Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On my tour to Fisher just a few weeks ago, I spoke with local community icon Deb from Witta in the north-west of my electorate. Deb has struggled to find aged-care service providers to deliver some of the most essential services, like house maintenance, health care, personal support, transport and community engagement. These are vital services, which are becoming increasingly more difficult to access, especially if you live in regional or rural Australia. The solution is not to simply pour more money into it, like Labor continues to spout. The public sector, with billions of dollars invested into social care, cannot meet the demands of senior Australians.

We rely on a vast array of small and medium-sized enterprises committed to quality care and localised support. I think of small businesses in my electorate like Home Care Assistance Sunshine Coast in Caloundra, and I think of service providers like Glasshouse Country Care in Beerwah, who were recently named finalists in the Fisher Community Awards. I want to give a big shout-out here to Kath Wallwork, a finalist for employee of the year, who is making a huge difference to the lives of vulnerable seniors in the hinterland of Fisher. These are groups of talented, hardworking, compassionate people operating local services that make an enormous difference to the lives of senior Australians. They deserve a government that has their back, not just with words but with action. They deserve a government that gets on with the job of slashing red tape and ensuring that quality of outcomes—not endless paper pushing—are front and centre. We did that in government by allowing social care enterprises to start, grow and expand across the country. They deserve a government that believes in addressing the real cost-of-living drivers, ensuring that both companies and clients can meet their expenses without fear of not having enough. That means cutting taxes on essentials like fuel, even as a temporary measure; that means simplifying our tax system without dithering, because Australians ought to keep more of their hard-earned money; that means allowing pensioners and veterans the ability to earn more before their support payments are impacted; that means making it easier for primary producers to grow, sell and transport local produce; that means ensuring reliable and affordable power; that means putting Australian families and their businesses first, at the centre of decision-making, not the unions. And that's the issue.

One of the greatest challenges that Australians, particularly in rural and regional Australia, are dealing with relates to senior Australians with aged-care home packages and also people on the NDIS having great difficulties in finding service deliverers. I'm not going to stand here and say the world's gone to custard on this point since May of this year, but these are issues that people, particularly in the bush and in the regions, are pulling their hair out over. They are entitled to get support and they've been assessed for support, but they just can't find the people to deliver those services. It is an invidious problem because the companies and businesses that provide these supports want to go where the populations are, and that is understandable.

Even in regional areas like parts of my electorate of Fisher—such as Conondale, Maleny and Witta—it's very difficult to get businesses that are operating on the coast quite happily to travel out and provide those services in more regional areas. That problem is multiplied by a million when we start talking about people who are really in the bush, such as kids on NDIS plans who can't get support. When I was on the NDIS committee in the previous couple of parliaments this was a real issue, and it's something that government and the opposition really need to work together on to assist families who just can't get those sorts of support services for their loved ones. I'd be happy to work with the government on that point.