Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ron and Maureen live in Dodges Ferry in my electorate. Maureen suffers early onset dementia, and she was classified some time ago as requiring level 4 home care. Unfortunately, there are no level 4 home care packages available, so she's being funded at level 2. Maureen takes a bus to Hobart for a day at Old Vicarage day support, and they charge $85 for that service. Maureen gets around $1,000 to $1,200 a month. Two hundred dollars a month goes straight to the Better Living Homecare provider, and this provider does nothing. It does absolutely nothing. It doesn't provide the home care. It doesn't provide any care package. All it does is bank the funds from the government, which then go to Maureen. They charge $200 in administration fees every month for simply being a bank account. It's an absolute outrage. I don't care whether it's Liberal governments or Labor governments. I think this is an unconscionable cost that would actually make banks blush with shame. Banks charge around $6 a month to have an account with them, yet this provider, which provides no care service for this family, provides no home care, provides no cleaning services and doesn't help with the transport—it does nothing for this family, so this family look after their own needs because it's actually cheaper for them to get their own bus service rather than going through the provider—is getting $200 a month for doing nothing. That's an outrage. (Time expired)