that's good enough. Just take that. That's what the minister said. That's a direct quote.

What about the government? The minister's not up to it. He's a lovely man and I speak highly of him. I would speak more highly of him if he'd come and visit the Dandenong and District Aborigines Co-operative in my electorate, but we are living in hope. He says he'll come one day. But what about the government? They've obviously been to the Christensen school of courage, haven't they? They're courageous; they're brave. Look at all the speakers here willing to stand up for their reforms.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They're coming in at the last minute!

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's right. It's not a complex issue. For my final point, I need to call the minister out on something. He said in dulcet tones, 'Aged care is generally a bipartisan issue.' It's not a bipartisan issue right now. Those hundred thousand people are not a bipartisan issue. This is your mess. It's your shame. The $3 billion cuts to residential aged care are not a bipartisan issue. This is your mess to fix.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour this day.