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

I rise this evening to speak of the imminent closure of the Aminya aged-care home in Scottsdale, north-east Tasmania. With the closure of this facility and the loss of jobs, we will see $1 million ripped out of that local economy, an economy that has already been hit very hard over the last decade or two with the closures in food processing and the downturn in forestry.

Last Saturday I was invited to speak at a public rally in support of the aged-care home. I would like to acknowledge the work that was undertaken by Tim Jacobson and his team at HACSU to ensure that there was a fantastic rollout of the community to support this very important home. We know that, when you live in rural and regional Tasmania—in fact, right around this country—a nursing home will always be the heart that keeps beating in your community. It is what knits that community together. If you lose that facility, it will leave an enormous hole in that community. On my own behalf and on behalf of the community, I would like to place on record acknowledgement of and thanks to the new Mayor of Dorset Council for his leadership in ensuring that the local council will do whatever it takes for this aged-care home to remain in Scottsdale.

One of the disappointing things is that Presbyterian Care, who are currently the providers of this home, have encouraged the residents to leave the home already, so of course families and individual residents are concerned about their future. Unfortunately, we have a situation where there are only 17 residents still remaining in that facility. Another thing I cannot understand is why Presbyterian Care have closed down their respite beds. That would have been money that could be injected into that facility.

As I have said publicly, at that rally and at the first public rally that was organised, through Tania Rattray, the MLC for that area, I am more than happy to work with the Liberal federal member for Bass and the state Liberal government—in fact, the three tiers of government working together with the opposition—so that this home remains open. But thus far, unfortunately, that offer has not been taken up.

We know in Tasmania that over the next five years we are going to need 5,000 additional aged-care workers to look after the ageing population that we have in Tasmania. As you all know, because I speak about it often in this chamber, Tasmania is the fastest-ageing state of our nation. It is very important that this government shows some vision, some policy to ensure that regional and rural Australia are not going to be left behind when it comes to providing the best possible aged-care homes, which our older Australians deserve.

Aminya has served that community so well over such a long period of time. As I said, we know the local council, through the mayor, is more than happy, and has been trying, to help facilitate discussions. We know that there are other providers, like the very good service of May Shaw on the east coast of Tasmania, that have expressed some interest. And we know that there are two other providers. But we have not been able to get any real information out of Presbyterian Care to ensure that these negotiations go forward. The union is very keen to protect those jobs.

The community want that aged-care home retained so that its residents can stay close to their families, because the next nearest facility that any of these residents could move into would be in either George Town or Launceston, both of which are more than an hour's drive away. If your husband or wife has to go into residential care and you are 80 or 85, there is no way you are going to be able to keep engaged with your loved one. So I am calling on the minister and the assistant minister for aged care in this chamber to take an active interest to ensure the best possible outcome—and that is retaining Aminya in Scottsdale as a viable alternative. I call on the local federal member to join with me in looking to see how else we can ensure that this facility can remain a viable proposition, no matter who is running it. As they said at the rally, they do not care who funds it; they do not care who runs it; they just want their home to stay in Scottsdale, and the very least we should be able to expect from this government is to ensure that there is action and that this is resolved as soon as possible.