Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's nothing quite as sad as hearing aged-care nurses and carers these days talking about their love for the job that they do and then telling you why they just can't do it anymore. I can't count the number of aged-care workers who've told me that they just can't keep going—people like Sue, who told me she has been an aged-care nurse for 20 years. She has had the honour of nursing the parents of many friends in our local area but has walked away from it. She has described it as 'too shameful to continue doing the job'. So I'm very pleased to speak to this motion moved by the member for Corangamite.

Nurses and carers are walking away because they know they simply can't meet their own standards of care and that the load is just too great. Another worker tells me how hard it is to communicate with residents with the masks, the face shields, the full PPE, and says some of the nicest moments with residents are when she can link families via Zoom and FaceTime. She says 'watching their faces light up with happiness, just being able to see each other', is a real highlight for her, as is delivering parcels that families have dropped at the front door, the closest that families can get to their loved one.

I think that care workers see that, as hard as it is for them, it's really hard on residents and their families. Tony, another aged-care worker, tells me that he loved working in aged care, but, he says, 'The government has stripped me of my love for aged care, and I will not work in it again.' It is a real loss to the sector that, throughout this pandemic, incredible carers and nurses have walked away because they just don't feel supported by this government. There haven't been the resources put in to make their job bearable. Families are seeing that.

Marie has described to me how her uncle has been locked in his room since the week before Christmas. The week that she wrote this to me, she said that he was 'now allowed to have a visitor, but the visitor had to bring their own rapid antigen test and do it on site'. Of course, in the past few weeks, that has been a really difficult thing to find, let alone for people to be able to afford. For Karen, the decline in her mum from the ongoing lockdown is really apparent to her. Her mum suffers dementia. Karen says that when she's able to get out she is stimulated and operates at a much better level. But that obviously hasn't been happening.

These are the stories that show how critical the situation is in aged care. I think the Morrison government has been betting on out of sight, out of mind when it comes to aged care, that only a relatively small number of people are in residential aged care or work there or visit, and that people just won't notice. Well, we've all noticed. It isn't good enough that aged care is being really left on its own to struggle through some extremely difficult times. I think the government is betting on the fact that these are the people who will be silenced either by age, by exhaustion or by respect, because the families of residents really respect what the workers are doing and they don't want to make life more difficult for them.

The royal commission, which cost more than $100 million, told us this before COVID, before the pandemic. The report, which was the size of a box of wine, showed us that it isn't good enough and there is neglect in these facilities. That was before COVID. I wish that that had been enough to distract the Prime Minister from his photo-ops and the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services from going to the cricket. Clearly it wasn't enough. The pandemic continues to be not enough to get their attention—the attention that aged-care residents deserve.

It has to be bad, doesn't it, when the government calls in the troops? It is bad beyond what any of us not living or working in those facilities can perceive. I don't speak from my own perspective in recent times. I haven't been inside an aged-care facility since Boxing Day because of the ongoing lockdowns that occur. It opens for a day and then an outbreak slams it shut. My mum, like many others, has to look at an email at 11 o'clock tonight to see if she's allowed to go and feed my father the next day. This is what so many families are going through. We cannot in this place think that that is good enough.

I also want to challenge the concept that the people who live in aged care are palliative. They're not. They are living and they deserve a richness to their life. It is our job in parliament and as a government to make that happen.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend the member for Corangamite for moving this motion and bringing this debate to the parliament. The aged-care crisis is an utter disgrace. This is a national emergency. This is a national crisis. It is not an exaggeration to say that. Right now we have more than 1,100 separate COVID outbreaks in aged-care facilities across this country. Many of our most vulnerable Australians, in their frailer years and days, are isolated in their rooms week after week. They are alone and scared. Some of them are in their last days and they will die alone because the government didn't order enough rapid antigen tests to give to the aged-care facilities and they can't have visitors.

They rightly expect the government to support them, given all they've done for our country. One quarter of workers' shifts are unfilled. That means no food, no showers and no toilets. Aged-care residents across the country are left untoileted and unbathed. There have been more than 640 deaths in aged-care facilities this year alone, many of which were preventable. They should not have happened. Those older Australians should be alive. They are literally dying because of this government's inaction.

What is the government's response? The Prime Minister's standard formula—to deny there's a crisis. He says there's no crisis. In fact, the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services said that it's all going 'exceptionally well'. Why is the government calling in the Army if there is no crisis? The Prime Minister lives in denial. Some 60 per cent of workers still haven't had their booster shot, and we know the difference that the booster shots make to transmitting COVID. They slash the risk of outbreaks. More than 60,000 residents, our most vulnerable Australians, have not had their booster shots because of this government's incompetence.

If denial doesn't work then he distracts. He was washing a woman's hair in a hair salon—in a downright creepy fashion, frankly—when he could have gone to an aged-care facility and washed someone's hair which actually needed it. He could have done something useful with his time. If that doesn't work then he deflects. He tries yet again to blame the states, just like he did during the Victorian outbreak in 2020, when the vast majority of deaths of Victorians were in Commonwealth run aged-care facilities, because of his failure and neglect.

When all else fails he dreams up something, but it's always too little too late—like the insulting $400 bribe to aged-care workers. It's another bribe that runs out, of course, around the election. Do you know how many aged-care workers are going to get that $400? Six per cent, because it's pro-rataed. What this government has done to the aged-care sector is criminal—casualisation. Only six per cent of aged-care workers in this country have a full-time permanent job. Only six per cent of them will get the $400. The rest of them would be lucky to get $100 or $200. That is not dealing with the aged-care crisis. It's an announcement that he made up to try and survive the National Press Club, not a serious response to this national emergency.

But the big lie—or the untruth, because I'm not allowed to tell the truth and call the Prime Minister a liar, of course, under the standing orders—is his line: 'It's COVID. It's a one-in-100-year pandemic.' Well, yes, sure it is a pandemic. But he was warned. He was told about this outbreak. He knew it would happen. He was told there'd be more strains. He didn't order the rapid antigen tests like every other developed country did. Their governments secured supplies, but not this bloke. He wanted to leave it to Harvey Norman and the private sector to make a profit instead of buying them with taxpayer funds for a lower rate and giving them to the community. Shame on him! But, really, it comes after a decade of neglect. That is the big lie. It didn't just creep up on him. It's not like someone yelled, 'Surprise, there's an aged-care crisis!' He's in his ninth year of government—nearly a decade of failure and neglect. The one common thread through all of this is the Prime Minister himself. He was the Minister for Social Services who presided over nearly $2 billion of cuts to aged care, he was the Treasurer who baked them into the budget, and now he's the Prime Minister. He broke it. He owns it.

Yes, of course, the pandemic has exacerbated and weakened the sector. But these problems are long-standing, and they're structural. The government has had 21 expert reports into this crisis. He then commissioned a royal commission, thinking he was going to lose the election and he'd kick it down the road to be Labor's fault. There were 148 recommendations, and he hasn't responded to over half of them or he has made an inadequate response. There's no 24/7 nurse on call in a nursing home, nothing for workers' wages—and $3.2 billion has been given to providers, with no strings attached. Shame on him. He should sack the minister and then sack himself.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Aged-care workers came to Canberra last week, exhausted and overworked, some straight from a night shift, determined to tell their stories so that Australians know the truth about aged care. They spoke of frail, elderly people stuck in their rooms with wounds untended, without water to drink, and sitting for hours in incontinence pads left unchanged. They spoke of their devastation at not having time to care, to comfort someone dying alone or to share a kind word. Sadly, this government was warned and failed to act.

It was clear from countless reports and inquiries that the aged-care system was in crisis long before the pandemic. But many people will remember that it wasn't until Four Corners aired their investigation into abuse and neglect in residential aged-care homes in 2018 that the Prime Minister was forced to act. The final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Care, dignity and respect, was delivered almost 12 months ago in February last year. The report contained 148 recommendations to urgently address the crisis in aged care. Some 12 months later the implementation of any of the recommendations has been painfully slow—even recommendations which were accepted in full, which were less than half. Many are only being partly implemented, and nearly a quarter have been rejected outright or listed for further consideration. As a result, the aged-care sector has lurched from neglect to crisis, and older Australians are the ones who are bearing the brunt of the government's inaction.

I'm often contacted by locals concerned about the quality of care. They know that aged-care workers are dedicated but under strain. They know that aged-care workers are doing their best but in a crisis. Bruce from Hamlyn Terrace told me that his sister-in-law has been in aged care for five years and that, during that time, he's noticed a significant deterioration in the quality of care, particularly after the home was taken over by a major corporate provider. Bruce said that prescriptions don't appear to be kept up to date, sandwiches now count as meals for both lunch and dinner, and the home is completely understaffed. He was concerned, after his sister-in-law's diabetes diagnosis, that the meals provided would cause her health to deteriorate further. He says that when the family couldn't visit due to COVID restrictions it was impossible to get an update on his sister-in-law's care, but they are reluctant to complain in case it impacts her. He said: 'Nobody is doing anything or taking notice of residents' needs. Something needs to be done.' This can't and won't improve while aged care is underfunded and understaffed.

Aged-care homes are already struggling to retain existing staff, and the token buyout of a retention bonus from the government won't keep aged-care workers in the system or attract others while work is insecure and the demands grow day by day. Aged-care workers are dedicated, but a warm inner glow doesn't pay the rent, keep food on the table or protect their family from harm. Leanne, an aged-care worker from Lake Haven, told me recently:

Nothing has been done to retain aged care workers through improved wages or conditions. Politicians have constantly been told of this crisis. Staff are leaving the workforce, they are burnt out, tired, sad, working so many additional hours to cover staff shortages. We are overwhelmed with conflicting responsibilities—to care for residents, look after our own health and that of our families. Making sure we don't let our guard down even in our private lives, the care of the residents is at the forefront of our thoughts even when not at work.

She goes on:

Aged care workers are being separated from our families to try and keep the residents safe. How can we continue to work like this? We are giving our absolute best, but that just isn't good enough.

It was four years ago yesterday that I lost my father to younger onset dementia, a cruel disease that stole my father from us piece by piece, day by day. I will be forever grateful to the dedicated aged-care staff at his day care centre, in my parents' home and in respite care who lovingly helped to care for my father. But I cannot forgive this Prime Minister for his cuts to aged care as Treasurer, leaving older Australians abandoned and neglected and alone. And I can never forgive the minister for aged care for abandoning older Australians in his care, under his responsibility, and for leaving aged-care workers exhausted, overworked and in crisis.

I will finish with the words of Debbie, an aged-care worker, from a handwritten letter she handed to me last week. She said:

By not acting in a timely manner to rectify past failures in aged care, the Prime Minister continues to enable the neglect of our frail, vulnerable elderly in care. Time is vitally important, especially for those currently in care.

Time's running out. Vulnerable Australians are at risk. The Prime Minister must act now. (Time expired)

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.