Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to acknowledge the achievements of aged-care reform advocate Elizabeth Barton, who I was honoured to award a 2021 Holt Australia Day Award to this year. Liz retired from nursing on 6 November 2020 after an incredible 54 years of service. She is now dedicated to improving aged-care services in Australia as an aged-care reform advocate. Liz believes—and she is very qualified to be talking about this—that, after 20 inquiries and a royal commission, we need a new aged care act, along the lines of the Victorian safe patient care act, with proper staffing ratios and a focus on the human rights of older people. Liz states that we must end the neglect in our aged-care system and ensure mandatory reporting of elder abuses.

Liz is a dedicated, hardworking member of our community, who is also on the Cranbourne Community Hospital consultative committee. She is working to ensure that we deliver an amazing new hospital for local residents in Cranbourne. Liz has also previously made important contributions to the arguments for the important nurse-to-patient ratio legislation. Liz concentrated her submission on palliative care, the area in which she worked tirelessly for 18 years. Her experience and knowledge of the discipline only strengthened the profession's submission and made compelling arguments for the importance of qualified clinicians in end-of-life care.

Our community needs more like Liz Barton, a hardworking community advocate that doesn't mind standing up for what she believes in in the aged-care sector. Thank you, Liz, for many dedicated years of quality clinical care for patients and families at their most vulnerable time.