Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by the new Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro, during question time today. Although he has not been in the seat long, any objective observer would have expected him to be across this most serious and important issue. Indeed, this very issue is a litmus test for him early on in his ministerial career. Is he going to be a minister who fudges and hides behind his bureaucrats or is he going to be a minister who is prepared to call a spade a spade and decry mismanagement and scandal? Is this a minister who will seek to sweep things under the carpet, as so many of his predecessors have done?

Not since the kerosene baths of Bronwyn Bishop have we faced such outrageous and disgraceful treatment of elderly Australians in the nation’s aged care facilities. The revelation that four dementia patients aged in their nineties were allegedly raped and assaulted at a Victorian nursing home are a national shame. No amount of clouding or fudging can hide it. This is a test for Minister Santoro—a test of frankness and openness, a test of the strength of his mettle—for while I am sure all senators in this place are appalled at what has happened it is to Minister Santoro that we turn for a resolution of this disgraceful situation.

That is why today I am saddened. I am saddened that, with the opposition seeking legitimate answers to questions, Minister Santoro has gone the bluff and bluster instead of being open. He has told us in this chamber today that he will review a review of a review of the complaints resolution scheme. Let me say this to you, Minister Santoro: while your feet are barely under the table you cannot be held personally responsible for these instances, but the government you represent can, and the government you represent will be held to account for its mismanagement. Do not fall into the trap of blindly following the line established for you. Blaze your own trail.

In the aftermath of these recent Victorian cases, we see a litany of failings resurface from our aged care sector. Today in the Herald Sun we hear of a woman conducting a bedsheet sting to see how often her mother’s sheets were being changed and discovering they were not changed for a month. Families bring food in, particularly fresh fruit, because of concerns over their loved ones’ diets. Homes provide only two pads a day to incontinent aged care residents. There are concerns about theft and inappropriate standards of care. It all smacks of a system failing.

Aged care Australians deserve more than this. Working Australian families deserve more than this. Aged care has become an increasingly important service as our lives grow more complex and busy, and life expectancy in our community rises. Traditional extended family models have given way to nuclear families and, with parents and partners working full time, the capacity for families to care for aged relatives is constantly diminishing. It is only going to get worse as the impact of the government’s new Work Choices act is felt in our community, and working hours and conditions become even more demanding. It is only going to get worse as demand for aged care places increases in line with our ageing society.

We need to arrest this problem now. We need real solutions from this minister to the national aged care crisis. But what has happened? We are getting no answers or solutions from this minister in this place. We are getting a summit at some time in the future so he has the breathing time he needs to get his lines right. But, as Kim Beazley said last week, this government has had all the breathing space it needs. This government needs to do more than just concede that standards are not being met; it needs to ensure that they are met.

For almost seven years we have had a system in crisis. Consider this time line from the Herald Sun. In 2000, 57 residents were given kerosene baths to treat scabies. Also in 2000, a Caulfield aged care resident was sprayed in the face with fly spray when found covered in ants. In 2001 a woman was found to have lost a leg to gangrene due to a lack of proper care, and another was found to have been left alone, restrained in a chair, for five hours in complete darkness. Also in 2001 a woman died of head injuries after being assaulted by a male resident at the home where she lived. In 2003 another woman died after being assaulted by a fellow resident. Skip ahead a few years and it is the same all over again. An advocacy group highlighted claims of bed linen not being changed for weeks at a time, of patients’ teeth not being brushed and of Jewish patients being fed pork. And then we have these latest explosive allegations—and bear in mind that this is just Victoria that we are talking about. It is time for real answers and solutions to our aged care crisis. (Time expired)