Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Assistant Minister for Social Services (Senator Fifield) and the Minister for Employment (Senator Abetz) to questions without notice asked by Senators Polley and Bullock today relating to the Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement and to the superannuation guarantee.

Today in question time, for those who have just joined us, I did ask the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Senator Fifield, how much longer aged-care providers and people suffering with severe symptoms of dementia and their families would have to wait for this government to do something about ensuring that those people that are cared for are given the appropriate care from the funding that was axed, as we know, at the end of June.

The day after tomorrow will in fact mark 100 days since the Abbott government announced the axing of the Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement. After 100 days, we still have no real indication of what the government intends to do. Today Senator Fifield continued to be evasive in giving us any sort of answer. This is hardly surprising from a minister who clearly has not had his eye on the ball. The government's incompetence, inattention and inaction have hurt aged care providers, big and small. More significantly, the government have hurt the most vulnerable residents in aged care facilities and, all the while, they have refused to provide answers or outline any sort of plan that will restore certainty to the sector.

The review which the minister spoke about was a result of the fact that there were signs of a cost blow-out. But what is critical here is that the department advised the government in clear terms that government could fund interim projects while a new scheme was being designed so that the aged care providers would not be left high and dry. In fact, we know that Senator Fifield wrote to the secretary of the Department of Social Services, Finn Pratt, promising that he intended to develop—and I quote directly—'an interim and ongoing measure to fill the void left by the scrapping of the supplement'. But, of course, he did not do this. One hundred days later and we still have nothing in place. The documents that we have also reveal what we have suspected all along: the government was incredibly slow to communicate their future plans and failed to provide assurances to a nervous aged care sector, and this is despite the department warning about the sensitivities to axing this supplement. In fact, on 4 February this year, the department informed Senator Fifield that prior to commencing its review it would write to the aged care peak bodies informing them of the review. But did they receive this correspondence? Was there any consultation? No. The peak bodies and the large providers have indicated that they received no correspondence—none at all. Senator Fifield clearly was not on top of what was occurring, or rather what was not occurring, in his department.

The government has been asleep at the wheel on the Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement. It is as simple as that. On their watch, the government allowed this supplement to spiral completely out of control. There were warning bells, and they were ignored. It became clear early on that the implementation of the scheme needed to be addressed. Leadership was required to steer this ship back on course. The fact is that this government would have known in late 2013 that the supplement needed to be addressed, but it was not tackled in MYEFO last November or in this year's budget. Senator Fifield and his government dithered, waited and failed to act. And then they panicked and scrapped the supplement. Is this really good enough? Of course it is not. We need a minister who is on top of his brief. We need a minister who has his department monitoring compliance with key government schemes. We need a minister who has a solid working relationship with his department and a real interest in his portfolio. Right now, we do not have that and the real losers are the hardworking staff in the aged care sector and the vulnerable people with dementia. These people deserve much better. Clearly this is a minister who has no interest in his portfolio. This is a minister who is not on top of his brief. This is a minister who obviously does not have a good working relationship with his department. It is not good enough for those people on that side of the chamber who are now in government to continually blame the former government for something which they now have responsibility for. (Time expired)