Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, when the debate on the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021 was interrupted, I was speaking about the Princes Court aged-care facility. Through the Commonwealth government's aged-care approval rounds, I was pleased to announce $4.5 million for Princes Court Homes to support their redevelopment plans. This was wonderful news for Lyn and Jenny who had worked on those plans for over three years. But this kind of investment is about more than just bricks and mortar; it is about reinforcing the future of care for senior Australians across Australia. This investment in Mallee will mean that our older residents have access to facilities that are truly the home environment they deserve. It provides dignity and independent living and security in a supportive community. I also secured over $4.6 million for Oasis Aged Care in Irymple, $350,000 for Cohuna Village and a further $4.9 million to enhance the wonderful work of Havilah aged care in Maryborough, bringing our commitments to $14.47 million in Mallee alone. This Liberal-Nationals government is investing over $338 million over three years to grow, train and upskill the aged-care workforce and drive improvements in the safety and quality of care.

I have always enjoyed visiting our aged-care facilities. Of course, COVID has stymied those visits with our seniors across Mallee. Over the past year and a half, it has been exceptionally difficult for families and loved ones of those in aged-care homes. Families have been cut off from their loved ones for extended periods of time. This has resulted in many missing out on invaluable quality time at the end of life. My heart goes out to those who have not been able to share these moments face to face with their loved ones.

One of the wonderful initiatives that has taken place in recent times is the transgenerational connection of playgroups and child care with aged-care homes. In my former life, the not-for-profit I founded, Zoe Support, began this work in Mildura. They were the first community group in Mallee to take playgroups into aged-care homes. The organisation still does so, depending on COVID health orders, of course. Bupa Aged Care Mildura have benefited from the initiative of Zoe Support's playgroup program. This community program brings life and joy to the residents of Bupa. It is wonderful to see the faces of residents light up when meeting with the little people that come into their facility. All the while, the young mums and their children also richly benefit. I know that both Zoe Support and Bupa Aged Care Mildura will be eagerly awaiting the easing of restrictions to allow the program to continue this great work that they have been doing for years. This kind of initiative is what makes me especially proud to represent Mallee.

Another notable initiative is run by Chaffey Aged Care in Mildura. I also secured $500,000 for Chaffey Aged Care for the construction of an early learning centre. Darren Midgley, the CEO of Chaffey Aged Care, told me of the enhanced quality of life for residents as a result of this recent infrastructure development. I was pleased to open the early learning centre with Senator Bridget McKenzie. The centre has been strategically located alongside the Chaffey Aged Care facility. It is wonderful to see interaction between children and seniors clearly bringing joy, and it is evidence of the innovation and collaboration of Mildura educational and aged-care agencies.

The Morrison-Joyce government has invested in aged care across Australia and is committed to seeing our aged population thrive.

This bill establishes a legislated authority for nationally consistent pre-employment screening. Importantly, this will prevent unsuitable workers from entering or returning to the aged-care sector. This will provide comfort to those with loved ones in aged care or those beginning the journey of finding a suitable aged-care facility, that safeguards are in place to ensure their wellbeing and safety. This bill will also see the fundamental extension of the Serious Incident Response Scheme to go beyond residential care and into home care as well. These measures are indeed crucial to ensuring that our elderly and their families have peace of mind and the assurance that they will be looked after and afforded respectful, dignified and personalised care.

I endorse these legislative amendments, as I believe that investing in our aged-care sector is the right response and an imperative to ensuring improvement in services and care for our seniors. We all want Australia to be a global leader in aged care into the future. Our senior Australians deserve nothing less.

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

A lack of care for older Australians and aged-care residents is endemic in this Morrison government. We have seen time and time again throughout the pandemic the sheer disregard for the lives and wellbeing of aged-care residents. The botched vaccine rollout for aged-care residents and staff and the ongoing lack of support for those in the aged-care sector send a clear message from the Morrison government that the needs of older Australians are not a priority.

Older Australians built this country. They worked hard, they paid their taxes and they raised their families. They are the people to whom we owe all the things that make our country what it is: a place of freedom and a place of opportunity. These people and their families who have worked and contributed to our country throughout their lives deserve so much better than the chaotic, unsafe system that has come about as a result of eight long years of this Liberal-National government's ignoring their needs.

Let there be no mistake: the aged-care system as it currently stands is broken. Aged care is an issue that impacts all of us. Australians and their families deserve compassion, safety and adequate care as they move through the later stages of their life. Labor supports the bill, as any changes with the capacity to even slightly improve the failing aged-care system are long overdue, but this bill falls well short of what is needed to achieve long-term, lasting change in an industry that is in so much need of reform.

The Morrison government has failed aged-care residents again and again and again. This bill is just their latest attempt to launder their image. It's not the broad, transformative reform necessary to ensure the safety and security of older Australians and those who are in the aged-care system. Over the eight long years this government has been in power, they have repeatedly neglected the needs of those within the aged-care system. It's a national disgrace, and it requires more than the half-baked policies put forward in this bill.

The Morrison government are responsible for the aged-care system. They are responsible for the funding cuts. They are responsible for the terrible and heartbreaking neglect that has been identified in the royal commission, a royal commission which they have literally thumbed their noses at. This is an issue of utmost national importance, particularly considering the horrific neglect which the government has continued to demonstrate towards aged-care homes, their residents and the workers, particularly, throughout the course of this pandemic. This is an industry that is in need of immense reform and oversight, and, in this task, the Morrison government is categorically failing.

The royal commission highlighted the tragic outcomes of the Morrison government's neglect, including the stories of maggots in the wounds of residents and the horrifying statistics about malnourishment that we saw. These failures—the neglect, the pain of those experiencing neglect within the aged-care system and the pain of their families—are the result of the government's past ongoing neglect of our older communities. I have seen it for myself, personally, when going through aged-care facilities during the pandemic. There were 170 cases. Twenty-two lives were lost, and there wasn't a peep from the government about how they could help and what they could do. The aged-care workers in these places busted their guts—day in, day out—in horrific conditions, trying to work through a pandemic. The government couldn't even respond to the most basic of needs—the most basic support they asked for assistance with. It is a true tragedy to see that happen. Twenty-two lives were lost. There were 170 cases, and staff were overworked to the hilt. The government sat by and literally did nothing. It's terrible. The government owes an apology to those people for leaving them out the way they did.

The royal commission concluded that almost one in three older people had experienced some form of substandard care while in residential facilities. It specifically heard about the excessive use of physical and chemical restraints in aged care, which rob older Australians of their dignity and autonomy as they go through the later stages of their lives. Older people with mental health issues, particularly those suffering from later stages of dementia, are often heavily medicated or physically restrained. For too many people, their experience in the aged-care system is uncaring, unkind and even inhumane. We need to respond to their needs.

The government has failed to listen to the stories and the experiences of Australians in aged care, their families and workers. They failed to listen to the 22 expert reports. Now, they are failing to listen to the responses of their own royal commission. The Morrison government wants to claim to have put forward a plan that reforms the aged-care sector, but, beyond the smoke and mirrors, the government's response to the royal commission and to the current crisis within the aged-care system doesn't just fall short; it fails completely. The government's proposed policies fail to deliver the enduring reforms and the improvements necessary to address the crises in the short, medium and long run.

Labor's criticism of the Morrison government's response is not politics. It's not political mudslinging. It is fact. It is an undisputable fact that the Morrison government has delayed or outright rejected many of the crucial recommendations of the royal commission and the necessary changes that can reform this industry. The Morrison government's plan includes none of the recommended workforce and workplace changes which the royal commission outlined as necessary aspects to addressing the growing crisis within the industry. There is absolutely nothing the government is doing to improve wages for the overstretched, undervalued aged-care workers in the aged-care industry.

The government ignored seven of the recommendations that were put forth to address standards of care within residential facilities. The government ignored the recommendations to require a nurse to be on 24/7 duty within residential aged-care facilities. They just glossed over the recommendations regarding staff-to-patient ratios, something the industry knows must be done. You would think a government would take the time to listen to aged-care workers but it is pretty clear that, like its approach to a lot of people in this country, the government just does not care. It is very, very sad. They shirked their primary increase to mandatory care minutes for residents in aged care. Their proposals do not meet the recommendations made by the royal commission, and they include cleaning and admin work as part of the care minutes. Again, you've got to look at what this Prime Minister says. Everything is about the headline—but never with the delivery. This needs to be done and needs to be mandated. It is just not good enough that we see these things happening.

Staffing levels are central to many of the quality of care problems in residential aged care, and these reforms are crucial to increasing standards of care and ensuring that the horrific stories of neglect which we heard throughout the course of the royal commission do not continue into the future. The Morrison government have fallen short on their responsibility to address this issue. And if all of that wasn't enough, the Morrison government have failed to clear the home care package wait list for over 100,000 people, ignoring the wishes of Australians who want to age at home and giving them little option other than to go to the overworked, understaffed facilities which the government refuses to reform.

Despite allocating $3.2 billion to providers, the government are demanding no assurances that this money goes towards actual care, increased staff and better food. The commitment of this money to supplement the basic daily fee by $10 per resident per day was recommended by the royal commission and they laid out strict reporting requirements to ensure that these funds went to addressing the malnourishment crisis and on better care. The government didn't follow the recommendations for the reporting requirements. Instead, they are providing a $3.2 billion cheque to providers with no assurances on how it is to be spent. The government don't care if the money goes towards management bonuses or new staff offices, as long as they say it is fixing the crisis.

We have seen the issue in Victoria in aged-care facilities, where people were starving and treated poorly, but the owners of the aged-care facility were out there on their superyachts and driving their European sports cars. That is why you need to have the checks and balances in place. The people who pay their taxes here in Australia want to see better aged-care facilities. We have respect for our elderly people and we want to see them get good care. No-one needs to see Instagram photos of aged-care providers running around on superyachts and driving sports cars. That is not what it is about. The money should be there for all Australians and for people in aged care.

The lack of transparency and accountability which defines the eight years of this Liberal-National government is present throughout the entirety of this bill. It really concerns us that $17.7 billion will be spent on aged care without transparency and accountability measures in place. As far as Labor is concerned, every dollar spent on aged care should be going to care, not to provider profits. We know that there are many aged-care providers who do amazing work and are dedicated to the health and wellbeing of those in their care, but we also know that there are far too many who aren't.

Australia's aged-care system is currently in a state of crisis. That is not an opinion; that is a fact—an actual fact. No person in our country should be subject to mistreatment or should experience malnourishment or be forced to suffer without adequate medical care; least of all, older Australians, who built this country and to whom we owe so much. We welcome any changes which have the capacity to improve the aged-care system. But let there be no mistake: the bill proposed by the Morrison government does not do enough to reform the fundamentally broken system which has been created under their watch. Changes to staffing regulations and conditions and real accountability with regards to where funding on aged care is actually being spent are necessary in order to increase the standard of care in residential aged-care facilities and to prevent mistreatment. Neither of these were included to any substantial degree in the government's bill.

So, while we're not going to stop the passage of this bill, we strongly urge the Morrison government to consider implementing all of the recommendations put forth by the royal commission, to stop the arrogance and to work with Labor to implement the standards and the regulations necessary to reform this broken system. Older Australians deserve respect, compassion and care—and, once again, the Morrison government, with this bill, is failing to provide it to them. It has really never been more clear that Australia needs an Albanese Labor government, someone who is on their side, someone who is going to help those Australians who have built this country and made it the great place that it is.

(Quorum formed)

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

Let me start off by thanking those who work in aged care. We've had a royal commission. It was necessary. But there is no doubt it's a two-edged sword, and it has attacked the morale and confidence of those who work in aged care. As I move around my electorate, I drop in to aged-care facilities quite regularly and meet with these people. Sure—I fully accept that there have been some bad operators and some bad people operating in the system, but by and large we are overwhelmed by people of good intent, with a good heart, who give their absolute best to the care of our elderly. I think the fact that 99.1 per cent of residential aged-care workers nationally have been vaccinated is a pretty clear indication of how much they value their job and their clients. Thank you to each and every one of them, and I'm sorry if adverse publicity has detracted from your pride in your job. We need to do everything we can to reverse that.

Aged care is a fast-changing field. I first came onto a hospital board in the 1980s, in my small town of Kimba. A decision had been made in the past to amalgamate the hospital and aged-care hostel boards and so the aged-care hostel became the responsibility of that particular board. At that time, a lady came in—I think she was about 65 or 66 when she came in. She was a resident for almost 30 years, and she used to check out for a couple of weeks every year to go home to cook for the shearers, to help the boys out. Boy, things have changed when it comes to getting into aged care now! The point I make about that is that the facilities that we built 30 years ago are no longer, in many cases, appropriate for the clientele who are coming into aged care now. That's a figure that I think is worth dwelling on. When we came to government in 2013 there were fewer than 60,000 home-care packages in Australia. There has been plenty of criticism of the government along the way: 'Why don't you have more home-care packages?' We are now closing in on 200,000 packages. So, we can talk about why there were only 60,000 when we came to government, but it is changing. And of course those home-care packages are part of why people are coming into aged care now.

I think the expectancy of the time someone will live in residential care is around 13 months. That is because when they're coming into residential care they are more needy of more care; they are further along the ageing process, if you like. And the home-care packages are a great thing; they are fantastic. They are good for the taxpayer, of course, but they are particularly good for the clients. If I live long enough to contemplate getting old, I certainly hope that I can do it in my own house, but there may come a time when I can't. It's also worth noting that funding in aged care is a remarkable figure. In real terms, federal funding for aged care has more than doubled since 2013, and that was before the $17 billion that was put in at the last budget. That's an astonishing figure. Whether or not we're getting full value for money is I guess a fair argument, when there's been that kind of increase in funding. But there's certainly been no lack of commitment from the federal government to divert resources into this sector.

In my electorate, we've been through a particularly difficult time in Whyalla in regard to residential care. All the residential care in Whyalla comes from an organisation called Kindred Living, which is a community based aged-care system. They also deliver a lot of the home-care packages. They have three facilities: Yeltana, Copperhouse Court and Annie Lockwood Court. They were recently forced to close Annie Lockwood. It's been a really tough pill for the community. We're short of beds in Whyalla now as a result. There was accommodation for a little over 50 there. That facility was closed because they could not get enough registered nurses to staff it safely. They just could not with clear mind keep it open, and neither could they continue to be licensed. So, the crunch has really come, with a shortage— (Quorum formed) Owing to the fairly childish and disruptive tactics of those opposite, I shall not be able to finish the story of Annie Lockwood and the particular difficulties facing the Whyalla community at the time, and I think that is a bit sad. But I shall move on, because of that lost time.

There are six sections to the second tranche of this legislation, addressing the recommendations of the royal commission. One of the major complaints I hear when I go to these aged-care facilities is the complexity and time taken in filling out the ACFI, or the Aged Care Funding Instrument. Last year, in April, we introduced a new assessment tool and, now that assessment tool has been embedded, this bill links that tool to the payment system. The general advice I'm getting back is that after the teething issues it will work better. It includes an extra $10 a day to the basic subsidy, which is costing the Australian taxpayers $3.2 billion over the next five years. There is another $3.9 billion to increase direct care to residents. That has been welcomed and should take the pressure off a number of organisations and allow them to have a longer-term planning phase, particularly when it comes to capital investments. I applaud those moves.

The second piece of legislation, or the second standard within it, sets up an assessment scheme which facilitates the screening of prospective workers and will eventually allow for the registration of approved workers. This will replace the police assessment. I think that is entirely appropriate. Obviously, we need to keep bad people, who don't have the right attitudes, out of aged care. One of the things I often say is that, while we have 700,000 or so people in Australia on working age payments, aged care is not for everyone. I think you need a particular personality—you certainly need to be caring, loving and understanding. I don't know that all of us are well adapted for that. It's very important. I praised the aged-care workers when I started this contribution. To work in aged care, you need a vocational commitment. You need a commitment to people. You need a commitment to outcomes. You need to love people, as the fallback position. They are the kinds of people we want.

Tranche 3 takes the next obvious step of banning bad workers. Those who have offended in the past will have a black mark put against their name and they will be deregistered. I bring to the House's attention a case that has been discussed here before. It's to do with a home-care disability worker. I allow that this is disability and not aged care, but there is a correlation, which I will refer to later in this speech. It's the story of Ann-Marie Smith in South Australia, whose in-home care worker completely neglected her. She has been found guilty of manslaughter. The DSP provider has been fined and banned. That is right and appropriate. It's just sad that it's in retrospect rather than in prospect. The banning of bad people is a given. That will be allowed for in this legislation.

This legislation also extends serious incident reporting to home care. That's where Ann-Marie Smith was—in home care. Serious incident reporting was introduced in April for residential care; we are now extending it to home care, for obvious reasons. There are 200,000 people in Australia that are receiving home care at the moment. As a comparison, there are 335,000 in residential care. These are good and appropriate moves. This strengthens provider governance, ensuring primary obligations are to the customer, to transparency and to accountability—a superior culture, if you like—and it involves providers making an annual statement.

Tranche 6 is about information sharing, and that comes back to the case I referred to previously, that of Ann-Marie Smith. Those organisations who are working in aged care, in veterans care and in disability care will share their information, because we certainly don't want disreputable, deregistered workers moving from one sphere of caregiving to another. We want them right out of the system, thank you very much. That's what this legislation will allow for, and it is right and appropriate.

Tranche 7 allows for greater prudential supervision. It is no secret that aged care can be expensive. Firstly, it's expensive, full stop, but, secondly, it's expensive to the individual, particularly those with assets. People put up consumer bonds or resident bonds when they move into these residential places, and it's absolutely right that they should know the bonds are being managed correctly and, when they leave, either by their own good judgement or by the will of the Lord, the bonds are able to be retained or returned to the family. This will also ensure that the bonds can be returned to them if they choose to shift residence. These rules will make sure there is greater supervision, and it will also tip off the department in an earlier fashion when an organisation is heading for trouble. Every warning sign we can have in this area has to be an advantage.

To come back to my final points: as we approach the time when we're reopening Australian borders—I talked about that pool of unemployed people in Australia and how, maybe, they're not so adaptable to aged care—I think we've got to seriously look at bringing a great number of aged-care workers into Australia. If we're going to look after our aged properly, we need to make sure we've got the staff available, so we don't see any more closures of places like Annie Lockwood across the nation simply because they can't find the staff.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to pick up where the previous member finished and say there's something else that the government can do to encourage people—domestic, local workers—into the aged-care workforce. That's to pay them properly—to actually pay them a decent wage. One of the real reasons why we struggle to attract people with the skills and the experience into or back into aged care is that they are paid minimum wage. The solution to the aged-care staffing crisis is not simply importing workers. It's not simply opening up our borders and attracting overseas workers to work and care for our elderly Australians. That is not enough. We will probably always require some element of skilled overseas workers in our care sector, until we skill up our own, but it is not the only solution.

That solution also fails to address that we have a skills crisis in this country across the board. As the demand in the health sector under the COVID crisis has sucked a lot of workers into it—as it should; it is a pandemic and the demand for health workers and community workers continues to increase—it has left the aged-care sector vulnerable. There is no plan in this legislation to properly pay our aged-care workers, and without a plan this trend will continue. It is unsettling to hear government members speak about importing these workers—knowing that they'll be a second-class workforce who are paid low wages and do the work that Australians won't do—without recognising that we need to upskill the sector, that we need to properly fund the sector and that we need to properly pay our aged-care workers. I agree that our aged-care workers are angels. They do their work because of their love for older people and because they genuinely want to see our older Australians live in dignity and have a wonderful exit. However, that doesn't pay the bills. However, that's not recognition of the skills they have and of the compassion they have. For far too long our aged-care workers have been left to work in the sector for the love of their work, and it's simply not good enough.

Years ago Labor in government with the agreement of the states moved reform to introduce ratios to our early childhood education sector. My children are beneficiaries of this reform. Young Daisy is in child care in Parliament House and she gets the benefit of having extra educators with her. We don't have something similar for our aged-care sector. One of the complaints that's raised with me so often in this space is the fact that we don't have ratios in our aged-care facilities, which means that, if somebody is sick, people aren't called in, even if those people are available. The ratios vary from facility to facility. A state government owned facility or a community not-for-profit aged-care home will have better ratios than those of the for-profits. But because there are no rules in place and no mandated safe staffing levels, we see ridiculous ratios where you may have one aged-care worker to 50 or 60 residents. How can they possibly do their job adequately if we don't have decent aged-care ratios? I raise that because it's not being dealt with in this bill.

Whilst Labor supports what's before us, we're arguing that it doesn't go far enough. We held a huge aged-care royal commission in this country. It travelled to Bendigo and it met with over 300 people in a community forum, where local people got to share their experiences. Yet the bill that's before us doesn't deal with a number of the key recommendations in the commission's report. The government has yet again fobbed off, delayed and outright rejected key recommendations from the aged-care royal commission. Of the 148 recommendations, over half are not being implemented or aren't being implemented properly—over half. We have all heard the heartbreaking stories about aged-care residents. It could have been a moment of bipartisanship, it could have been a moment of recognition and healing, but, most importantly, it could have led to practical reform that would give our older Australians the dignity, support and care that they need. It's concerning that, as we stand here today, the bill that's before us not only is inadequate and does not deal with what is necessary to help our older Australians but also hasn't had the proper consultation that's required. Stakeholders, peak bodies, providers and workers are saying that they haven't been consulted in relation to this bill, despite it dealing with workforce screening, despite it dealing with provider governance and despite it dealing with banning orders and code of conduct. We know this government is so quick to implement something without consultation that there are going to be issues. I just hope that they're ready to reform where needed when we run into those mistakes. These small changes are necessary and needed, but don't rush them, don't implement them without consultation, because we'll hit more problems in a sector that is already exhausted.

Last year aged-care workers were at the front line and they were exposed to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are aware of the impact that COVID has had on the aged-care sector, and it has been twofold. First, we knew that COVID had a greater impact on the health of older Australians and those in aged care were vulnerable. It's disappointing that the vaccine rollout was so delayed, because we know that the vaccine saves lives. As the vaccine was rolled out in aged-care facilities, there was a problem because the government didn't have the vaccines available for the workforce. In my part of the world, when a contractor turned up to vaccinate older residents, which was welcomed, they didn't have enough vaccine to vaccinate the staff. It fell to Bendigo Health to vaccinate the staff in our aged-care facilities, and we thank them for doing so.

After and during last year and after the vaccine rollout, whilst we've been in and out of lockdown, our aged-care facilities have for health reasons been the first to be locked down, so we've now had long periods where aged-care residents have not been able to see their loved ones. That's because we are in a pandemic. So our workforce have had to step up, and they have not only been the carers and the healthcare workers in these facilities but also the companions for many in these facilities. Residents are frustrated and heartbroken and they are lonely. There have been long stints between seeing loved ones. Some may say it's the nature of a pandemic and there was nothing we could do, but we need to recognise that, during this difficult period, the workers in these facilities became their loved ones, their family members, the comforters, the people that residents could have a face-to-face conversation with. This is where we need to be doing more to support this workforce.

Older Australians have helped build this country. They've worked hard. They've paid their taxes. At a time when we promised them, 'If you payor taxes now, we'll be there to care for you in later life.' They've raised their families and now in their later years deserve respect and support from their government. They rightly expect the government to support them in their frailing years, yet what we've seen from this government time and again is that they've consistently let this age group down. After 21 expert reports, they knew that older people were suffering in aged care, but they did very little to fix the problem. It took an aged-care commission to bring these reforms before us, yet, as I've already staged, of the 148 aged-care royal commission recommendations, over half have not been implemented or aren't being properly. The government has proven that they're incapable of fixing the aged-care crisis. Hopefully, in the months ahead they will been listen to the sector, the workers, the unions and the providers and finally do something about the crisis that we're facing.

I held my own inquiry into the aged-care crisis that we're experiencing in my electorate. I asked people what they thought of the reforms that Labor had put forward and whether they agreed with some of the suggestions we were making. Ninety per cent agreed that there needed to be minimum staffing levels in aged care. This is what they're saying in my part of the world, a regional electorate where we have multiple aged-care providers, from our small towns to the big regional centre. Ninety per cent of people who responded to my survey said they agreed with minimum staffing levels, a Labor commitment, a recommendation from the royal commission into aged care, yet no reform is before us in this House. Ninety-seven per cent agreed that staff should be trained properly for aged care, recognising that not all people in aged care have had the opportunity for skills, have had the opportunity to train, have had the opportunity to get the education required to be aged-care providers. Again, this is something that Labor did in government for our early childhood education sector, but we have not yet seen it rolled out in aged care, though it is something that's required. If COVID has taught us anything about aged care, it's that, if you train the staff, the staff will have the skills that' are required.

Seventy per cent in this survey agreed that aged-care facilities in our area did not have the appropriate or proper PPE required. We asked the staff, and many reported having to go the whole day in the one mask or the whole day in the one PPE, which is not good infection control, as we know. Ninety-two per cent agreed that we need a better surge workforce strategy, highlighting the problems that we'd experienced in our region.

Staff are exhausted. Many haven't been able to take any leave over the last 18 months to try to get through this pandemic. They deserve the support right now, and yet many don't know when they will be able to take a day's leave or a week's leave or even go on a holiday with their family. Ninety-four per cent say that their home-care waiting lists are still far too long.

The government and government MPs come in here and crow about what they've achieved but there are still people on the waiting list. I've had people in my electorate die waiting for the appropriate aged-care package and it's simply not good enough. A level 2 package isn't the care that somebody on a level 4 pack package needs. When the government crows about their packages—what people in my electorate have told me is: 'I've been offered a level 2 but it nowhere near covers or satisfies what I need.' Children are frustrated that their parents aren't getting the support that they require.

In the few moments I have left, I'd like to share what people have said about what it's like to work in aged care in my electorate and what some of the children have said. A daughter of a woman who was in aged care, now deceased, said to me, 'At the time there was one registered nurse per floor of 50 to 70 residents. There was one enrolled nurse and a personal carer. On the night shift: one. How can they possibly do the work that's required?' Another person who worked in the sector said, 'Inadequate staffing ratios led to inadequate service provision. I felt like I couldn't do my job. I went home tired, exhausted and heartbroken that I couldn't do the job required.' Another aged-care worker said to me: 'The things you see and experience in the sector are just heartbreaking. The wages do not reflect what we do or what we go through. I don't think many workers in aged care are here for the long-term. Many are thinking of the exit strategy and that's just heartbreaking. We can only deliver the basics and not the emotional support that many in our care need. We can't wait for the findings of the royal commission. We need action now.'

The heartbreaking thing is we have been forced to wait for the royal commission findings. We've got the findings and yet still the bill before us doesn't deliver the reform that these workers and these children are seeking. We have an opportunity to fix this once and for all and to really move the sector forward. What's needed is not just the minor reforms that the government have put forward. What's needed is strong reform. If we want to stop what is occurring in aged care, to fix the aged-care crisis, then we need to tackle the issue of wages. We need to fund the sector properly. We need to make sure that we have the skill mix right.

( Quorum formed)

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We live in an aging society. We all know that. Former senator John Williams once said to me that no-one should complain about getting old, because some don't get the choice. Of course, he was very right. As we have an aging population, we need to make sure that we provide care, dignity and respect to those Australians who've contributed so mightily to our nation and its interests, to give them the very best care available, whether it's independent living or whether it's in acute care. That is why, on 11 May this year, the Treasurer and member for Kooyong stood at the dispatch box and delivered a budget which provided a once-in-a-generation aged-care package to help our older Australians, with $17.7 billion of support to boost the aged-care sector.

I listened very closely to both of the previous speakers—the member for Bendigo, just before me, and the member for Grey, just before her. Yes, they both have regional electorates, but they're very different regional electorates. The member for Bendigo has a very large regional hub in a division which is only about 5½ thousand square kilometres, whereas the member for Grey represents an electorate which encompasses much of the size of South Australia—indeed, 904,000 square kilometres. I note that the electorate of the member for Farrer, the minister at the table, is 126½ thousand square kilometres, and the electorate I represent, Riverina, is nearly 50,000 square kilometres. Our large electorates are made up of disparate and very scattered small towns. The Parkes electorate is 393,000 square kilometres, and the Durack electorate is 1.6 million square kilometres. Throughout those huge country electorates are a lot of little aged-care providers, and they are doing their level best to provide care and support. They were appreciative of the opportunity to give their submissions, their feedback and their input to the aged-care royal commission, and they were appreciative of $17.7 billion of support.

The member for Bendigo talks about higher wages for those in the sector, and, yes, I understand where she's coming from. But I also concur very much with the member for Grey, who calls on the fact that we're going to require a lot more people to come in from overseas to be able to take those positions, which Australians will not. Even in some of the larger regional towns I represent, it is very, very difficult to find staff willing to live there and provide their services, their employment, to those providers. That is one of the great difficulties. No amount of financial support by way of higher wages will, sometimes, attract the sort of labour that we need to some of those regional providers, let alone the remote providers that may be in the electorates of Farrer, Durack or Grey. Whilst I appreciate where the member for Bendigo is coming from in her argument, it's very difficult for those country providers to find the necessary workers. Whilst I get that higher wages will attract more workers into the sector, it's not going to be the whole and sole panacea for the labour shortage in aged care.

I have a very large aged-care concern in my electorate of Riverina at Harden-Murrumburrah. It's not a huge community. It's in the Hilltops shire. In February I wrote a letter by hand to every person in that community—more than 1,000 people—after the St Lawrence Residential Aged Care facility closed. Southern Cross Care withdrew its services. It wanted to centralise its services. One of the biggest concerns that Southern Cross Care put to me was that they just couldn't find people, irrespective of the situation, to be able to continue to run that facility. It had 45 beds. I was very fortunate to be able to, as part of the round of aged-care services, provide and guarantee those 45 beds to, hopefully, a future provider. Hopefully, somebody will come in. We had great support from Cowra. A wonderful provider in that community—a wonderful volunteer group, ably led by Ian Donges—was going to take up the Harden-Murrumburrah facility, but for various reasons it decided not to.

Local pharmacist Mark Douglass was a Labor candidate at the last election. He contacted me in the days following the announcement of the closure to inform me that his mother-in-law passed away between the closure of the facility and getting some sort of surety of an ongoing provider so that we could reopen Harden-Murrumburrah. It was a very heartrending text that Mark sent to me. He said: 'She was a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Born in 1927 to a Gallipoli veteran, originally from Jerilderie. Until nine days ago she was safely living in the St Lawrence aged-care facility in Harden. The forced eviction from her home caused such distress and disruptions she fell into disrepair, was disorientated and subsequently refused to eat or participate. Old people are worthy of our care and respect. They are not a commodity to be carelessly disregarded or traded as entries on a balance sheet.' Mark was very right. That is a very heart-wrenching and very personal letter. There were as many as three deaths of former residents reported from that rehoming.

I'm working very hard to make sure that we get some surety going forward. It's a microcosm of what is happening across the nation. Aged care is needing our support. That's why as a government we're trying to fill in those gaps. That is why we had the royal commission. In responding to the 148 recommendations—of which 123 were joint and 25 were specific to the individual commissioners—requiring a decision by government, this government has accepted or accepted in principle 126 of those recommendations. In addition, the government supports instead an alternative on four of the recommendations, 12 recommendations were subject to further consideration or noted in the government response, and six were not accepted, including four that noted the incongruous views of the commissioners—Tony Pagone QC, Lynelle Briggs AO and the late Hon. Richard Tracey AM, RFD, QC. The government does thank those commissioners for their diligence and input into that very important process.

The royal commission has a five-year five-pillar aged-care reform plan. It addresses home care, at-home support and care based on assessed needs; residential aged-care services and sustainability, improving service suitability that ensures individual care needs and preferences are met; residential aged-care quality and safety to improve access to and quality of residential care; and growing a larger, more highly skilled caring and values based workforce, which is such an important issue. We thank those people who are working in the aged-care sector now because they do a mighty job, particularly in regional Australia and especially in remote Australia. Of course, the fifth pillar is governance—new legislation and stronger governance to avoid some of those heart-wrenching, very real and distressing stories that we heard out of the royal commission, which no-one wants to see recurring.

I'm very pleased to see, in the 2020 aged-care approval round announced in July this year, that those 45 aged-care places for a new provider in Harden and Murrumburrah and four aged-care places for the Murrumburrah-Harden District Hospital were assured. There was $197,560 for capital works at Uralba Hostel in Gundagai. I visited there. It's a great facility and continues to provide those services in Gundagai. Gundagai, like a lot of other towns in my electorate, has an ageing population. Many people who were born in the town have worked decades in the town to make Gundagai and those other little communities throughout the Riverina the best they can be. In their retirement years and twilight years those people deserve the very best care, and Uralba is one of those facilities providing just that. I was also pleased that 36 aged-care places for Signature Care were assured for a new aged-care facility in Wagga Wagga, to be located on the ground which used to be Charles Sturt University's southern campus. The dream of Cliff Blake and the late Wal Fife was to have that facility on the northern side of town, and it is very much a growing residential, teaching and learning area in the north of Wagga Wagga.

In the 2018-19 aged-care approval round there were a number of funding arrangements put in place elsewhere in the Riverina, including $400,000 and eight aged-care places at Cooinda Court in Junee. I remember visiting there when they were talking about redoing their showers in the individual units. It mightn't sound much and it mightn't seem much, but it makes the world of difference to those elderly residents who deserve the very best of care. Cootamundra Nursing Home benefited, as did Goodwin Aged Care Services based in Wagga Wagga. There were 26 aged-care places for Gumleigh Gardens, also in Wagga Wagga, on top of the 84 for Goodwin. There were three aged-care places for the Catholic Healthcare Jemalong Residential Village, west of Forbes. I've spoken to Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller, and she is a great advocate for aged care. She listened very closely to the royal commission's determinations and findings, and we speak regularly about what needs to happen at Forbes. Forbes is just like those other communities in my electorate with an ageing population, and I commend Councillor Miller for her advocacy for and on behalf of those vulnerable people. They want the very best care.

There were 50 aged-care places as part of that 2018-19 funding for Wagga Wagga Community Aged Care, 32 aged-care places for Weeroona Aged Care Residence in Cowra, and a considerable amount of money—$3.8 million and six aged-care places—for Woodhaven Aged Care at Lockhart, a community I visited just the other day. For the retiring mayor there, Rodger Schirmer, like all my other 11 mayors throughout the Riverina, aged care is a focus. They want to make sure that their communities are getting the funding and the support that they need, but they all understand and appreciate that finding the labour and the workers is not just a matter of making the wages higher. It is an issue and it has been exacerbated by COVID because we haven't been able to get backpackers in. We haven't been able to get workers in. Immigration has been very, very difficult—nigh on impossible—and that makes the situation so much the worse.

We'll continue to provide support. I was at Allawah Lodge at Coolamon the other day, and the assistance we've provided there is paving around the actual centre, as well as other things, such as refurbishing their kitchen and laundry facilities. The pavement around the facility and a new fence completely surrounding the facility make such a difference to the aesthetics of this wonderful facility. Coolamon is a beaut town, not far from Wagga Wagga, and, of course, it's providing the very best care for those in their twilight years.

We will continue, as a government, to also provide the dignity, the respect and the care through the funding that we've provided in the budget and beyond.

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

[by video link] I too rise to speak on the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021. The royal commission's final report was released earlier this year, and, since then, it has become abundantly clear that the government's response continues to fall short of the recommendations on so many levels. I make it clear that my colleagues and I on this side of the House want the aged-care system fixed. It's been broken for a long time. We need it fixed, as a holistic approach, whether it be aged care at home or aged care in a facility. What needs to be done is real reform that addresses those recommendations from the royal commission and the feedback from the experts. There are so many key recommendations that haven't even been touched on, that haven't been spoken about by the minister or that have been either ignored or only partially implemented. Just to give you an idea, of the 148 recommendations, over half fall into that category.

The changes proposed in these areas through this bill are significant and need proper consultation. Proper consultation is an absolute must if we're serious about getting the reforms right. There is no doubt that our aged-care system is in disarray. We've seen, through the royal commission, some of those horror stories that came out that absolutely horrified our nation. We've seen on TV reports and in news reports horrendous things that are just abhorrent and should not be happening to our older citizens. The royal commission's report would make anyone hesitant to entrust their loved ones to a system where people are neglected and where two-thirds of residents were found to be malnourished or at risk of malnourishment. How can we justify that in a nation like Australia—a First World nation? We are one of the wealthiest nations in the world. We have one of the best lifestyles in the world. How can that be justifiable in this country? Why have we got this area so wrong? We need to act now. The Prime Minister needs to act now. He needs to act decisively and correct this atrocious situation.

We as a parliament need to properly fund aged care. We heard other speakers touch on wages, the workforce, training and, basically, remunerating people in an appropriate way. They're looking after our most precious, precious people—our older Australians. These are people who worked all their lives. They paid their taxes. They built the foundations that we now stand upon. We benefit from the fruits of this wonderful country that we call Australia because of those people before us. Nothing will change without reform to the workforce. That is a given. This is a big area where the government must step in and ensure that we have the appropriate training and ensure that people are remunerated properly for the very special work they do. It is special. It's special; it's delicate. They are right up there with brain surgeons, cardio surgeons et cetera. These people look after our greatest asset: the people who delivered the life we have in this country. And we have a pretty good life in Australia, when you compare it with that in other places, because of the foresight of the generations that came before us.

We need to fix that workforce. Staff are overworked and underpaid—I speak to lots of staff from aged-care facilities who tell me that—yet we expect them to deliver high-quality care to the most precious asset we have, our elderly. Aged-care workers are exhausted, they tell me, by doing long shifts, odd hours et cetera. They're overstretched and underresourced. At night sometimes there may be one or two staff members for 50 beds. If one drama takes place, all you need is another one and the whole night is thrown into chaos. Not only do these people come home exhausted but, because they care about their work, they come home despondent as well. Most of the people I speak to are caring aged-care workers—they care for their patients, the people they look after—and they want to see improvements as well.

We saw during the pandemic the lack of resources needed to take care of our frail older Australians. I believe these workers should be paid more and that there should be more of them with the appropriate training, because a lack of qualified staff is contributing to this crisis in aged care. We need more training to qualify staff—more places at TAFE and through training agencies. We need to ensure that we have the workforce for today but also look to the future as well.

In August this year, the Advertiser, my state's News Corp paper, reported on aged-care providers in South Australia that had failed to provide adequate care to their residents. Of the 15 that were listed, the majority were in regional South Australia—country South Australia. The Chief Executive of the Council on the Ageing SA, Jane Mussared, said at the time:

While there is no excuse for poor quality aged care, there is no doubt that finding a quality aged-care workforce outside metropolitan Adelaide is getting harder and harder.

…   …   …

This needs a concerted focus from our federal and state governments with aged care providers.

I'd say it would be the same across Australia, in every regional area and throughout all the different states, yet the government has delivered nothing that will improve wages and conditions for these overstretched, undervalued aged-care workers. No wonder Australians have completely lost faith in the government's ability to run a safe and appropriate aged-care system.

This is nothing short of a national disaster. The royal commission demanded transparency, yet the government is just handing over $3.2 billion to providers with no requirement about how it should be spent. We know there are many aged-care providers doing some amazing work, some incredible work. I visit many of them throughout my electorate of Adelaide. One I went to recently is Eldercare's The Lodge, where Eldercare's wonderful CEO, Jane Pickering, and Daniel Fleming, The Lodge's Site Operations Manager, are doing such great work. They gave me a tour of the place. Speaking to some of the staff, I heard they were very happy and loved their work, but they were also saying that it is hard to cope at times. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, we know that there are far too many other providers that aren't up to scratch. We saw 15 named in South Australia.

It also remains a real concern that $17.7 billion will be spent on aged care without appropriate transparency and accountability measures. We saw reports in the papers, after the COVID lockdown in Victoria last year, of directors and owners of nursing homes who were driving around in $400,000 sports cars, travelling overseas and living in mansions. The money that the government provides to aged care is for the provision of aged care—caring for the aged—not for lining the pockets of millionaires. As far as Labor is concerned, every extra dollar spent on aged care should be going to care, not to the providers' profits or to their souped-up cars, luxury holidays et cetera, as was reported in the papers in Victoria and other places after the tragic deaths of people in aged-care homes.

There is one line that I have spouted more than any other in this place since I came to be a member of parliament, in 2004. At the time, I represented one of the oldest seats in the country. I would call it the wisest seat in the country, because the senior Australians that I represented and still represent are wise people. They've had their experiences. They know much more than most people. They are a real valuable asset to us. Older Australians helped build this country. They fought in world wars. They protected this nation. They paid their taxes, and, as I said, they virtually built the foundations that we stand on today. We reap all the fruits of their hard labour. The foresight that those people had for us means we have a good country to live in. They worked hard, they paid taxes and they raised their families. They rightly expect this government to support them in their frailer years. We have a duty, as a nation, to do all that we can for those people to give them the best services possible. That's what they deserve. That's what they've earned after a life of contributing to their communities and to Australia.

We all know that thousands of Australians are dying while waiting for home-care packages. This is another area that's been an absolute shambles. On one hand, the government says that they're providing new places; on the other hand, that list is doubling just about every quarter. Yet this government has failed to clear those home-care packages. The waiting list is approximately 100,000. Only 80,000 packages were included in the budget over the next three years, and thousands will be joining that waiting list—bumping it over 100,000. Really, we have done nothing in that area. The government should hang its head in shame. Again, it has let down older Australians—the people who have worked all their lives, paid their taxes, protected this country and built the nation that we reap the fruits of today.

The royal commission recommended that nurses be on duty 24/7 in residential care. This is core to improving clinical care for frail Australians. Yet this has also been ignored. They've done the same with the commission's recommendation to increase the mandatory care minutes in residential aged care. Their promise of mandatory care minutes for each resident is full of holes. It doesn't meet the royal commission's recommendations. We know that cleaning and some admin, maybe, will be included in care minutes. How can this be good enough? How can this be part of the actual care that a senior person requires in a facility? Time and time again I've stood in this place calling for more respect and dignity for older Australians. They built this country. They've contributed all their lives to our economy and our society. It is now our turn to give back to those people. They deserve to know that the government will support them in their final years. As long as I'm in this place, I'll keep on repeating those words. We have a duty to look after senior Australians.

This government has overseen a system in which around 30 per cent of older people in aged care, almost one in three, experience some form of substandard care, for example, excessive use of physical and chemical restraints. That absolutely robs older Australians of their dignity and autonomy in their final months. Older people with mental health issues, particularly those suffering from the later stages of dementia, are often heavily medicated or physically restrained. In fact, in the final three months of 2019-20, residential aged-care services made 24,681 reports of intent to restrain and 62,800 reports of physical-restraint devices. To me, that sounds like a system that is strained and understaffed, with employees who are worked way too hard—to the bone—and are not paid enough. As a result, staff cannot adequately respond to residents' complex needs.

The Morrison government has consistently let us down and failed senior Australians. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison—the Prime Minister today—actually cut funding, so the record proves that he can't be trusted to fix the aged-care system. We've neglected older Australians. This government has neglected them, and the aged-care system has neglected them, for eight long years. It's a national disgrace. This government has failed to listen to Australians in aged care, to their families and to the system's workforce, and they've failed to deliver proper reform. The government's response to the royal commission hasn't fixed aged care, and it must be fixed. It's certain that another three years of this government won't fix it.

This is an issue that impacts all of us. We will all be old one day, and we will all be facing these same disasters. Labor deeply believes that those who have built this country and earned our respect deserve so much better from the system, and not just in lip service. But this government never hesitates to hurt our most vulnerable citizens, whether it's robodebt and the merciless way they went after people with often-fictitious debts or whether it's pensioners who are hurting from cuts to their concessions or cuts to Medicare. It's always the most vulnerable citizens who cop it from this government. It's pretty clear who this government cares about. It's certainly not about the lower end of town.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the amendment to the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021 that is before the House. I want to begin with a couple of quotes from the final report of the royal commission, from commissioners. The first is from Commissioner Pagone:

The extent of substandard care in the current aged-care system is unacceptable, deeply concerning, and has been known for many years.

And Commissioner Briggs:

At times in this inquiry, it has felt like the government’s main consideration was what was the minimum commitment it could get away with, rather than what should be done to sustain the aged care system so that it is enabled to deliver high quality and safe care. This must change.

Indeed, this legislation that's before the parliament reflects that. It reflects an inadequate response from a government that has presided over a crisis in aged care. It implements eight measures of the government's response to the royal commission's final recommendations. However, a number of the measures in this bill don't fully implement the recommendations of the royal commission.

To give just one example, the government is choosing to implement pre-employment screening for aged-care workers, instead of the royal commission's recommendation for a national registration scheme. The government is implementing weaker governance standards that are less prescriptive than those in the royal commission's recommendations. And the bill excludes the royal commission's recommendations on removing freedom of information exemptions for aged-care providers, with the government claiming that this is still under consideration. Sound familiar?

Is there any area whatsoever where this government supports transparency? Here we have the royal commission making clear recommendations on removing freedom of information exemptions for aged-care providers. Now, why would you want to do that? You'd want to do that so that families with loved ones in aged care can find out what's going on in the aged-care system. The idea that you have exemptions from freedom of information legislation in aged care is absolutely extraordinary. I find it beyond my comprehension that this government could come in here, with this legislation, and not deal with this, saying that it's still under consideration, that this is another thing they'll get to in their fourth term.

This government have been in office for three full terms. They're in the pre-caretaker period of their third term, and here they are, saying, 'We'll get to it down the track.' They said that when they were dragged, kicking and screaming, towards calling the royal commission that Labor consistently called for under my predecessor, the member for Maribyrnong.

It is little wonder that the government resisted the royal commission for so long, because the interim report of the royal commission said it all in the title: one word—Neglect. It's a one-word title that's an indictment of a rich country like Australia and our care for the very people who made this country rich—the very people whose shoulders we stand on—who are deserving of dignity and respect in their later years. Here's what that interim report found:

We have found that the aged care system fails to meet the needs of our older, often very vulnerable, citizens. It does not deliver uniformly safe and quality care for older people. It is unkind and uncaring towards them. In too many instances, it simply neglects them.

It's just extraordinary. The interim report of the royal commission said this—not the Labor Party, not any political analysis, but objective royal commissioners appointed by this government. It said also:

We have been told about people who have walked into an aged care residence, frail but in relatively good spirits and mentally alert, only to die a few months later after suffering from falls, serious pressure injuries and significant pain and distress. We have seen images of people with maggots feeding in open sores and we have seen video and photographic evidence of outright abuse.

…   …   …

… the combined impact of the evidence, submissions and stories provided to the Royal Commission leads us to conclude that substandard care is much more widespread and more serious than we had anticipated.

These are the words of royal commissioners who were appointed on the basis of an acknowledgement that there was a crisis in the aged-care sector. They went into it and, when they examined it, found that it was far worse than they had anticipated. They said in the interim report that the following issues had been brought to the attention of the royal commission:

They went on to say:

The Royal Commission has heard compelling evidence that the system designed to care for older Australians is woefully inadequate. Many people receiving aged care services have their basic human rights denied. Their dignity is not respected and their identity is ignored. It most certainly is not a full life. It is a shocking tale of neglect.

Just think about that: 'Their dignity is not respected and their identity is ignored.'

That is a powerful clarion call to action, and what do we get from this government? At this time last year, the government were saying that aged care, as we knew from overseas experience, was particularly vulnerable to the COVID pandemic, and yet we still don't have all of our aged-care workers properly vaccinated. We still don't have all of our aged-care residents being looked after. In my electorate, in one nursing home in Summer Hill, there have been at least five deaths in recent months, as part of the 500 people who lost their lives to COVID between the parliament's last sitting and this one, because an aged-care worker brought COVID into that nursing home, having worked in multiple facilities and not having been fully vaccinated. Every resident of that nursing home ended up in hospital, and many of them lost their lives. I'm not quite sure how this government, which is so triumphant, reconciles itself to the fact that we knew what needed to happen and yet it just failed to deliver. In general, this is a government that just does not respect aged-care workers and the contribution that they make. They've failed in their response and, in developing this legislation, they failed to sit down with aged-care workers and talk through the issues. There's been little to no consultation during the drafting of this bill. That's why one of the big weaknesses of this legislation is that there's no reform to workforce conditions. The government has done nothing to improve wages for overstretched and undervalued aged-care workers. Aged-care workers look after our loved ones and they should be properly paid and respected.

The government has also ignored the recommendation to have a registered nurse on duty 24/7 in residential aged care. We used to call aged-care homes 'nursing homes'. The hint's in the title. The idea that you should have a nurse in a nursing home is not a radical proposition to me. The fact that it's a recommendation of the aged-care royal commission and that is not resolved in this legislation says it all about this government. They've chosen to implement fewer hours of care for each resident than the royal commission recommended and delivered later than the royal commission recommended. The government hasn't fully implemented recommendations around transparency and accountability. The royal commission made a recommendation to increase the basic daily fee by $10 per bed per day. But, despite the royal commission's recommendation for strict reporting conditions, the government is gifting this $3.2 billion to providers with no strings attached to ensure this money goes to actual care or better food. When I gave my budget reply this year, I made it very clear that you need to tie the increase in funding to actual outcomes. We're not about improving the bottom line of aged-care providers, some of whom do fantastic work. But we know that there are some driving around in his and her Lamborghinis, whilst the aged-care residents that are the source of that profit haven't got enough food. Some aged-care residents are literally starving.

It's just not good enough. But it's not surprising, given that this Prime Minister presided over cuts to aged care and that for eight years the government ignored the warnings and still cut that funding. In that time we've seen 21 expert reports released, detailing more and more of the shocking neglect and substandard conditions. When it comes to older Australians, this government has just two settings: carelessness and callousness. This is a generation that has given so much. Older Australians built this country. They deserve to be supported and looked after. What they've got from this Prime Minister and this government are contempt and neglect, because the government have turned their back on them. They've had eight years to fix this, and it's just got worse: aged-care residents with maggots crawling in their wounds and residents left malnourished. Giving them another three years won't fix aged care. Older Australians cannot afford another three years of neglect.

We have an alternative plan, consistent with our approach to provide for a better life for Australians, a better life that gives a move towards universal provision of child care for our youngest Australians and dignity and respect for our oldest Australians. They deserve nothing less. But we have a government that denies a problem until there is an absolute crisis and then always acts too little, too late. It's the same pattern. It doesn't matter whether it's bushfires, the supply of vaccines or the response to climate change, it's always same pattern: deny there's a problem, blame someone else and then eventually, once there is an absolute crisis, have an inadequate response that is too little, too late. It's very clear that it will take a Labor government to actually have a look at the recommendations of the royal commission report and set about changing things for the better. As Commissioner Pagone said in the final report:

The current aged care system and its weak and ineffective regulatory arrangements did not arise by accident.

It did not arise by accident; it's a result of policy failure. That's why it needs a better policy and a better government to fix this crisis.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too would like to make a contribution to this debate on the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021. I would just note that this bill is the second response to the royal commission's recommendations. Those of us who were in the parliament will recall the way that the minister treated call after call from Labor for a royal commission into aged care. The minister of the day actually said that that would effectively be elder abuse. Since then a litany of issues have been explored and evidence given—some hair-raising stuff for anyone who might care to put their loved ones into aged care.

There are 151 electorates represented in this chamber. Every one of us has a concern about looking after aged care. We all have a concern about looking after the vulnerable. Yet, of the 148 recommendations made by the royal commission, just a little over half were actually addressed by this government. The royal commission cost $200 million—not an insignificant amount—and the government, who were dragged kicking and screaming to have a royal commission and then wanted to try to take credit for it, are only partially dealing with the recommendations of that royal commission. I would have thought that the alarm bells would have been ringing once the commission delivered their interim report, with the one-word title of Neglect. But, with respect, the royal commission had a bit of a head start on this. After the government, under then Treasurer Morrison, took up to $2 billion out of the system, there have been 21 reports into aged care, all of which have been ignored.

But, getting back to the fact that what we in this place are supposed to be doing here is looking after our people and that in all of our electorates—and I don't think that mine is different to anyone else's—there is an ageing population, this should be front and centre to what we are doing here as elected members of this place in looking after the vulnerable in our community. But I want to be balanced and say that Labor will support the passage of this bill. Any improvement to aged care will always get our support. But this is, once again, a missed opportunity. Looking at the way that the government have gone about proposing this bill, I don't know whether they're trying to convince Australians that they really don't care about aged care.

I understand that they really care about some of the aged-care providers. I understand that, particularly when you can give them $3.2 billion without strings attached to it and particularly when we've heard evidence—not from the Labor Party but in the royal commission—of some of the excesses that are occurring in aged care. Healthcare workers gave evidence of the fact that some of them were given one set of gloves per shift to look after people in aged care. So apart from looking after multiple clients they were given one set of gloves, that's for doing everything from getting people to be suited for their food and such to addressing other issues—which you can well imagine, Deputy Speaker, for people that are in aged care, particularly those, unfortunately, suffering with incontinence and other issues. But that wasn't evidence from the Labor Party about putting on one pair of gloves per shift, that was sworn evidence from workers to the royal commission.

The royal commission found that one in five people in aged care were suffering from substandard care. They're things that should have rung alarm bells for everybody here. It's not a matter of trying to point the finger and playing catch-up on all this. We have a responsibility, as those who are privileged enough to serve in this place, to look after the vulnerable and there can't be many more vulnerable than those who are requiring aged care.

As I said, we will certainly support many of the recommendations made. Some sensible amendments are made relating to residential aged-care funding. There are others in terms of the screening of aged-care workers and also governing persons employed in approved providers. Other sensible amendments include a code of practice allowing the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to make and enforce a code of conduct, extensions to the way reports are made in terms of incidents and critical reporting of in-home care, governance approvals for providers, information sharing between Commonwealth bodies and disability and veteran sectors in relation to non-compliance, misuse of refundable accommodation and deposit bonds. They're good things. There are also amendments relating to the independent health-care pricing authority. Labor will be supporting any decent, well thought out improvement to aged care—that's what we do.

While we're not opposing the passage of the bill in that respect, the fact that the government has fobbed off, delayed or outrightly rejected almost half the recommendations of the 148 made by the royal commission is a missed opportunity to do something of decency for the people that we purport to represent. This bill is no different, with its alterations from the original royal commission recommendations.

I want to deal with some of the evidence that we should be taking into account in the formation of the legislation. As I said, this royal commission cost taxpayers $200 million. It unearthed evidence of abuse, neglect, poor hygiene practices, ongoing workplace issues, labour shortages, poor wages, overworked carers and malnutrition. These are things that we have a responsibility to look at.

The royal commission found that the workforce was undervalued, understaffed, under-resourced and the workforce needed critical reform in the aged-care sector. It recommended better wages to ensure that workers are properly valued and to attract and retain new employees to the sector—and that is something the government has not only not responded to but completely ignored. Fortunately my mother is not in aged care—she lives with us—but, if she were, I'm not sure that I would want her being looked after by someone whose only interest in the job was making a bare minimum, where maybe they couldn't get a job at McDonald's at the time, so 'I'll work in aged care.'

If you compare the wages of both, there's probably less care needed and less responsibility required to work in fast food than to look after someone in aged care. Yet the aged-care workers I've met, while, sure, they don't get paid much, actually care about people. This is what the royal commission found when it took its evidence—that, yes, they did care about people, that they were undervalued and that they were certainly underpaid. They weren't valued for what they're required to do. It's little wonder there's such a turnover in staff. Then, with the advent of COVID, we discovered that, to make a living, these people are working at more than one aged-care facility. They'll do shifts at some and half-shifts at others. We found out that we have a system that is dependent on people moving from one facility to another. It's not like you have carers whose fulltime responsibility is caring for people in one facility. As I said, this bill is a missed opportunity to address those issues.

The royal commission made comments and recommendations about staffing levels, but there has been no effort by the government to address the issue of staffing levels at all. If anything, our staffing structures don't even meet a three-star level of aged care. The royal commission took it upon itself to recommend investment in professional development and career paths for workers in that industry. Again, you won't find anything in this bill about any of that. It's just being left to those who run private aged-care facilities—the ones who are receiving the government's no-strings-attached $3.2 billion. So we're going to have hope, and probably pray a little, that they are going to do the right thing and look after people, rather than simply profit from this. There are no strings attached to that.

We have not valued the aged-care workers and home-care workers, who have been on the front line of this pandemic for the last 18 months. We have not shown them any care or treated them decently for what they have been through. We have a situation where not all of our aged-care workers are fully vaccinated yet. The Leader of the Opposition referred to aged-care facilities in his electorate and how a worker, in working in multiple facilities, brought COVID into aged-care facilities in his electorate and five people subsequently died. Surely we can do better than this. We can't be so penny-pinching in trying to cut back on everything, as the government was previously when it took $2 billion out of aged care and then had to face the ignominy of 21 reports. They could have avoided a royal commission if they had picked up some of the recommendations from those reports—the royal commissioners actually had a bit of a head start in looking at the issues in the sector—but none of that occurred. Those on the other side shouldn't think they can leave here, patting themselves on the back and saying: 'Haven't we done well. We've looked after aged care.'

We will always support anything that you opposite do to improve the sector, to improve the standard of aged care. But, if you're really serious about aged care, you've got to think about the people who are on the front line of aged care: the workers. I have a bit of an interest in this. My little brother happens to run one of the biggest unions in this space. He has a very clear view on this: if we are going to put our most vulnerable—those that we love—in the hands of others, shouldn't we value the ones we entrust them to for what they're going to do for us? That's a reflection on us.

This is, regrettably, a missed opportunity. I think the government should have done a lot better. As a matter of fact, I think there should have been more people in this chamber listening to these debates if they cared about aged care. In that respect, Deputy Speaker, I call your attention to the state of the house. (Quorum formed)

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021 is, as the member for Fowler has just said, such an important bill that we are speaking about right now. There is absolutely no doubt that our aged-care system here in Australia is broken and that that is a serious concern with a serious impact on so many lives in my electorate and in electorates around the country.

It is a fact that for eight years this government has neglected older Australians, that they have cut $1.7 billion from the sector, that there have been nearly 11,000 deaths while people were waiting for home-care packages. There were 685 deaths in the last year from the coronavirus pandemic. Our aged-care homes continually face the problems of chronic understaffing, of people in their care being malnourished and, of course, neglect in those facilities.

People in my electorate have very often told me of the suffering this has caused for them and for their loved ones during the lockdowns in Melbourne, when they haven't been able to see their loved ones, because the system is so stretched, and when last year people died because the system wasn't up to it. That just should never have happened. People are unsure about what the future is for their loved ones. They are unsure and scared about having to enter our aged-care system, because they know it's broken. They are concerned that this government, like with so much it does, will not get it right.

That's why it's important for me to be speaking on this bill today. I very much fear that what is going to happen in this space is that we'll have some announcements from this government. We'll even have a royal commission—and that was a very important royal commission. But what we won't have—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.