Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

People don't contact their federal member of parliament very often to say that everything is great. They call us when they feel there is nowhere else to go because a system of some sort is failing them. And that is what we are seeing at the moment with families and spouses struggling with home care packages and it is why I am very pleased to speak in support of this motion. At my recent mobile office in Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains, Noeleen O'Beirne and her daughter Siobhan came to see me. Noeleen's husband, Patrick, died last year at the age of 90. Patrick, who had a love of politics and a wicked sense of humour, had been assessed more than 12 months earlier as needing in-home care. He was frail. Noeleen's own health wasn't up to the up to the heavy work involved in assisting him and, of course, while the rest of the family did what they could, support was sorely needed. Patrick was assessed as needing level 4 care, the top level of care.

Let's be clear what that assessment would have shown. Level 4 home care packages are intended to support people who have high-level care needs. He may have been eligible to receive assistance with showering, dressing, home cleaning, help to use aids and appliances, some social support, meal preparation, medication management, nursing care, allied health support like physio, help with shopping, transport to get to appointments, and support with any changes to memory or behaviour. That was the package that he was judged to be eligible for. He also would have had such high-care needs that he most certainly would have been eligible to enter residential aged care but both Patrick and Noeleen, like so many elderly people, preferred to remain living in the home that they had called their own for so many years. Sadly, the help did not come in time. Their approved package only started to be delivered shortly before Patrick died. And what they did was reduce the quality of his and Noeleen's last months together. It increased the anxiety and the distress—and that is a disgrace. Noeleen tells me that in some ways, though, she feels lucky, because a friend of hers received his package six weeks after his death.

Similar calls, about long delays and packages not delivered, received by my office and also backed by the data that we're seeing show that Patrick and Noeleen are not alone. The latest numbers show that, in the three months to September, the waiting list grew by more than 10,000. We still don't have the December figures to know how much it grew in that period, but, with 100,000 older Australians, many of them frail, waiting for this government to provide the care they need, the wait is simply too long. Seventy eight thousand people on that list are waiting for high-care packages so they can avoid moving into aged care, which carries an even bigger cost burden to the taxpayer and brings with it such an emotional and financial burden to their spouses and their families.

Of course, not all the people waiting for home care packages are very elderly. Some have early onset dementia, and the ability of their partner to keep on working, to keep some control of one part of their life, depends on there being an adequate level of in-home care. Many people are forced to accept packages at a lower level than they're eligible for, just to get something. In fact, the minister encourages this. He said:

I would encourage people on waiting lists that whatever level you are offered initially, take that offer.

He cites budgetary pressures and an underestimation of demand on the problem. I don't underestimate his empathy for those impacted and I do acknowledge the 6,000 additional packages that came online, but it really is time he stood up to those in his government who hold the purse strings, because the only answer is a lot more packages. It's not good enough to tell people to make do. People who are assessed to be eligible for level-3 home care packages are more than likely eligible to enter residential care. Those on level 2 may also be eligible. Only level-1 packages are really designed to help people who would benefit from having a minor level of support—and they simply don't meet the needs of the 78,000 people on that waiting list.

There is urgency to this situation, just as there should be urgency when someone is assessed as being eligible for in-home support. They don't have all the time in the world, and we have a responsibility to ensure that people whose lives have often shrunk to revolve around their home get the care they need—because, right now, they're dying before the care they deserve even arrives.

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I particularly want to address today the private member's motion on home care packages as I have a special focus on health care and health facilities in Dunkley. With the support of my neighbour the member for Flinders, who is now Minister for Health, I've fought extremely hard to secure a number of improvements to our local assets, including, for example, a fully funded Medicare licence for MRI at Frankston Hospital, which has now been in place for over a year, saving Dunkley locals thousands of dollars every year. Another example is Total Care Medical Group in Karingal, who were one of the trial participants in the Health Care Homes stage-1 trial. I have a record of fighting and will continue to fight for the best facilities, best programs and best access to health funding for residents in Dunkley.

Home care packages are another way that the Turnbull coalition government is providing consumers with greater choice and control over their own care. Freedom of choice comes back to the core ideology and vision of the Liberal Party, and we—the coalition government and I—absolutely support Australians having the choice to remain in their homes and in their communities, if that is their choice, yet still receive the care that they need. Retaining independence is one of the most important considerations in these situations, and we are working to support that consideration wherever possible.

This funding was formerly under the Home and Community Care program, whose recipients were of geographic variety and differing focus. While these providers do a brilliant job, these changes achieve much-needed visibility and accountability. I note the other speakers' comments about timeliness and dramatic growth of the waiting list; however, part of the transition from the HACC program to our new home care system includes a refocus on how the packages are distributed. Packages are now released directly to consumers, rather than to providers, and consumers who have the most urgent needs or who have been waiting the longest receive packages first.

The aged care planning region within which Dunkley falls—Southern Metro, Victoria—had 916 packages assigned to it according to the latest report, with its data catchment concluding on 30 September 2017. Over the same period there were a reported 4,188 consumers in care across the Southern Metro region, and 53 approved providers. In the Southern Metro region the majority of people queuing for packages are waiting for level 2 packages, a lower level of care than the member for Hindmarsh suggested is reflected across the country. I acknowledge that Dunkley may be in the minority in this regard; however, one aspect that may have been overlooked by the member for Hindmarsh is that many of the people who have been waiting for level 3 and 4 packages are receiving interim packages, allowing them to access services while they wait.

When a new program such as this home care system is released, there will always be an increase in demand, and we are better able to understand the extent of demand for home care packages nationally now that the distribution of home care packages has direct interaction with consumers. In light of this I commend the Turnbull government and Minister Wyatt for the release of an additional 6,000 higher care packages over 2017-18. In addition to this the 2017 budget provided for an investment by the Turnbull government of $5.5 billion to extend the Commonwealth Home Support Program for a further two years to June 2020. Even before this, approximately $461,000 was made available to deliver home support services, pending contractual agreements with service providers in Dunkley. We are committed to supporting our older Australians.

On a weekly basis 2,500 home care packages are released, an outstanding figure. We are aware of the sheer number of older Australians who are waiting for a home care package; however, we are working to address the backlog of demand that existed, even under the former Labor government's Living Longer Living Better program, whose problems we are still having to fix. It is absurd that other speakers are trying to condemn the government for working to fix aged-care funding problems of their own making; however, Australians will be glad to know that these changes and our new home care system are part of the Turnbull coalition government's commitment to quality care for senior Australians, whether they be in care or choose to stay at home in their community, surrounded by their loved ones.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We just heard a sanctimonious speech by the member for Dunkley, saying that we can now understand the demand and we now have choice, and speaking of all the good things that this government somehow want to be recognised for. That's right: we can recognise demand, we can have choice—but the government is not funding. This government is so out of touch, and members in marginal electorates like Dunkley need to get their heads out of the sand and start understanding that a crisis is unfolding. They want pats on the back, while 10,000 vulnerable and older Australians are added to the wait list, then they have the cheek, the absolute gall, to somehow say, 'It's not our fault.' They have been in government coming now up to six years—

Mr Ramsey interjecting—

The member for Grey says, 'Six years?' You're entering your sixth year of government. Work it out. The election was in 2013. You're in 2018. That's five years. You're entering your sixth year of government.

Mr Ramsey interjecting—

He says, 'You're right.' I say to those opposite: stop the blame game, because vulnerable Australians aren't copping your nonsense. Those frail Australians in my electorate and other electorates right across Australia have had a gutful of a government that is so out of touch, so far from reality, that when we are talking about a crisis in the aged care sector, wants to get up and be congratulated for its work. Have the guts to acknowledge there is a problem in the system. Have the guts to go to my community. I acknowledge the member for Hindmarsh, who is here today, and thank him for putting this on the agenda and having the guts to get up and call the government out, to hold them to account.

As the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing, I know he's been a constant champion for older Australians. We know there are approximately 80,000 to 90,000 home-care packages available in this nation, but the latest figures reveal there are now 101,508 elderly Australians waiting in the queue for appropriate home-care packages. Of these, more than 60,000 have no package at all and 40,000 have a package at a lower level than they need. It may comfort the government to talk about how great they are, how out of touch they are and how blaming a government back in 2011-12 is somehow the reason we're in this. That doesn't cut it. That's just political spin. That's just rubbish and that's insulting to people in the community. The member for Dunkley and other members opposite like the member for Forde need to work out that there is a crisis in the system.

We heard the minister say that there are financial constraints to keep people at home. I listened to government members speak today, and they talk about a refocus and reprioritisation—all mumble-jumble, all rubbish when it comes to actually tackling the issue. No-one's getting up here and calling out the government. No-one's getting out here and calling on the government to take action. They simply want to waltz back to their offices, put their feet up, put the kettle on and not worry about what is happening across the aged-care sector in Australia. We know what the government's priority is. We know that government members like the member for Dunkley and the member for Forde, who were in the chamber today, are not interested in fixing this crisis. They're not interested in tackling this issue. They're here for one reason and one reason alone: to deliver major tax cuts to millionaires and multinational companies. We know that that's their special interest. We know that they are more worried about what's happening at the top end of town, what's happening to those who least need a hand as opposed to those who are in trouble and those who are in a vulnerable situation.

Today I'm calling on the government to start addressing this crisis. I'm calling on the government to make sure that it's listening to the aged-care professionals, those in the sector who are demanding that the government take action on this crisis. We know that time and time again, when it comes to dealing with the tough issues—and I know the government has a lot on its hands with such a dysfunctional and chaotic that we're dealing with, with Liberal-on-Liberal violence, National-on-National violence, Liberal versus National, blowing themselves apart, but who are the losers? The people who required aged-care support in my community.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Hindmarsh for bringing this motion to the House, because it provides me with the opportunity to speak about what I think is a very important issue for constituents in the electorate of Forde. As we are seeing across all of our electorates, as Australians are getting older and we're having the bulge of the baby boomers starting to enter retirement, as they get older they'll want increased healthcare services because they've reached a standard of living that they expect to retain through to when they pass away. But all of that comes at a cost, and somehow this has to be paid for.

I have no issue with the argument that we should be taking care of people and looking after them in their old age and in their frailty. Having family members directly in this situation, I am well and truly aware of the necessity and importance of ensuring that we have a sustainable system for older Australians to ensure that their healthcare needs can be met.

Where possible, the best place for people to be cared for is in their own home if for no other reason than that moving into an aged-care facility incurs enormous cost and dislocation from community and from friends and neighbours. In a lot of cases, people may have lived in those homes for 30, 40 or 50 years. The value of providing in-home care on that basis is incalculable.

I acknowledge the work that the previous Labor government did. The importance of that work is that we now have a true understanding of the requirements of the system. Before that, we had no idea, and that's where the changes that we brought in in February of last year give us a much, much clearer picture of the requirements in the system. I acknowledge that there are people on waiting lists. Everyone would like to think that we could make the waiting lists disappear overnight, but the reality is that that is not financially feasible. We have to look at how, through responsibly managing the budget—those opposite have carried on about tax cuts for business and whatever, but I'd remind them that back in November 2016 they voted against a package of multinational tax reform measures that have resulted in this government collecting an extra $4 billion in revenue that they voted against. That figure is heading towards $7 billion. So it is this government that has taken the steps necessary to ensure that businesses in Australia, whether they are multinational or purely Australian businesses, pay the appropriate levels of tax necessary to ensure that we can continue to afford to provide the services that Australians have come to accept, whether they are in education, health or child care or in a range of other areas.

This government is working very hard to ensure that we can continue to provide these services and grow the number of packages available to older Australians. Currently, some 2½ thousand packages are released on a weekly basis. In September last year we released an additional 6,000. We know that there is still much to be done in this space. We will continue to do it. We will continue to work with older Australians to ensure that, in the interim, if they can't get their full package they have a package of assistance to at least help them until they receive the full package that they are eligible for. That is what this government is continuing to do through any number of measures, some of which those opposite have voted against.

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

What I'm hearing from the government members today is that mediocrity wins. I rise to support the motion on home care moved by the member for Hindmarsh, because there are unacceptably long waiting lists for home-care packages, and they impact my electorate more than many. The population of my electorate is the oldest in South Australia and the eighth oldest in the country. The median age is 46 years, and 22 percent of the people in my electorate are aged over 65.

The problem with growing waiting lists is clear to see. I was contacted by a 75-year-old constituent who'd been receiving assistance with his gardening through the Commonwealth Home Support Program. He was receiving just three hours of support a week, but that was scaled back to just one hour per fortnight because they'd had an influx of people in the program and couldn't provide any more support to him. What is the point of one hour per fortnight? It's a false economy, because what happens is that people don't get the assistance, they do things themselves, they fall over, they broke their hip, they are in hospital for an extended period of time and then they need even more support. It's ridiculous. Over a hundred thousand people are waiting for a home-care package. It is not good enough, and I can't believe that there would be a single member of the government who would stand up and champion this. You have got to be kidding! You're the party that older people vote for. The fact that you don't support them is astounding.

I had a whistleblower in my electorate—a woman who works in this field. She was so embarrassed to tell me—she was absolutely gutted and ashamed to tell me—that they had a person who had been on the waiting list for so long that, by the time a package was available and they rang up and said, 'Dear sir, a package is available for you,' he couldn't come to the phone because he had died. That's the kind of thing that we provide in this country. The minister is well aware of the problem. He was quoted on 2 February as saying, 'On the waiting list, whatever level you're offered, initially take that offer.' What kind of system do we have where the minister promotes that a person shouldn't get what they need—'Just take it. Be grateful for whatever you get'? I think it's about priorities. Clearly, providing support to our elderly Australians is not a priority of this government and I am deeply ashamed that we cannot do more in this parliament about it. We need to be smart and this is a smart thing to do, because the more we support people in their home, where they want to be, the less requirement there is for them to be moved into an aged-care facility. People do not want to be in those aged-care facilities if they can manage their needs at home. People want to be in their home. So I would say to government: 'Make this a priority. Make this a priority over tax cuts to multinationals. Make this a priority.'

I've spoken before in this place about my community of Strathalbyn, after the Kalimna aged-care facility closed, and I want to reiterate that this community is experiencing immense stress because we don't have the packages. The current data reveals that only 30 home-care packages are currently being delivered in this region and yet, by 2021, there will be demand for 97 packages. Sixty-seven extra packages need to be found and this government needs to find them. That's just one town in my community. I dread to think what this is like right across Australia. Without these home-care packages, more and more people will rely on nursing homes for support, but even aged-care beds are not keeping up with the growing demand. The township of Strathalbyn is going to see a 190 per cent increase in residents aged over 70 in the next 13 years. We need more support for older Australians. Older Australians and younger Australians must be the priority for us in here.

I concur with the member for Hindmarsh: this is an issue that doesn't make headlines and it should. We have an ageing population and we are a nation that is wealthy enough and smart enough to know how to properly care for our most vulnerable people. We cannot let these waiting lists go on forever. For the government to stand here and say that they're doing a good job and they're ticking this off, they've got to be kidding.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I had the great pleasure of having the aged-care minister in my electorate. We visited Ceduna and Peterborough. I'll come back to that in a moment. Let me say that, having spent a bit of time closely with the minister, I don't think we could get a man more up to the task, a minister more up to the task or anyone more engaged with the things that need to be done in aged care in Australia. That comes back to the changes that happened in February this year, which the minister explained in his speech on this matter in the main chamber. To the member for Hindmarsh, who I know cares about these issues, I suggest that, if he weren't there to listen to the minister at that stage, he should get a copy of the Hansard to see what he had to say. If he still doesn't fully understand what the minister said about the changes in circumstances that came about in February, then he should seek an audience with the minister, because I know he would be granted it. What the minister told us was that, prior to February this year, the demand for home-care packages was hidden within the providers' numbers. People who ran these institutions ran their own lists and, largely, the Commonwealth did not know how many people were on them. That all changed and now they are assessed independently and the Commonwealth knows what the demand level is. No significant change in numbers happened between December and March, so what this has identified is the backlog that has been there for quite some time. Of course, this is a challenge for the government to meet in a short time, but we've really only had those figures for fewer than six months. The minister's made a fair effort and over 6,000 new places were granted.

And let me say that home-care packages are one of the great advances of aged care around Australia, because, regardless of the cost, virtually everyone—including me when I get to that stage—I'm sure would rather live in their own house, would rather live in the place where they have enjoyed their life, surrounded by the artefacts, the photographs, the memories, of what their life has been. So it's a great move. It's a very good move, and it's where government and governments will continue to expand the effort.

But there is this backlog that we have to deal with, and it's not easy. I'm pleased with the response that the government's made at this stage, but we're going to have to keep working in that area. We understand that. We know that. That is why the minister has said: 'If you can't get the package you want at the moment, take something and get in the system, because then you will be monitored regularly, and, as your demand builds up, it can be reregistered.' It helps the argument. It helps us deal with that issue at government level.

I said I'd come back to Minister Wyatt's visit. In Ceduna, we visited the aged-care facility one evening with the local auxiliary group there, who have raised tens of thousands of dollars to refurbish rooms, and then the next morning we came back with the hospital and aged-care CEO. It's a very, very fine facility. Let me tell you: the views at the aged-care facility in Ceduna are second to none. Then we went on to the Ceduna Koonibba Aboriginal Health Service, and later in the day we went to Peterborough, on the other side of the electorate, if you like, in the east.

Peterborough is a symptom of something I've spoken about in this House before. Prior to coming to parliament, I served on local hospital boards in the late eighties and nineties. In our wisdom, in our smaller communities, we had hospital boards and we had hostel boards. In our wisdom, we decided to amalgamate those institutions because it made sense—and I still think it did—little anticipating that in the 2000s the state government at the time, being a Labor government, decided that they would sack all those hospital boards and take over the running of those facilities themselves. That meant the state government inherited a whole swag of aged-care facilities that they did not want, do not have particular interest in and find it very difficult to get grants for because they sit on state government land. It has really messed up the cake, if you like.

I took Minister Wyatt there so we could try to address those problems directly in Peterborough and deal with this issue that's been troubling the community for some time. Let me say that the community have over $1 million that they have raised, and they are one of the lowest socioeconomic communities in my electorate. I look forward to working with them and dealing with the issues I've covered in this speech.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ongoing inaction by the Turnbull government is jeopardising the progress made in aged-care services since Labor's historic Living Longer Living Better reforms. These reforms provided a 10-year plan to build a better, fairer and more sustainable and nationally consistent aged-care system. Unfortunately, the instability and inaction of the Liberal Turnbull government are threatening the continued progress of these critical reforms.

More than 100,000 older Australians are waiting for a package. The release of the latest data on the Turnbull government's home-care packages has revealed that more than 100,000 people are languishing in limbo and, of those, more than 10,000 are in Western Australia alone. The government says that those numbers had been hidden from it until the last six months. Well, did the government ever think of asking the sector, to find out? No.

The data shows that 80 per cent of older Australians waiting to have a package have high needs. Many have dementia. Currently, around half of people living in aged care have dementia, depression or another mental health or behavioural condition. The proportion of older people requiring high care for complex needs, which includes assistance with all activities of daily living, such as eating and bathing, has quadrupled from 13 per cent in 2009 to 61 per cent in 2016. The most concerning part is that these people are being told that they may have to wait more than 12 months before they even get a look in.

We are clearly now at a crisis point. The Turnbull government's commitment in September to readjust the ratio of places to create 6,000 additional packages has been proven to be woefully inadequate. This wouldn't even clear the queue in Western Australia, let alone across the entire nation. Without intervention, the waiting list will continue to grow, with more and more vulnerable older Australians forced into limbo without care. Meanwhile, many older Australians are instead presenting to hospitals around the country for acute care, are discharged into inadequate care and are then re-presenting at hospitals again and again. This is ultimately costing our community far more than if the government had just delivered the packages that were required.

The Turnbull government has known about this urgent situation for many months but is yet to turn its attention to this growing issue. I have heard horror stories from constituents in my electorate—indeed, even from constituents in the minister's electorate—who are anxiously waiting for their elderly relatives to be able to access an aged-care package while missing out on vital treatment and care. We have called time and again for the Turnbull government to fix this crisis as these waiting lists continue to grow. The minister's only commentary to date on the crisis has been to point out that some older Australians waiting for aged care will receive an interim package. An interim package is not good enough. It may be a start, and I heard the Minister say this again in the House today, but it isn't good enough.

In late 2015, the Turnbull government cut almost half a billion dollars from the aged-care funding instrument which allocates funding to residential care. The government did this on the basis of what it labelled 'higher-than-expected growth and expenditure' but without consulting with the people who would be affected and without any concern, clearly, for its impact. Then, less than six months later, the Liberals cut a further $1.2 billion from future residential care funding in their 2016 budget. The Turnbull government has refused to release any detailed modelling around these cuts, raising concern that it had no idea of what the impact of these measures would be on the provision of care for vulnerable older Australians.

Labor has consistently pushed this government on the issue, and in December 2016 we were successful in forcing it to back down on the harshest components of these measures. But the growing pile of work that is unanswered includes the Aged Care Legislated Review, which was led by David Tune. The only action the government has taken to date in response to that has been to roll out two of the 38 recommendations. The government has also not responded to 43 recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission's report on elder abuse released last year—instead, in recent weeks it's kicked off further reviews and consultations. Equally concerning is the lack of response to the 19 recommendations of the Committee on Community Affairs report into the future of Australia's aged care sector workforce released in June. There is no sense of urgency coming from this government when it comes to responding to the 10 recommendations of the Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes. To date, the only accomplishment is that the government has accepted one recommendation, which Labor had proposed six months earlier. The two reports, the Applied Aged Care Solution review and the Wollongong report on the cost of care, are now collecting dust in the minister's office. Older Australians and their families deserve much better than this. We now have 100,000 people waiting for a package, which is not only meaning that they are without care but also putting further and further strain on our hospital sector to look after them. The government needs to fix this problem now.

Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion because I know from many older aged constituents in my electorate of Chisholm that they want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. They also want a practical and pragmatic solution to enable them to remain in their own homes. Mental health, as we know, is so important to longevity, wellbeing and quality of life, and the overwhelming majority of people desire to remain in their own homes for this very reason. They want to stay somewhere where they feel comfortable and where their quality of life can remain. They want a homecare package that works, and that's why I'm so delighted about the Turnbull government's reforms that we introduced.

Labor think that the panacea to any issues in relation to this are Labor's Living Longer Living Better reforms, but under Labor the ratios set for the release of their homecare packages were inadequate and severely underestimated the real demand. The waiting lists for homecare packages are not new. They existed under Labor, and there was no way to determine the extent of the waiting period. Labor like to spin this as the solution, but it isn't. We have introduced practical, pragmatic solutions to the homecare package system. All Labor did was uncover a number of problems that existed under their watch that this government is having to fix. Australians were still waiting for homecare packages under Labor, and they did nothing to fix the problem. The introduction by the Turnbull government of the new national prioritisation queue has uncovered the extent of the problem left by the former Labor government, which this government is working on to fix. We inherited a homecare system from Labor with predetermined ratios that didn't work. Our 2017 aged care reforms and commitment to transparency have exposed the extent of the homecare mess left by Labor, and we are working to fix it.

How are we fixing this? In September 2017 we announced the release of 6,000 additional level 3 and 4 homecare packages over 2017-18. This more than doubled the planned growth of high-level packages this financial year already assigned to consumers, and we are releasing almost 2½ thousand homecare packages on a weekly basis. In addition to this, in the 2017 budget the Turnbull government provided an investment of $5.5 billion to extend the Commonwealth Home Support program, CHSP, for a further two years to June 2020. The Turnbull government is committed to quality care for senior Australians, including a record $18.6 billion aged-care investment in 2017-18, the first part of a near-$100 billion commitment planned for the next five years. Previously homecare waiting lists were administered by aged-care providers, but the Turnbull government's new national queue system is a pragmatic and practical solution which has brought much-needed visibility and accountability, providing consumers with greater capacity to plan for their aged-care needs. With this greater transparency, people can see where they are on the queue, and it has a practical reality rather than dealing with the great unknown.

The Turnbull government remains committed to older Australians and to keeping them at home, and this is what senior Australians continue to tell us—certainly the older constituents in my electorate of Chisholm and, indeed, their families who are dealing with the situation at this time in their lives. That's why in September 2017 we announced the additional packages. The $5.5 billion investment in the continuation of the CHSP actually provides a range of essential services to support older Australians who wish to remain living in their homes. This range of services includes Meals on Wheels, community transport, personal care, nursing and allied health, domestic assistance, cleaning, shopping, home maintenance and modifications, and a range of respite services. All of these services are essential to all of our daily lives, but they become particularly acute in older age. To stay at home rather than to go into institutionalised care is always the preferred option for older Australians, certainly in my electorate. So I'm very, very proud of the Turnbull government's commitment to quality care for senior Australians.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.