Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Hotham proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

"The years of Government neglect experienced by the aged care system, culminating in the crisis today"

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start this matter of public importance today by making a confession. I was given the aged-care portfolio by the Leader of the Opposition about a year ago. And, prior to that, as a member of parliament, I have to be honest and say that aged care was probably more in my peripheral vision than front and centre, where it should have been. I wasn't paying enough attention. That's the honest truth.

It wasn't until I became the shadow minister that I sat down and read the interim report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in detail. The parliament knows that that report was entitled simply Neglect. The first 10 pages of that report are the most damming, shocking indictment of the neglect that has been shown by those on the other side of the House to aged care that you will ever see. I implore Australians: have a look at that report. What it showed us is not just the things that many of us had seen on the news, the fact that there are people in aged care who had maggots in their wounds. It told us about the endemic problems in this system, that there are problems in aged-care homes across this country with fundamental matters of care—things like the management of wounds, things like people sitting in urine and faeces because their aged-care homes were rationing continence pads. The royal commission called this system cruel and harmful. The words of one aged-care advocate were detailed in that report, and they still ring in my head today. It was a woman who said, 'Don't let this happen to anyone else.'

If this were happening to any group other than the aged, we would be marching on the streets in protest, but there is something wrong with the public debate about aged care in this country. I have watched in dismay in my role as this issue rolls onto the front pages as a new crisis comes, and then, days later, someone on the front bench sends a nasty text to someone else and off it drops.

I want to say to the Labor people behind me that our responsibility is to stop that pattern. We've got to train the attention of this parliament, the press gallery or anyone who is participating in public debate on this matter and not let it fade away. Because what was a neglect when the royal commission interim report was made 18 months ago or longer has today become an emergency. We have now overlaid a pandemic on top of a system that was in crisis, and today we are seeing a system that is in a state of failure. An aged-care home just near the Prime Minister's electorate shut its doors a few days ago, and 64 residents now have to find a new home in the middle of a pandemic, and I think that we're going to see more of it.

I want to tell the parliament some of what this crisis looks like on the ground today as aged-care homes across the country stumble and in many instances fail to manage fundamental aspects of care in the middle of a pandemic. I want to talk about Michelle from South Australia who wrote to me because her mother passed away on 21 January after she found her slumped in a chair unable to breathe. The aged-care home was running on skeleton staff, and this woman and her daughter had to administer oxygen themselves. Her mother passed away that day. Julie from Brisbane wrote to me because her mother-in-law with cancer was locked in her room for 17 days straight. She regularly sat in the shower for hours at a time, immobile, because there were no staff to come and help her. I got an email from Clare from Sydney, who has a 99-year-old mother in aged care. She had to take her own mother out of the home to get her vaccinated herself because she knew that COVID was going to hit that centre before the government's delayed booster clinics got there.

This is what is happening in aged care today. We've got outbreaks in almost half of the aged-care homes in this country. Now, the government has known about this for years and, instead of doing something to fix this problem, what have they done, Deputy Speaker? They've cut funding—twice. Mr Morrison—the Prime Minister of this country, who talks a big game about how much he cares for the elderly—twice, as Treasurer, cut funding to aged care.

One of the most shocking things that the final report of the royal commission told us is that, even before we got to the pandemic, two-thirds of aged-care residents today are malnourished. They are literally starving, because they do not have enough to eat. They are under the care of the Australian government. Can you imagine being the Prime Minister of this country and knowing about that for a year and doing nothing about it? Because that is the situation we have today. It is a scandal: a scandal of neglect and a scandal of incompetence.

While we're on the subject of incompetence, I want to talk to you about the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services in the other place. I mentioned something about the minister yesterday, and the minister who's opposite me at the table here said, 'This is all about politics.' No, this is not about politics. We are in the middle of a one-in-100-year global pandemic, and the minister responsible for almost 200,000 of the most vulnerable people in this country goes to the cricket for three days during the worst of the crisis. He cannot tell us basic facts about what is happening in aged care. If there is one indictment on this minister, it is the fact that there was no COVID plan for aged care in the first wave of COVID, there was no COVID plan for aged care in the second wave of this pandemic and there was no COVID plan in the third wave.

We have got people in aged care being profoundly affected by this system and we've got the minister going to the cricket. So this is not about—

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the member for Isaacs seeking the call?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You've made the call to me, Mr Deputy Speaker, but, before I interjected, the minister at the table was rudely interjecting on the honourable member for Hotham.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order here. I'll be the one who's going to judge on interjections and who will need to be quiet. Continue, thanks.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Incompetence—the minister. This is not about politics. I'll tell you exactly what this is about. There is going to be a fourth wave of the pandemic. When I talk to people in the sector today, they are terrified, because what is coming at them is an omicron wave and the flu season, coming into May-June, and we do not want this incompetent person managing the system when that happens. We need a change. If there is one thing I demand of the government today, it is: sack this minister today. He does not deserve to be in this position.

I think that's reflected in the profoundly inadequate response that we have had from government to this crisis—bringing in the Defence Force. When I talk to people in the sector, they're desperate for any help that they can get, but I want to point this out. There are 140,000 shifts per week going unfilled in aged-care homes. The government has said it's going to send 1,700 people in to support the sector. Maybe that will cover 8,000 of the 140,000 shifts, but of course we know that what the government love is the optics of having done something. It's not going to stop the suffering that's going on in aged care today.

I want to come to the staff. The inadequacy of the response just never ends. We saw the Prime Minister wanting to make an announcement at the Press Club, so the thing that he dreamed up was giving aged-care staff two $400 bonuses that, amazingly, end around the time of the federal election. It was profoundly inadequate. It was about as welcome as a Scott Morrison handshake. The reason it was inadequate is that these are some of the most underpaid people in the whole Australian economy. My good colleagues behind me understand this. Aged care is some of the most complex, difficult, emotionally taxing work that is done in this country. The elderly people in this country deserve proper care, and yet aged-care workers are paid in the order of $22 an hour. You earn more at Bunnings or at Woolworths than you do looking after some of the most vulnerable people in this country. What does the Prime Minister do about this endemic problem in aged care? He offers them a short-term 75c-an-hour pay increase. It is offensive. What the workers deserve is proper support, and that is what they will get under a Labor government.

I want to come back to the statistics, and this is the one I want Australians to remember. Two-thirds of residents in aged care today are malnourished. The government has known about this for years. It has done nothing. That is the one example we need to know to say that, if Australians want a change to how aged care is managed in this country, if they want this to be done respectfully and properly—because we are all going to grow old, if we're lucky—then they are going to need a new government come the May election.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start by acknowledging our extraordinary aged-care workers, our nurses, our personal care workers, all of the staff that have helped Australia to have one of the lowest rates of loss of life in aged care over the course of a global pandemic. It is a global pandemic. Today the world has passed 400 million cases, officially. The real case load is likely to be between double and triple that, according to the World Health Organization. We have had loss in our country, but it is an extraordinary fact to note that we have not just one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world across the entire population but we have saved thousands of lives in our aged-care facilities. There has been real loss and real pain, and we should acknowledge that, absolutely, but looking at what we see in other comparable nations is a guide to that which could have occurred on a different path. In Italy the loss of life in aged-care facilities has been almost 200 per cent that in Australia. In Ireland it has been over 300 per cent, in France nearly 600 per cent, in Canada over 600 per cent, in the USA over 700 per cent, in Spain over 700 per cent, in the UK over 900 per cent and in Belgium over 1,300 per cent of those that have lost their lives in Australia.

We have two other differences. One is that we count every life lost which has a COVID-positive diagnosis, no matter what the final cause of their passing, and we know that almost 60 per cent of those who have passed in recent months, for whom there are records, have been in palliative care. We grieve their loss and we note those circumstances. We also know that, of those countries that I mentioned, many were unable, during the early waves, to identify all those that had passed. There was a significant excess mortality rate in those countries, which was never accounted for with the reconciliation of COVID cases.

In Australia we've actually had a negative mortality rate over the course of the pandemic. We're one of the few countries that has actually had fewer people pass than was otherwise expected to be the case. That is almost unimaginable. Over the course of a global pandemic nearly six million lives have been lost officially—inevitably more than double that, if not triple, according to the World Health Organization, in the real toll. Yet Australia has actually had a decrease in our mortality rate, not only across the country but also within aged care.

We know that, sadly, the latter part of the journey in so many lives occurs in aged care. It's precisely because people are not able to maintain all of their own needs that they go into residential aged care, for a loving, supportive environment. Since 2015, going on a year-by-year basis, the percentage of those who pass in aged care in any one year has been 24.3 per cent, 24.3 per cent, 24.5 per cent, 23.1 per cent and 23.7 per cent. In 2020 that actually dropped, to 22.8 per cent. So the percentage of those who passed in aged care, as a proportion of residents, declined to its lowest level in the last seven years in 2020, and it remained at one of the lowest levels, 23.8 per cent, in 2021.

So what we have seen is that lives have been saved in a very significant way. That's come about through a comprehensive action plan for aged care, commenced in March 2020, with the earliest work being in February 2020 as part of our aged-care coronavirus plan, which has now been through over eight different iterations. That has involved, firstly, a vaccination plan, with a rate of over 99 per cent amongst staff—one of the highest rates, if not the highest rate, in the world. That in turn has been backed up by a first-vaccination rate of over 90 per cent for residents and a second-vaccination rate of 89 per cent for residents.

We've completed a booster program across every facility—every residential aged-care facility under Commonwealth care and protection in Australia. That has now seen a take-up of over 80 per cent, contrary to some of the figures put around falsely by others, of boosters amongst the eligible population. I want to thank all those involved—our vaccinators, the organisers, Operation COVID Shield, our general practitioners, our nurses—in delivering that program.

In terms of PPE, this year alone we have seen over 50 million units. That includes 17.7 million masks, 6.8 million gowns, 20.9 million gloves, 4.2 million goggles and over 10.9 million rapid antigen tests delivered since August of last year. All of these elements have come together to support our aged-care facilities. And, yes, we have put in place a retention bonus—an $800 retention bonus—which replicates that which was used on three previous occasions to recognise and support staff retention. We've backed that up with over 80,000 shifts which have been put in place. We've added the support of the military, through Operation COVID Assist, which does add to what has already been there—through those 80,000 shifts that have been provided by surge staff, through staff returning and through annexed staff.

All of this has come together, and it's come together against a greater background, where we have now put in place over $18.3 billion of funding—the greatest increase in funding for aged care in Australian history. That has come about as a response to the royal commission, which this government called, which looked at multigenerational challenges. We didn't walk away from them. We recognised—the Prime Minister; Ken Wyatt, who was then the minister; Senator Colbeck, the current minister; and I—that, in our time and on our watch, it was our duty to rectify the challenges that had been part of the historical treatment of aged care, where we have gone from multi-bed wards to overwhelmingly single-bed rooms, which are becoming increasingly supported and better supported. That funding included over $7 billion for home care; over $7 billion for residential care; funding for governance; and funding for making sure that there's training and support for nurses. All of these elements have come together.

What I particularly want to highlight as well is that we have strengthened the healthcare system and we have put in place ICU support and ventilator support. These things have been incredibly important. I want to acknowledge, in relation to ventilators, the work that has been done, because they are about protecting our oldest Australians, not only within residential aged care but within the community. We have a capacity now of over 7½ thousand. We have purchased 8½ thousand on our watch, all from Australia—7,000 from ResMed and 1,500 from Grey Innovation. They include 2,000 invasive ventilators and 6,500 non-invasive ventilators. And, because our capacity has so exceeded demand, we have been able to support Indonesia with 1,000 ventilators and India with 3,000 ventilators. We had a peak ventilator capacity of 206 COVID requirements on 16 October. Since then, there has been a reduction of over 40 per cent in those requiring ventilation.

Against that background, I was genuinely surprised and utterly shocked to hear the Leader of the Opposition say on Insiders that we haven't had enough ventilators. To have an aspiring prime minister make a statement on national television which undermined the health system and which was so palpably false was an utter betrayal of the high honour, duty and responsibility which comes with being not just the Leader of the Opposition but somebody who aspires to be Prime Minister. To either not understand or be reckless, or, worst of all, to carelessly make a statement about our hospital capacity which is so utterly false—not out by a little bit but by orders of magnitude—shows a total lack of care, a total lack of diligence and a total lack of understanding of what has been done in this country.

Ultimately, there has been hardship, difficulty and sadness. But what we have seen is one of the highest rates of vaccination, one of the lowest rates of loss of life, one of the lowest rates of loss of life in residential aged care, and one of the strongest economic recoveries, and, as part of that, we have kept Australians safe. (Time expired)

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We just listened to fantasyland from the minister and his junior minister, who think that aged care is going exceptionally well. Tell that to the people who are working in the sector—and I pay tribute to them. I have just come from a meeting with a CEO of RSL Care SA to talk about the challenges they are facing with staff living with COVID. We've got 60 per cent of aged-care workers who haven't had their booster shot. At least 60,000 residents haven't had their boosters. We've got a quarter of aged-care shifts not being filled. We've got a situation where 639 people have died of COVID this year.

This is ridiculous—that this minister should go on the way he is.

Before I was elected in 2007, I spent 14 years on the board of Carinity aged care in Queensland, and as a lawyer I acted for a lot of aged-care providers. I can tell you they had hope with the Howard government in 1996. The Aged Care Act 1997 that governs the regulation of aged care talks about the quality of care, funding and regulation. But, by the end of the Howard years, the aged-care providers that I acted for and dealt with in Queensland were furious with the Howard government, and it took a Labor government, with Living Longer, Living Better, under the member for Port Adelaide as the responsible minister, to make the reforms that were necessary in this area.

There have been nine years of neglect by this government. Now, the minister thinks they haven't cut aged care. I tell you what, budget papers have facts. They actually have them in there.

I'll refer, Minister, to budget papers. But there was an interesting debate we had, and he was here at the time and so was I. I was the shadow minister for ageing. On 12 December 2013, in 32 minutes this government cut $1.1 billion of funding in dementia supplements—$16 a day—for residential aged-care providers to help with workforce situations. Through nine years they have opposed the kind of funding that was needed in terms of wage increases and an aged-care workforce strategy. In 32 minutes they cut $1.1 billion—$16 a day—for veterans' supplements, for people in the veterans' community as well. They were in power for 86 days and cut it, and that's continued.

They also took aged care out of the Health portfolio, stuck it in the Social Security portfolio and gave it to a junior minister. For a period of time, the now Prime Minister was directly responsible for aged care. I used to go to events with him as the responsible shadow minister. We argued fiercely, and eventually they had to backflip and put ageing back with health. But that didn't stop them from cutting. Let's have a look, Minister. In MYEFO 2015-16 they cut $472.4 million over four years by refining the Aged Care Funding Instrument. Guess what? It talks about savings:

The savings from this measure will be redirected by the Government to repair the Budget and fund policy priorities.

That's savings. That's the MYEFO.

Then you have another thing. Budget papers are curious things. They actually specify the government's priorities—their values, their morals, their ethics. They're what they want to do in aged care. Guess what they say? Budget papers 2016-17:

The Government will achieve efficiencies of $1.2 billion over four years through changes to the scoring matrix of the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) that determines the level of funding paid to aged care providers… The savings from this measure will be redirected by the Government to fund Health policy priorities.

At one stage the government took money towards beds from home care. Budget after budget, minister after minister, revolving door after revolving door, they cut and cut and cut. They neglected the sector to the point where they spent over $100 million on a royal commission, to ignore the findings. The royal commission interim report says: neglect, malnourishment, lack of food, maggots in wounds. They neglected it and they haven't acted on it.

We were in a crisis before COVID hit. It continues, because this government has neglected the aged-care sector and never prioritised senior Australians. Living Longer Living Better was a good strategy under the previous Labor government. This government is not about ageing well. It's not about an active ageing agenda. It's not even about being a dementia-friendly country. This government has no vision in the area of aged care. We are living with the consequences. Every day those brave people working in the sector are living with the consequences of this government's failure.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to join the minister for health in speaking about this matter of public importance. When we listen to the opposition we hear a series of political points that they're making about the aged-care system. From the government's perspective, in a one-in-100-year pandemic we understand that the pressure that has come upon aged care, in particular, because of the nature of what this virus does and who it targets is extreme. It has happened all around the world. When we listen to a minister like Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, who has shepherded us through this period at the senior level of government, we don't hear a criticism from the opposition about his performance, and there's a reason why—because every aged-care sector in every part of the world has been under the same pressure. So, when the opposition stand up and say this is something particular to Australia, or a failure, they're ignoring a basic reality about this virus and about what has happened. When you ignore the fundamental reality about what pressure we're under, you then go to a series of other false assumptions.

There is no political party that could come into this place and posit or suggest to the people of Australia that they could deliver a zero death rate in aged care. There's none. There is nobody who could say they could have known ahead of time how the virus would operate, what it would do, that it would not get into any aged-care facility in this country. I would say to the members opposite—who have come here and said we're engaged in a fiction—that that's the purely fictional part. It's fiction to contend it. Everyone knows that, around the world, people who live in aged care, people in homes, people who live close together and people who live in close living suburbs have suffered more than people who have open access, have room to move, are able to isolate themselves and are able to deal with the characteristics of the virus.

The government has responded to ensure that the aged-care sector is well supported throughout the entire pandemic. We've seen our workforces in this pandemic work harder than ever before—there's no doubt about that—in our healthcare sectors, our nurses, our doctors. But in our aged-care sector workers have absolutely worked harder than they've ever worked before, and they work hard every single day. It's something that we've recognised with the bonuses we've provided. As a government we put large amounts of money into aged-care sector workers' bonuses to say to them: we recognise you're working harder than ever before—80,000 shifts, surge workforces, the ADF assisting by providing support to aged-care facilities. There are no other more responsible measures that you can take in a pandemic, when you're dealing with everything else that goes on, to address support for the aged-care sector, and we're going to keep looking at that support with more bonuses.

When you look at how much money is now spent in aged care, we're up to $33 billion. That is the amount of money that I think the parliament should focus on. The shadow minister came up and spoke about his reading of budget papers going back over a decade, but when you're in a once-in-100-years pandemic you really don't have time to look at the budget papers from 10 years ago. We have to look at the acute and important issue in front of us, which is a once-in-100-years pandemic. I've seen the government this year operate at that level. We've had more National Security Committee meetings by far than we've had since World War II. Each of those has dealt with these areas: support for the aged care sector, support for vulnerable Australians, targeted support for older Australians, targeted support for workforces, how other people can be redeployed between government agencies to assist each other.

Australians have come together magnificently. The government's policy has worked as well as can be expected under the circumstances, but no one could ever claim a perfect record in relation to this. Every death in this pandemic is a tragedy; it's a lost family member, it's a loved one. We all grieve for the people that have lost loved ones in aged care in some of the outbreaks, especially early on when the least was known about the characteristics of the virus and how it would operate and what would happen.

I think it's easy for the opposition to look back and say, 'We would have done things differently.' It is easy to say that at this point. I'll be frank: looking back, if we knew then what we know now we would also have made different decisions. I think that's a function of humanity. But we made the best decisions possible at the time, and Australia can be proud of its record in this area—proud that we have been able to keep our society together, keep people together, do our best for vulnerable people and absolutely minimise the death rate, compared to other countries. That's why, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care says, we have a record that other countries look to and say, 'What did Australia do—and how did they do it—to keep the death rate so low and to keep their populace protected?' We must keep that perspective on this, and we do. We will continue to make the decisions to support our aged-care sector as we go through this and into the future, and that is the record amount that we have committed to this sector. (Time expired)

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There can be no doubt that the aged-care sector is in absolute crisis. It's a crisis of confidence and a crisis of care. The decision by the Morrison government to send the Australian Defence Force into aged care puts it absolutely beyond a shadow of doubt that aged care in Australia is in crisis. But it's not just the pandemic; it's nine years of disgraceful neglect of senior Australians. We had a royal commission report, costing $104 million, with an inquiry that went for two years, that told us that two-thirds of residents in aged care today are malnourished. They are literally starving in the care of their own government. That royal commission report was tossed aside by Scott Morrison, with barely any of the recommendations fully implemented to date. This is the point: as Australians, do we value older people as they age? And do we value and respect the people who are caring for them?

I give a voice to aged-care workers in Gilmore, who are telling me about their everyday experiences. Susan is an assistant in nursing. Susan said to me: 'We've got the government telling us that we're managing. We're not. We've got the government saying everything's fine. It's not. They've offered $800, which is a slap in the face. None of us work full time, only part time, so there's no way that we're even going to get the $800. And, besides that, we want the money to go into care. We want more staff. We want ratios. There remains no law as to having a registered nurse on site 24/7. How do you manage without a registered nurse? What do you do when nobody is there for 60 people? What do I do?' Susan exclaims. 'I can't just turn and walk away. It's affecting all the residents. They're frightened.'

During COVID, at least a quarter of the aged-care workforce has gone, and they can't replace them. In January the sector estimated that about 140,000 shifts—about a quarter of the shifts—were going unfilled. The Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, has talked about the surge workforce. Putting things in perspective, this is filling about 1,000 shifts a week, or less than one per cent of the demand.

I'm glad that, after delaying too long, the Prime Minister has finally seen some sense and brought in the emergency support of the Australian Defence Force. But unfortunately, with this Prime Minister, it's always too little, too late. What has he been doing for the last six weeks while this emergency situation has persisted in aged care? We saw Richard Colbeck at the cricket and Scott Morrison doing photo ops in hairdressing salons, while older Australians sat in aged care not being properly cared for. Clearly the government needs to do much more.

Glen is a registered nurse who works in aged care. He normally works locally in Gilmore but, due to COVID, he's part of a flying squad working in aged-care homes with COVID outbreaks. Glen says: 'The outbreak infects the residents and the outbreak affects the staff. When staff get infected they have to stay off the roster, and you have no capacity to deliver the services that you need to deliver.' Glen says: 'There is no way you can deliver the service safely and with quality.' In the first fortnight of last month, Glen put in 184 hours, which is way over his normal workload. This fortnight, Glen will work another 144 hours, just to keep the place functioning—not to deliver the model of care but just to keep things functioning. Glen says there is a very simple solution to get the resources we need. The simplest solution would have been not to neglect the aged-care system for all those years. The second solution would have been to act on the 120 recommendations of the aged-care royal commission.

The further tragedy here is that this was foreseeable. There is not one aspect of this calamity that could not have been forecast by those working in the industry. The medical profession, the nursing profession and the carers have been flagging the problem since the beginning of the pandemic and have been ignored.

Aged-care workers are overworked and undervalued. Scott Morrison has failed aged-care workers. They are doing their best but they are exhausted, running out of PPE and don't have access to RATs. The years of government neglect experienced by the aged-care system is culminating in the crisis today. I implore the government to do more before it's too late.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise because I think we need to put the record straight with regard to aged care. The first thing to say is that our aged-care sector is one that's going through massive transition, and that's not just here in Australia but in fact right around the world, and that is because—because of fantastic health outcomes and medical technology—Australians are living longer, as are those in other countries in the developed world. They're living longer and they're living better. That is putting a massive impost on the aged-care sector, because Australians want to live at home longer, and so then, when they go into the aged-care sector, they are older and more frail and often have more co-morbidities. So there is a massive change that is happening, as we speak, in the aged-care sector, and this is being fuelled by baby boomers in our population, so that we'll see, as we reach the 2030s, a massive explosion of older people in the aged-care sector.

This government has seen this coming and has been prepared to put real money on the table, along with real reforms to help transition the aged-care sector. But it is a sector that is under stress and will remain under stress as baby boomers age into their 80s. It is fair to say that, in the aged-care sector, people are older and more frail, but we also know that older Australians are getting the choice that they want, which is to age at home with dignity and grace.

There's no doubt that the royal commission into aged care has been shocking. It's been shocking, because the system has been under stress. This is a government that has stood up and said, 'We are going to invest record funding into the aged-care sector and we are going to do it in a way that deals with the changes that are occurring.' We have five important pillars that address this. Firstly, home care. We understand that Australians want to age with dignity, grace and respect. They want to age at home, and we want to provide that opportunity for them. So, in the last budget alone we have provided 80,000 new packages. That's 80,000 Australians who can age at home with dignity and respect.

We've also provided substantial funding to residential aged-care services to help make them sustainable, improving and simplifying residential aged-care services and access. We've also provided significant funding into quality and safety. Now that doesn't just come with funding; it also comes with a lot of new legislation that we have enacted here in this parliament. I'm very proud of the fact that, as a member of parliament—as those on the other side should be—we've introduced things like the Serious Incident Response Scheme to make sure that the accountability for safety in the aged-care sector is front and centre.

A fourth pillar is looking at the workforce. We know that our workforce needs to grow and we need a better skilled care workforce. That is essential, and we need to make sure that the standards remain high and continue to improve. There's a whole lot of legislation that's been introduced, including things like ensuring that aged-care workers get dementia training. We know that about 50 per cent of those in aged care now have dementia, which is an incredible increase over the last few years. It's not because more Australians are necessarily getting dementia; it's just that, of those who are in aged care, a large proportion have comorbidities such as dementia.

In the past aged-care homes used to be nursing homes. Now we talk about aged-care facilities, but in fact what people want is a home but they also want nursing capacities. In some ways we're returning to that idea of being able to provide a hospital in the home for aged-care services. That is an important change to our system, but it's one that needs to be funded. With that, we need to have better governance and we've got new legislation and stronger governance that have been provided in this term of government.

Every year under us home-care packages are up, residential care places are up and aged-care funding is up. The Australian government is delivering a once-in-a-generation change through a total of $18.3 billion to support aged-care reform, and this includes a $17.7 billion package just announced last year. I'm proud that I advocated for this, because I know that it's important to each and every one of us in this parliament.

We are all ageing. We are all going to have to deal with this. Our loved ones are going to have to deal with this, because the alternative is not worth thinking about. I welcome the changes that we've made and the fact that we've invested so heavily in this important sector where we can treat every Australian with dignity and respect.

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Now those in the House might not know this but I actually worked in aged care when I was putting myself through uni. My mum worked in aged care for 20 years before she retired, so she got me a job when I started uni in her nursing home and I worked in the kitchen. I worked across two different nursing homes in the kitchens as a casual. It was a good job, and you get to talk to all kinds of people who work in the kitchens and the various sections of the nursing home.

However, what I think about now about that time is that sometimes people in the admin office would be on leave, so they'd get me in to cover them because I could type as I was a law student. Sometimes the diversional therapists would be on leave and they'd get me in to cover them. When you think about getting residents in and out of their rooms and the kinds of activities that we put on for them each morning, you think—I'm sure it was all fine—I wasn't qualified. And sometimes the occupational therapists were on leave and they got me in to cover them. When you think about the qualifications they have and the work that they do in nursing homes—mobilising residents and their bones and their muscles, the kinds of movements that they're required to do and the care they're required to provide—I didn't have any of those qualifications. It didn't raise an eyebrow that I was doing that kind of relief work. That was in the mid-2000s; that was 20 years ago, and it seems like the systemic issues in aged care have gotten worse since then. So when I visit these days, as the federal member, and I talk to residents, I can only think of trying to get back into the kitchens to talk to the workers about what their experience is like and who's covering what shifts when I can't see. When I try to talk to my centre directors about the aged-care crisis now—this week, this year—I can't get them on the phone. I'm sure my colleagues have the same experience. When I try to call my centre directors to find out if there are ways I can help, if there are messages they want me to bring to this place, I can't get them on the phone because they're back on the floor. They are ex-nurses who are now centre directors who are having to cover shifts.

Yesterday lots of us went to a rally for aged-care workers outside the building. Those workers were telling us they are being asked to do things that are criminal under Australia's industrial relations law. They are being asked to cover double shifts, triple shifts. They are beside themselves. They want to do the right thing by their residents, but we are in a situation where they just cannot juggle everything. What worries me amidst all of that is that we have an aged-care minister who is completely missing and who in the other place, just this week, has said that the sector is not in crisis. I do not know what crisis looks like if not this—a one-in-100-year pandemic. Reflecting on personal experiences suggests to me that systemic issues in the sector go back at least 20 years. I don't know what a crisis is if it isn't that.

And people say now that residents are not getting food and water, and their wounds are not being attended to. They're dying, and their deaths are preventable. Aged-care workers are doing their very best, and their unions are fighting for them, but they are exhausted and they are burnt out. There is no adequate staffing safety net. Providers across the country are estimating that 140,000 shifts are now unfilled each week. That's almost a quarter of aged-care worker shifts. I know that we hear about the surge force, and it is a good measure that has been put in, but it is covering less than one per cent of the shifts that are currently short-staffed.

I remember, when the royal commission report came in last year, being absolutely shocked by the statistic—which I have just called up again—that we need 17,000 more direct workers each year in aged care over the next 10 years and altogether we need 400,000 additional workers in aged care by 2050. We need 400,000 additional workers in this besieged sector by 2050, when we currently have 140,000 shifts a week going unfilled in 2022. It needs focus. It needs funding. It needs priority. It needs commitment. It needs a whole lot more than it's getting right now.

I spoke earlier in the day about several stories from my constituency of various families who are struggling in the current situation. Let's talk about what they want us to do. We've got nine sitting days left in the 46th Parliament. What do they want us to do? They want us to stop kicking the can down the road. They want us to treat all recommendations in the royal commission report with the respect, the funding and the priority that they deserve. They want minimum staff ratios. They want direct employment of staff, with enforceable labour standards, training and professional development.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start by thanking all those people involved in caring for our elderly. It is done in very difficult circumstances by a lot of people across all parts of Australia, and it has been done for many years. I'm talking about everyone from the providers, the back office workers like the member for Lilley—who I'm sure did a very good job—to the people on the floor who make it happen and who deal with very difficult circumstances, where there are people with dementia, people who are often trying to escape, people who think they're in a different country. We are not talking about your average workplace. We are talking about exceptionally difficult circumstances for a lot of people. As some of you have been bored to death by me in previous speeches—

Thank you, Member for Fenner. A little less enthusiasm next time, thank you!

I started a company in 2004. It was called CareWell Health. It was a manufacturer, designer and supplier of healthcare equipment and furniture, primarily for the aged-care sector. I remember the first time I walked into a nursing home. It was Uniting Care at Drummoyne. As the doors opened, it was like a giant blast of ammonia was coming out, and I was physically revulsed by the smell. That's not to pick on Uniting Care; although, over time, I noticed there were better providers than others. But it was to say that that was how we looked after our tribal elders at that time, in 2004.

I have to say that what I observed over the next 12 years was a revolution in aged care. We allowed private sector investment into the aged-care system. That investment replaced what could only be described as some very basic aged-care facilities with what now resemble five-star resorts. I'm talking about companies like Signature Care, Bupa, RCare and Regis. If you were to go into some of their facilities, you would be wondering when you could move in—they are literally that good.

I noticed on the weekend that Peter van Onselen revealed that his mother owned aged-care facilities, I assume in Perth, and that she never wanted to end up in one. As I read that, I felt like saying, 'I can imagine that was the case 15 years ago.' But 15 years later, the truth is that many of these facilities are state of the art. They are some of the best places to be. While this government has more than tripled the number of home-care packages, I have to say that I worry about home-care packages. I think they're more service than they are care. You find a lot of our elderly stuck in very large homes in the suburbs of Australia, and many doctors now believe that social isolation kills more people than cancer in Australia. These programs have the impact of isolating people.

We have gone through a very difficult stage during this pandemic. The elderly were our most vulnerable. As the minister for immigration and minister for health pointed out, our results in Australia leave the rest of the world in our dust. We have had some of the lowest death rates and the lowest infection rates in aged care of any nation in the world. It didn't just happen; it happened through good management. Most of what those opposite are speaking about regarding the lack of workers at the moment is coming down to the fact that a large number of people who work in aged care have come from places like the Philippines, Tibet, Burma, India, and we have not had our borders open over last two years for that workforce to come in. That is now going to change. And I'm sure that they are some of the best carers that you will ever see. (Time expired)

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Aged-care workers and families of residents in aged-care facilities in my region are angry and distressed because the Morrison government is still not listening to them. Instead, we see that two-thirds of residents in aged care across our nation are malnourished, we see staff overworked and underpaid, and we see the Morrison government doing little to care for our most vulnerable.

Yesterday, I met with nurses from the Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federation, who were rallying against what is happening in aged care. They told me harrowing stories that illustrate the crisis that continues in aged care. They told me about elderly people stuck in their rooms with wounds untended, receiving no water, and incontinence pads unchanged for long periods of time. They spoke of how overstretched and understaffed they are and how devastated they are because they cannot provide the quality of care they truly want for our elderly and the care our elderly deserve. Staff said they felt abandoned by the Morrison government. They spoke of battling daily to fill shifts and find PPE and rapid antigen tests for staff due to the lack of supplies. A quarter of aged-care workers' shifts are not being filled. This is crippling the sector and compromising care. It's distressing and demoralising for aged-care workers to see the suffering, the isolation and the indignity. Despite aged-care providers and their staff doing everything they can, the sector is buckling under the pressure. The aged-care sector desperately needs the federal government to provide them with the resources they need to keep residents and workers safe.

Shamefully, the government is failing to keep our elderly safe. They know that the aged-care sector is in crisis; they would not have sent the ADF, the Australian Defence Force, in unless this was so. The Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services showed his heartless attitude towards our elderly citizens by attending the cricket during this crisis. He is unfit to be the minister of this portfolio. It is a complete failure of the Prime Minister's leadership that after two years of disastrous incompetence the minister continues to hold his position as Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.

This crisis hasn't happened overnight. This crisis is the result of nine long years of disgraceful neglect by this government. The pandemic's exposed the weaknesses and neglect of the aged-care sector and placed aged-care residents in an extremely dangerous situation. Tragically, we've had more deaths in aged care in the month of January this year than in the whole of last year. After 21 expert reports and a royal commission, the Morrison government knew about the crisis in aged care but has failed to fix it. The PM is responsible for the aged-care system in this country. He is responsible for the funding cuts. He is responsible for the terrible neglect and dire situation this sector is in.

And he's still trying to bury the findings of the royal commission. Of the 148 recommendations, over half are not being implemented or aren't being implemented properly. There was nothing in the Morrison government's response to the royal commission to improve wages for overstretched and undervalued aged-care workers. Nothing can improve the sector until workers are paid decent wages and given secure work. People earn more working as a casual in Woolworths or Coles than as an aged-care worker. If we're going to see quality of care improved, we need to change this.

The Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy said the Morrison government would not consider an increase for aged-care workers, not even a paltry $5 increase. According to her, this increase would make the system unsustainable. The Prime Minister's announcement of two $400 payments to aged-care workers is an insult. Aged-care workers need support, more staff and resources, not a pathetic payment that won't even be received by many—that's right: only six per cent of aged-care workers are in full-time employment, and the payments are only available to permanent staff on a pro rata basis. This government has ignored the recommendation to require a nurse to be on duty 24/7 in residential care. This is critical to improving care for frail Australians.

We must do better. Our parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and loved ones in aged care deserve better. We must change. The coalition has had almost 10 years to make change in aged care. Instead, we see neglect. It is time for change, a change of government, to a government that will restore respect and care in our aged-care sector.

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

The first half of the statement that we are debating today infers that the government has been neglecting the aged-care system. I absolutely reject that part of the statement. The second half of the statement, which says we are in crisis, I think may be closer to a sustainable statement, insomuch as certainly aged care is under enormous pressure at the moment, and it certainly is on my patch.

On the issue of neglect: since we came to power in 2013, spending in the aged-care sector has doubled from $13 billion to $26 billion. Doubled. That is an astonishing amount. It is budgeted to go right out to $34 billion in the next three years. There is provision for this sector to keep growing and the funding to keep growing. I don't think that could be labelled as neglect in any way. It's showing some attention.

One of the previous speakers was speaking about home-care packages. I must say, we like home-care packages. I like them. Certainly, as good as any aged-care home might be—and I'm very mindful of the comments from the member for Mackellar—I don't think I'll be looking to move into one before I have to, and I think that is the case with many of us. We like living at home, and I think it's a very good outcome if we can be assisted to stay in our homes longer. As long as it's safe and we're well looked after, it's a very good place to be. It's good for the taxpayer, and I think it's good for the individual as well.

We have lifted the number of home-care packages from 60,000 when we came to office to over 200,000 now, and that number is due to hit 275,000 in the next three years. That's a 357 per cent increase from when we came to office through to now. It begs the question of why there weren't more than 60,000 home-care packages in 2013. But it is certainly not a sign of neglect by the government in this sector. It's a sign of a government that's showing great interest and involvement in the sector. We also established an aged-care royal commission, which has been referred to. That commission made 148 recommendations, with 142 either accepted or under further consideration. Only six of those recommendations have been rejected, and we have either delivered outcomes already or are working on delivering outcomes on the rest of them.

We have installed the independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. I think it is a very important point that the policing of the facilities is now beyond the reach of government, if you like. It is within the remit of an independent body, and I'm getting plenty of feedback from my nursing homes that the accreditation process has certainly tightened up. There have been more black marks for infringements, but the aged-care commission works with these organisations and their facilities to bring them up to scratch ASAP. That would seem to me to be an indication of good housekeeping, not poor housekeeping. The fact that more facilities are getting called out at the moment is not necessarily an indication of their standard; it indicates that we are requiring a higher standard. As a government we are targeting home care, residential care, quality care, safety, sustainability, a bigger and better workforce with better skills, new legislation and better governance. That is not neglect.

On the second half of the premise—and I'm running out of time—certainly I know how difficult running aged-care facilities in my electorate can be. We lost one in Whyalla in my electorate last year. It was called Annie Lockwood, one of three facilities run by Kindred Living. That organisation has now come under the control of Helping Hand. The federal government gave a considerable amount of assistance to bringing it up to speed and getting it back on track, but the problem they had was that they could not get staff. The lack of staff was not necessarily affected by COVID; they just couldn't get enough staff. But I can say that it is not just the aged-care sector in regional Australia that's struggling for staff. We can't get enough dentists, we can't get enough doctors, we can't get enough sparkies, we can't get enough mechanics and we can't get enough experienced teachers to come to live and work in the country. An additional problem for regional Australia at the moment is the number of people who are not prepared to commit.

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

The discussion is now concluded.