Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—At the request of the member for Franklin, I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the public release of the latest quarterly data on the home care package waitlist has been delayed by the Government;

(b) there was a commitment to release the data two months after the period that the data covers, but this timeframe has now not been met; and

(c) the data has been sitting on the desk of the Minister for Aged Care without any action being taken;

(2) further notes the:

(a) latest figures showed around 105,000 older Australians are now waiting for a home care package they were approved for;

(b) average wait time for a high level package has blown out to more than a year; and

(c) demand for home care packages grew by 20,000 older Australians in the last six months of 2017 alone;

(3) condemns the Government for the aged care crisis it made on its watch; and

(4) calls on the Government to be honest with older Australians and immediately release the latest round of data on the waitlist for home care packages.

I rise today to support this motion, and I join with the member for Franklin in condemning the government for the aged-care crisis that it has created on its watch. I have a distinct sense of deja vu as I stand here today, just as I did in the chamber last week, to once again make the point that older Australians and their families are languishing in limbo while the delivery of care packages is delayed. I brought to the attention of the House the plight of thousands of elderly Australians waiting for a home care package for which they've been approved, and potentially thousands more waiting for approval for packages following needs based assessments. At this point in time, we don't know exactly how many people are in this situation, because the public release of the latest quarterly data on the home care package wait list has been delay by the government. There was a commitment to release the data two months after the period the data covers, but this time frame has now not been met again. Instead, the data has been sitting on the desk of the Minister for Aged Care, seemingly without any action being taken.

The last figures released revealed around 105,000 older Australians are now waiting for a home care package they were approved for, with the average wait time for a high-level package having blown out to over a year. Given that demand for home care packages grew by 20,000 in the last six months of 2017 alone, I wonder just how many older Australians will be revealed as waiting for their home care package once these latest figures finally make the slow journey off the minister's desk. We know through the estimates process that the Department of Health previously committed to releasing the data two months after the period that the data covers. With the latest quarter ending in March, this means the data is now a fortnight late. There are questions that the minister has to answer: Where is this data? Why is there a delay? What is he hiding? Why is transparency so hard for this government? Let's not forget that this is not an abstract exercise. These figures represent real people, elderly Australians who need care and support to remain with dignity in their own home, and their families, many of whom are feeling the pressure to provide suitable care to their loved ones whilst navigating a complicated and, some might say, dysfunctional system. I think that it's fair to say that this government doesn't care enough about these older Australians to get it right.

The Abbott-Turnbull government created the aged-care crisis, cutting billions from the budget over the last five years. There was not one new extra dollar for Australia's aged-care system in this year's budget—not one extra dollar. Slashing funding to residential care to try and fix the home care mess is an insult to older Australians. Not only will residential services suffer from a decrease in funding on this minister's watch; the commitment in the budget to 14,000 home care packages is woefully inadequate in the face of growing demand.

As I said in this place only seven days ago, this government's inaction is placing older Australians in a terribly vulnerable and difficult situation. Australians who need home care assistance will be forced to look at residential care if they are unable to look after themselves in their home environment. But they will find that, because of this government's refusal to provide additional, real funding, that residential care will be difficult to find. It is a no-win situation that places elderly Australians at risk of a lack of adequate care, and lacking the dignity, that they deserve. Indeed, when we talk about risk, we are talking about the additional risks to people of being unsupported in their own homes. Even though it may be better for them to be in a familiar environment, if that environment isn't supported by a home care package, there are additional risks.

The priorities of this government are, sadly, skewed. They can find $80 billion for tax cuts for big business and they can find billions more for tax cuts for the highest income earners, even six years before they are to be delivered, but they cannot seem to find the funds to provide older Australians with adequate care at the point in their lives when they need it the most. If this government truly cared about older Australians, it would treat them with honesty and respect, not withhold these important figures or try to pull the wool over their eyes with sneaky budget diversions and cuts.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday last week, I had the opportunity to meet with the Eurobodalla aged care and dementia networking group to talk about aged-care packages and dementia in general. While I have asked them to send quick summary emails regarding their primary concerns, asking me to present these to the minister, there were some recurring themes. Due to the media hype and the lack of real care from those in opposition, there has been a bit of confusion about age-care packages and what they actually mean for people, and some concern about the waiting list. On budget day the government announced that thousands of new home care packages would be on offer. I understand this means the number of home care packages will rise from 87,000 to 151,000. That is a vast improvement.

There is great community interest in the $200 million the Turnbull government has invested in the Boosting Dementia Research Initiative. In this third year of the plan, we know there are a series of potentially world-leading Australian projects now underway to combat dementia. It's amazing that 127 projects, involving 285 researchers working across 24 universities and research institutions, are presenting major milestones towards dementia prevention, management and cure. Dementia is the second most common cause of death in this country, and for women it has eclipsed heart disease as the leading cause. Around 425,000 Australians are living with the condition, with an estimated 1,700 people believed to be developing dementia each week. It is critical that we find effective preventions and cures; otherwise, we can expect 1.1 million Australians to have dementia by the middle of this century, meaning more than 600 people a day will be at risk of developing the disease.

Some of the advances in our groundbreaking research include the promise of ultrasound technology to improve memory and slow the onset of dementia; determining if increased iron levels in the brain are the missing link in the development of dementia; the impact of childhood stress as a dementia risk factor, especially among Indigenous Australians; the potential for eye scans to reveal three biomarkers associated with early signs of cognitive decline; harnessing the power of music to assist people in managing and living with dementia, which I imagine would be extremely beneficial; and specialised staff training, including massage, music and reminiscence therapies, to improve dementia care, as many of the elderly with dementia slip into their original cultural background, particularly those from another nation.

The $5.3 million pilot program aimed at improving aged care for people living with dementia, through an emphasis on applying innovation, is indeed a great initiative, and community groups all around are looking forward to the rollout of this program. Statistics show that dementia in particular affects three in 10 people over the age of 85 and almost one in 10 people over the age of 65. Kiama Municipal Council, in conjunction with Dementia Australia and research done by the UOW, developed a great model of awareness and community engagement around the needs and solution pathways for those suffering from dementia in their community. The network in Eurobodalla wishes to start having discussions on the strategies to introduce just such a program. Today I've sent contact details to make sure that that network combines with Kiama so they can start.

Last week, the Eurobodalla dementia network committee presented a number of ideas to me, and I would like to take this opportunity to put some on the table. We'd love to have a pilot program to develop a beyond-65s hub; to examine the potential of financial pathways; to maximise ACAT time and reduce paperwork compliance; to assist the work done by the ACAT and RAS, which is the Regional Assessment Service team; to better determine ways forward and to develop a better pathway for not only people ready to receive aged-care packages but also their carers. As we explored these ideas, we discussed that some form of identifier number could be introduced so that the provider could help access information. Many of the dementia clients about to go onto packages forget their number, and often, when the information is sent to them, they don't understand the material and then lose it or ignore it, so we need to get something to help the providers.

Under our reforms, all home care packages are provided to individual consumers rather than the previous method where home care packages were awarded to approved providers under an allocation process. This change gives older Australians the ability to choose their own provider and direct the government subsidy to that provider. They can change that provider if they wish, including if they move to another state or a different region. These reforms allow such organisations as the Eurobodalla dementia network committee and the Kiama Municipal Council to meet with us, give feedback and take their ideas forward so there are better services for people who are ready for aged care, who need in-home care packages or who need better care as they journey through dementia.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very, very pleased to second this motion by my colleague on the aged-care crisis. I want to talk to the Chamber about three ways in which it is having a very real effect on older people in my electorate at this very moment.

The first aspect is obviously the issue around home care packages. I've had a lot of families contacting me in great distress because their elderly relatives have been assessed as needing a high-level care package, and they have been waiting months, some up to a year, to get that service. Imagine what that means in reality for those families. They have an elderly family member, living at home, who they are trying to support, and, at the same time, the elderly family member has been assessed as needing a package that they can't get. What that means is: those families are stepping in, trying to provide that support to their elderly relative, often when they're managing their own work, life, children and so forth. I've had people in tears because it's really awful and they feel terrible complaining about having to support their elderly relative, but the pressures on their family are enormous.

Before the budget, from the stuff leaked to the media, it seemed that we were going to see some big initiative. What did we get? Around 14,000 measly places across four years across the whole country when the government's own figures showed that over 100,000 people across Australia are on these waiting lists. It is an absolutely critical issue that the government needs to get serious about addressing.

The second aspect, and what became obvious from the budget, is that the funding that was provided for those 14,000 places wasn't new money; it was coming out of residential care. I can tell you: residential care needs more investment, not less, at this particular time.

Just the other week, I attended a forum in my electorate organised by the Health Services Union as part of their campaign for better aged-care services. I just want to acknowledge the speakers who were there. Gerard Hayes, from the Health Services Union, spoke, but we also heard from four amazing aged-care workers—Amanda Hampton, Karen Singh, Lisa Walker and Lyn Martin. Their love of their job and their dedication to the people they work with is one of the most inspiring things I've heard. It was really well received at that forum, because people understand, particularly if you've got elderly relatives in residential care, that these carers at the front line provide the love, care and protection that we would all expect for our elderly relatives in aged care. They were talking about the pressures and stress they're under around issues of funding, staffing and quality care and their cry-out for more care from government to make sure that those services are offering the dignity, respect and quality of life that our older Australians deserve.

I'll tell you what they don't deserve. They don't deserve to have their work undervalued. It's not good enough to say to aged-care workers, as the Prime Minister said in question time last week, that 'what you should aspire to is to either get a better job or move up to management'. The reality is we should respect and honour the work that these workers do day in and day out, looking after our elderly with love, care, compassion and dedication. I would suggest to the Prime Minister that he rethink what he said and maybe make a clarifying statement about the fact that that work is important and we value it. We've got a shortage of aged-care workers. We need to be backing them in.

The third aspect that's having a real effect on older people in my electorate is the decision by the Department of Human Services to cut the Warrawong Centrelink and Medicare office. There's a report out today by Anglicare Australia talking about the impact that the loss of face-to-face services in Centrelink is having on vulnerable people, and that includes our older Australians, particularly in terms of the increased automation making it a much more stressful experience. Hank Jongen, speaking on behalf of the department, said that they recognise that not everyone wishes to or can access digital solutions. That's absolutely true. I would call on Mr Jongen, in the spirit of his comments to the media today in response to the Anglicare report, to review the decision to close the Warrawong office, which is right in the heart of communities that are very disadvantaged and that also have very high populations of elderly people from a non-English speaking background, who need to have a Centrelink and Medicare office they can go into to speak to someone face to face and lodge their documents. On those three aspects, where we have real issues for older people in my electorate, we need to get much better at servicing them.

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

As the federal member for Boothby, I represent more than 28,000 people aged over 65 and their families in my community. I recognise the importance of supporting our older Australians and know that one of the most important duties we have as a nation and as representatives in this place is to particularly care for and represent those older Australians who cannot care for and represent themselves. That's why the Turnbull government is investing in our aged-care sector. The Minister for Aged Care, the Hon. Ken Wyatt AM, MP, has ensured that aged care is at the forefront of our government's significant reform agenda, and I want to congratulate and thank the minister for the wonderful job that he's doing. He really does care about the welfare and wellbeing of every single senior Australian.

For too long, particularly in my home state of South Australia, the health, safety and wellbeing of our senior Australians has not been a priority. We have all seen the devastating report on the treatment and conditions of people in aged-care facilities, particularly at Oakden in South Australia, which will have a devastating, lifelong impact on the victims and their families. That's why the Turnbull government is prioritising our senior Australians—so that no family ever has to endure the shameful abuse and neglect that occurred under the previous South Australian Labor government. Our reforms are giving people more choice over the sort of care that will best suit their needs and their families' needs. The government's investment in aged care is at a record $18.6 billion this year and is set to grow at around six per cent per annum over the next four years. We're supporting older Australians to remain living in their homes by delivering an additional 14,000 new high-level home care packages on top of the 6,000 level 3 and 4 home care packages announced in September 2017. We're providing an additional 13½ thousand residential aged-care places and 775 short-term restorative care places across the nation. We are providing interim care and support services, like Meals on Wheels, cleaning and personal care, through our record $5.5 billion investment in the Commonwealth Home Support Program, which assists around 800,000 older Australians. And, importantly, we are providing transparency as we implement these reforms. This all means that, over the next four years, aged-care funding is up, home care packages are up and residential aged-care places are up. This is a stark comparison to what those opposite did when they were in government. In the 2010-11 budget, they ripped $9 million out of aged care. Then, to make things worse, the then Labor government's 2011-12 budget ripped another $211.7 million out of aged care. And, in 2012-13, Labor cut residential care places.

The Turnbull government is fixing Labor's aged-care mess with significant long-term reforms and a detailed, costed plan to support older Australians. We are investing $61.7 million in the My Aged Care system, to make it simpler and easier to use, to ensure older Australians have access to the services they need, when they need them. We are supporting healthy ageing, by improving mental health services for senior Australians and introducing a new grant program to encourage physical activity. We are establishing a new and independent one-stop shop Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, to give older Australians and their families the confidence that they will be properly cared for and that they know where to turn when they have problems. We are establishing a single set of standards so that the same core, non-negotiable expectations will apply across all services and will strengthen and streamline the regulation of safe, quality care.

In the 2018-19 budget, the Turnbull government announced an additional $32.8 million to increase access to community based palliative care, to support older Australians who wish to pass away in their home, with their family. This is something that a number of people in my electorate raised with me, and I'm pleased to see that we have introduced it. We have also committed $5.3 million to improve care for people living with dementia, with an emphasis on the use of innovative technologies. We are doing a range of other things, with record hospital funding and GP bulk-billing, and I again thank the minister for the wonderful job that he is doing caring for our senior Australians.

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

This government is sitting on the current waiting list for home care packages. It has delayed the release of the quarterly data from March, and one has to wonder why. As I said in this place last week, I expect the minister is in his office trying to get the department to scratch a few names off it, because there were already over 100,000 Australians sitting on that list, waiting for home care, as at the end of December last year. We know that that list had 20,000 people added to it in the last six months of last year. It is no wonder the government is sitting on the last quarterly release of data, from the March quarter. It is no wonder the government doesn't want this parliament still in session when those figures are released. I think we all know why the government doesn't want to release that data—because it's busy trying to remove names from there; it's busy trying to get more packages released. And good on it—it should be trying to get more packages released, but it should have been trying to do that long before now.

The problem here is that this is a government that in the last budget tried to pretend it was doing something amazing and remarkable. That is the cruel hoax of what this government has done. To have to sit here and listen to the other side bang on about how wonderful it is and what a great job it is doing—I don't think it's a great job when you've got 100,000 older Australians waiting for care as at December of last year. It's not good enough. It's not good enough from any government who can afford $80 billion in tax cuts for the big end of town to sit in here and say, 'We're not going to give older Australians one cent more than was already in the forward estimates,' when we've got 100,000 people waiting for home care packages, 'but we'll give $80 billion to the top end of town.' It shows its priorities. It absolutely shows what this government is all about.

This government has sat on this waiting list, this national priority queue, and has known about this data for well over a year. It knew that this queue was growing faster and faster. It did release 6,000 packages in September last year, and that's a good thing, and we welcome that from our side, but at the time we said, 'It's good but it's not good enough; we're going to need to do more.' And we were right, because that list is going to continue to grow, and the 14,000 new packages in the budget, level 3 and level 4, are welcome but it's not nearly enough. As my colleague the member for Cunningham pointed out, it's not even keeping up with demand. To say that we're going to release 14,000 packages, when the list grew by 20,000 in the last six months of last year, is not good enough.

What is this government going to do? What is it going to take for this government to be honest and open with the Australian public and have a fair dinkum conversation about how we're going to fix this? How are we as a community going to deal with the issue of old-age care in Australia, dealing with older Australians? My office is inundated. As the member for Cunningham talked about, we're getting calls from children who want to get care for their parents, children who are not going to work, adult children who are trying to care for their parents, but they've got full-time jobs and they need to go to work. They need to pay their mortgages. We need to have a proper discussion as a community about how we are going to deal with this going forward. The government needs to do that, rather than trying to turn this into a political issue, like they did with the budget, and pretend they're doing something remarkable, when clearly they are not.

When I talk to providers of home care, when I talk to providers of residential aged care, they know that this is a growing problem. They know that we have older Australians at home, going into residential care when they don’t want to. They know that emergency departments have got older Australians there, who, if they had the proper care at home, would not be there. So this is impacting on other sectors of the health services. It is impacting emergency departments, it is impacting residential care and it's impacting a whole range of other services, because these people cannot get the care they've been assessed for and approved for but haven't been allocated a package.

It needs to get better. The government needs to find a solution to this. To continue to say, 'Oh, it's all good. We fixed it. There are 14,000 in the last budget. Aren't we fabulous!' is not the answer. They need to be honest. They need to come clean. They need to release the data as soon as possible and have a fair dinkum conversation with the Australian public about what is going on in aged care in Australia today. They need to be honest about the type of care that people are able to get. To say that half the people on that waiting list are currently receiving services means that they are actually getting some services but not what they actually need to stay at home. The whole point of the assessment process is to make sure people get the care they need to stay at home.

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

I listened to the words of the member for Franklin. She's all fired up. Let go to the last points of this motion today:

(3) condemns the Government for the aged care crisis it made on its watch; and

(4) calls on the Government to be honest with older Australians

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just remind honourable members that the member for Franklin was heard in silence. The member for Grey has the call.

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

They 'call on the government to be honest with Australians'. I mean, really, that is a bit rich coming from that side of the chamber. The issue we are dealing with here is home care packages. The member for Franklin knows full well that when her team was in government we didn't know the extent of the waiting list for home care packages. Labor's waiting list was hidden because the requests for home care packages lay with the providers. The providers kept that information to themselves. They in fact made major changes to the aged-care industry, and then sat there on their hands and did not know what this demand was. That's why I give the aged-care minister great credit, because he has flicked the scab off and shown what that demand is. To say that this demand just materialised over the last years is a load of rubbish.

An opposition member interjecting—

The demand was there before, and your people chose to ignore it by allowing a system to stay in place that hid the demand from the government and from the Australian public.

We instigated the increasing choices legislation in February last year. We now know the extent of the problem, and we have moved in a very significant way. The health minister should be congratulated. In fact, aged care will receive $19.8 billion this financial year. That is $5.5 billion more than the last time that Labor was in government. In five years, it has increased by around 30 per cent. It is outrageous for those on the other side to maintain that the government is not putting the blowtorch on this problem. We've identified the problem, and we are moving to fix the problem.

With the transparency of the list we have had for the first time a clear picture, and we have allocated 20,000 new places for home care packages. That is a remarkable figure—20,000. You go: 'Yeah, well, that's in abstract; 20,000, good on the government. Whatever.' But in fact that is an 86 per cent increase over the last four years! Yet we are told by those on the other side of the chamber that somehow this problem has all eventuated in the last five years!

I understand they are concerned about aged care—we're all concerned about aged care. But it is misleading and it is hypocrisy of the first order to make the statements that are in these motions accusing the government of dishonesty. We are the first government that has been absolutely honest on this issue, and we know—and the people know—what is needed.

So I congratulate the minister. I've had him out in my electorate; I think he's possibly going to be one of the best aged-care ministers this country's ever had, quite frankly. He is a man with compassion; he cares; he understands the industry, as it were; he understands the issues; and he's quite prepared to go out and meet, greet and talk with my constituents, at least, but I know many more as well. I've had him in Ceduna and in Peterborough, where we addressed a number of other issues as well while we were there, including the extra challenges that aged-care facilities face in country regions. Most of us in this room, hopefully, would be aware that aged-care facilities need around 65 to 80 beds to be properly operationally efficient. In South Australia we have small regional centres and lots of little country towns that already have aged-care facilities. They are very, very important in the communities, so that people can age in situ as it were. But these aged-care organisations are completely under stress, and the minister organised some funding in the last budget to aid those issues. So he does well.

Ged Kearney (Batman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to support this motion on aged care, because this government must be held to account for its shameful and deceitful handling of the issue of home care packages and aged care in general and what that says about an out-of-touch government. Let me go to some of the ways this government has completely failed to deliver for our most vulnerable Australians, for the people who care for them and for their concerned families. Let's be clear: the government pulled billions of dollars out of residential care in 2015-16. One can only imagine the reverberations of that right across the community and how that has contributed to what is an aged-care crisis right now.

The government, in this budget, hailed one of the greatest achievements of the Minister for Aged Care, in that 14,000 places were announced for home care packages. There were 14,000 places announced in the budget when we know around 105,000 older Australians are waiting for these packages! Indeed, in the last six months alone, 20,000 people joined the waiting list. Worst of all, it turns out that the government is actually slashing residential care to try and fix the home care package crisis. Over the next three years 21,000 residential aged care places will be cut to pay for the small increase to the number of home care packages. There is no new money in the budget at all for the funding of home care and residential aged care. None!

Older Australians and their families remain frustrated, and confused and let down by this government, which is so out of touch it clearly has no idea what it means to be hoping for help with an older loved one. It has no idea what it means to watch an elderly parent wait in vain for assistance at home. It has no idea what it means for a family to struggle to provide that care themselves, juggling rosters at work and juggling their own children, who need their care and attention. Families are taking risks, ultimately, because sometimes it just doesn't work out the way you want it to, and then you worry desperately because you can't get home on time, because an elderly loved one is home all alone just for that bit too long, because they didn't get a shower at all, because they missed their midday medications or because they didn't eat their lunch. You worry that the Post-It Notes you put out to remind them to take their pills or turn off the gas or to put the heating on might have fallen away or been pulled down or missed.

I recently had a visit from a constituent who's been waiting for over 12 months for a package for his mum. He's at his wit's end. Each time it appears one is coming up his mum has deteriorated just a bit more and they say she needs a re-assessment, and then there is another wait. He is absolutely convinced that the government is forcing this to happen so ultimately she deteriorates so much without home assistance that he will have to place her in residential care, where he will have to find a bond and move his mum away. He said: 'Mum doesn't have much. We don't have much. They just want me to come up with a stack of money we don't really have, pay up-front and put her in a home, when we just want to keep her with us and we could do that with some help.'

The coalition continues its smoke-and-mirrors tricks in relation to the most basic functions of government—releasing timely information. Data on the wait list for home care packages is missing in action. Where is the data? Why is there a delay? What are the aged-care minister and his government hiding?

Finally, the Prime Minister exposed the lack of respect he has for aged-care workers last week when he said that he expected these Australians to aspire to a better job. The arrogance of this statement and the absolute failings of this government to deliver on aged care tell us so much about the priorities of those who sit opposite us. They simply don't care about the elderly. They don't care about the people who raised us, cared for us and love us. They deserve so much better than this smoke-and-mirrors approach.

The government don't care that they are forcing Australians to work till they're 70, and they don't care about the workers who look after our elderly. These workers have been screaming out for reform and resources, a call that has been ignored by this government. They need resources so they can continue to do the job they love and the jobs they aspire to. The only people the government do seem to care about are the wealthiest Australians who stand to gain the most from their tax cuts, the bankers and high-flying executives who will have their corporate tax rates slashed, and, oh yes, let's not forget Captain Cook who's getting a $50 million memorial.

As I said just last week, a society is judged by how it cares for its most vulnerable. Our elderly are our most vulnerable, and this government has failed to deliver home care packages and care to so many older Australians. It created an aged-care crisis. It is ignoring the aged-care crisis, and its budget fails to fix it. (Time expired)

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion as being moved by the honourable member opposite. One should put this in the context of an ageing population in Australia. The reality is that the number and proportion of people aged over 65 is going to double over a period of some 20 years; that the fastest growing cohort in the Australian population are people aged 80 and over; and that the entry point into old age when I was a child was probably somewhere around 60 to 65—it's now 80 or more. People in their 60s and, indeed, in their 70s, for the most part are living vital, active lives, unlike generations ago in the past. Indeed, if one goes back far enough, to the beginning of the last century, average life expectancy in this country for men was just over 50 and in the mid-50s for women. So what we've seen over the passage of a century is a huge increase in longevity, which is continuing today.

That increase in longevity in terms of death rates came about, firstly, by the very significant reduction in death in childbirth—something which was an infliction for centuries into the past. One only has to go to a cemetery or a graveyard where there are gravestones and headstones from a century ago to see that so many of them relate to women who were young and died, sadly, giving birth, and, tragically, to many children who died in the early days, months and years of life. And then in the second part of last century, we saw this huge increase in longevity through the fact that surgery and medicine and all the wonderful pharmaceutical products which are now available have meant that people are living longer and longer. So this is not some recent matter that we've dealt with.

These matters have been a challenge for governments in Australia for some 20 or 30 years. I could have been here almost 20 years ago in the same sort of debate when I was the aged-care minister, addressing these sorts of issues, and it is an ongoing challenge for whoever happens to be in government. So the context of providing aged care is important in terms of a debate such as this. I understand why the opposition have raised a motion such as this. It's the sort of thing that happens in this place regardless of who happens to be in opposition at the present time, but the context of the challenges of an ageing population, which are ongoing, need to be taken account of in considering these matters.

Secondly, one must take account of the fact that home care packages of this sort are a relatively recent invention. If you go back two or three decades, the reality was that most aged care was seen as residential aged care. Yes, there were meals on wheels and similar services, but what we've seen over the last 20 years or so is a huge increase in home care packages, reflecting the fact that most Australians, when they need care in their old age, want to stay in their home, rather than moving into a residential accommodation, if they can possibly achieve that for themselves, and their families would like that as well. The reality is that if you look at the proportion of care being provided as home care in its various guises now, it is much greater than it was, say, two or three decades ago.

This is an ongoing challenge for the nation in terms of an ageing population. The great baby-boom generation, which, if I look around, seems to include most people in this chamber right at the moment—with some notable exceptions—at the moment are part of the baby-boom generation. That great generation, which increased the population of Australia over that period from the end of the Second World War onwards, is now moving into old age, so the challenges of providing aged care, regardless of who is in government, are going to be ongoing challenges for the future.

Prior to February 2017, we didn't actually have lists or queues in relation to home care packages, not because there weren't people waiting; it was simply because prior to those reforms in February 2017, they weren't published and queues, to the extent that they existed, were managed by the providers themselves. Having this information is an advance, but we shouldn't pretend for a moment, in a party-political way, that this is not a challenge that is going to face every government, now and into the future, regardless of who happens to be in government.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very happy to speak in support of the motion put forward by my good friend the member for Franklin. Mahatma Gandhi once said that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. Older Australians who require care, either in their own homes or in residential aged care, are some of society's most vulnerable. Often our mothers, they are also our fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles, and they don't have a voice on so many occasions. So I'm honoured to speak on this motion in the Chamber today in support of some of our most vulnerable Australians. This Turnbull government is shamefully treating too many older Australians with something verging on contempt.

Back in May, we saw the Turnbull government wax lyrical about how they were looking after older Australians by promising 14,000 new in-home care packages over the next four years. What they didn't say was that the funding for those 14,000 in-home care packages is coming from existing funding for residential aged care. This out-of-touch Prime Minister has reduced beds in residential aged care to pay for in-home care packages. We have an ageing population and an aged-care crisis created by the Turnbull government, a government that has shown itself to be both underhanded and irresponsible, and we have those opposite laughing at this.

By 2025, the projected gap between available residential aged-care places and consumers who will actually need those places will be 94,200 places—that is, 94,200 older Australians will need residential aged care and won't be able to get it. This is a festering national disgrace, and the blame will fall squarely at the feet of this out-of-touch government. Prime Minister Turnbull and his cronies have created this aged-care crisis. They have ignored—

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Goldstein, on a point of order?

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He used the term 'cronies'. I think that's a completely unacceptable way to refer to other members of parliament in this place.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's an expressive term, but it is not outside the parliamentary rules.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The word 'crony' in the dictionary says 'a close friend or companion'. If you're saying that you're not the Prime Minister's close friend or companion, I'm happy to take that interjection. Come in spinner.

This Prime Minister and his cronies have created this aged-care crisis. They have ignored this aged-care crisis, and the 2018 budget failed to fix this aged-care crisis. Yet, like fake news on steroids, they have pretended to actually do something. Duplicity and ignoring that there is a crisis will not make this crisis go away. Using smoke and mirrors to pretend to announce extra funding for aged care will not change the bottom line, which is that there is no extra money allocated for the growing cohort of older Australians needing care. A budget announcement of 14,000 extra home care packages is laughable, as the waiting list nationally for home care packages grew by 20,000 in the last six months of 2017, as my good friend the member for Franklin would know.

However, suddenly we don’t get up-to-date figures, because the Minister for Aged Care has not released the data for the first quarter of this year. That quarter ended in March, almost three months ago. We know the department has previously committed to releasing the data two months after the end of that quarter. The release of the data is now a month late. What is the minister hiding? The last data that was released, now six months old, revealed almost 105,000 older Australians were waiting for a home care package, with the average wait time for a high-level package blowing out to more than a year. As I saw in Eight Mile Plains—I was having a barbecue on the weekend—this causes heartache inside families. It's just a piece of data for those opposite; it's a heart-aching story for the real Australians who are actually trying to get their family into some sort of caring environment.

Sadly, we know that older Australians don't have time. They don't have the years to wait to get the care that they need now. Sadly, we have a government that can find $80 billion for tax cuts for big business, including $17 billion to get to the big banks—which were not struggling the last time I looked—but they can't get one extra cent to give to older Australians.

We know the Prime Minister has no idea how important the work of caring for our elderly is. We saw that in question time last week, with his cruel and insensitive advice to those who care for our aged was that they 'should aspire to get a better job'. I think the advice was to someone in Braddon. How incredible. The Prime Minister needs to spend some time in one of our world-class aged-care facilities—not just one of those selfie flash-mob fleeting visits—actually sitting down and talking to people who provide aged care. Then he might have an understand of how difficult this crisis is. (Time expired)

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members' time has expired on that last point, but perhaps we could broaden that and say his arguments have expired as well. I have to say it's very disappointing, frankly, to even speak on this motion when you've got a government making as much of a commitment to aged care as any government in Australian history. Despite that, the opposition come out and make bold claims, seeking to deride the incredible effort this government is making to ensure that people at a vulnerable stage of life get the support and assistance they need. It is particularly disappointing when they oppose every single measure that is necessary to underpin that proposition.

If you want to afford aged-care places, you need people in jobs, you need people to be contributing and paying tax and you need to make sure we see growth in the economy to provide for those people who are most vulnerable. If you ever want to look at the vacancy in that policy position and the absent understanding of just how critical a stronger economy is, we only need look at the opposition benches and their policy framework. But let's get past their disappointment and get to the disappointment of the previous speaker.

The previous speaker started with a long list of things that he wanted to blame on the Turnbull government. One of them apparently is the ageing population itself. An ageing population firstly is a celebration of technology and ingenuity and how people can live longer, happier, healthier lives—and manage chronic conditions. It is a power of the spirit of humanity and the technological improvements that have improved this country. But, even then, to blame the ageing population on the Turnbull government is frankly nothing short of absurd. When you look at why we have an ageing population, you see it isn't just because of the trajectory of the population; it's also because there was this big boom of people born in the middle of the 20th century. He may have forgotten, but the reason for that is that it was a legacy of war and everything else. And it's not just that a large number of people were being born. On top of that, people were able to go on to live longer, healthier and happier lives. So, on one level, we might as well accept that criticism; it's actually a compliment. But, to be frank, I don't think we can take responsibility for it.

There has been no minister for aged care in this parliament that I have seen that cares as much as this Minister for Aged Care. He's come down to the Goldstein electorate to meet with local aged-care providers, support staff, workers and managers of local aged-care facilities, and we've been very proud to host him. Yes, he is, as some members have noted, received like a rock star, and he is a rock star, because he is compassionate, caring and mindful of the challenges and on top of every single part of the detail. Recently, in fact, we went to the opening of the Abberfield Aged Care Facility on Bluff Road in Sandringham, where a family has come together to invest in an aged-care facility. Every single client who lives in it expressed to me their deep satisfaction with the services and, particularly, the staff and their compassion and concern for how the clients are cared for. The fact that the minister turned up to open it was a great credit to him and a great contribution to that community.

But it sits across a backdrop of the commitment that this government makes across the board and across the nation, not just in Goldstein. Year on year, under this government, home care packages have been up and residential care places are up, and every year aged-care funding has been up. I'm a Liberal. We don't just think about it in terms of dollars and cents; we also think about it in terms of outcomes. Every dollar that goes in has to deliver an outcome for Australians. And, it's not just that, since the coalition government has been elected, aged-care spending has increased by an average of more than six per cent per year—and that's on average a billion dollars of extra funding and support for older Australians each year. We have also been able to mobilise people to be able to live broader, fuller, healthier and happier lives. That is something that we are incredibly proud of, because it means that people at a vulnerable stage of life who aren't able to change their circumstances get the support and assistance they need. But it's not just in the provision of aged care, at home or in a centre, that there have been such huge improvements. It's also in the capacity to shift and focus on many of the other issues that affect people in an ageing population. Increasingly, through services like palliative care, we are providing support to people facing serious conditions and making sure they get the assistance they need, and addressing the challenges faced by those, like my grandmother, who face dementia. At every point, this government is delivering for Australians who are ageing. (Time expired)

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, 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.