Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader (Tasmania)) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak about another of the Turnbull government's train wrecks that are unfolding before our eyes: the aged-care home-care package waiting list crisis. Today in the Senate we passed a resolution, one that I put forward on behalf of the Labor Party and every older Australian in this country. I want to address my comments to that this evening. If there's anything that demonstrates how out of touch the government are, it's this issue. They have displayed a lack of regard for some of the most vulnerable older Australians. This is a real issue. This is affecting our communities here and now, today.

I'm not alone on this. This afternoon, as I said, the Senate passed a motion condemning the Turnbull government for failing to look after older Australians. Home care wait times are blowing out on the Turnbull government's watch. The release of the latest data on the Turnbull government's home care packages has revealed that close to 105,000 vulnerable Australians are waiting for care. This is the care that they receive at home. This includes close to 82,000 older Australians waiting with high needs such as dementia. Staggeringly, 45.8 per cent of people on the waiting list are receiving a lower level of care than they need. This isn't good enough.

Earlier today, as I said, I moved the motion which asked the Minister for Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, to explain his bizarre and out-of-touch claim that the growing waiting list is a positive trajectory. It's not positive that the waiting list has grown by almost 15,000 since the home care package reforms were introduced just over a year ago. This is a tragedy not just for older people; there is a direct impact on families and the broader community, and Mr Turnbull needs to act now.

My office and the offices of my Labor colleagues are receiving calls weekly from family members of older Australians who are distressed about this issue. They're saying, 'Please help my parents.' Just since the Senate passed my motion this afternoon, I've had an influx of emails and tweets. I've had one tonight; I don't want to give too much detail, because it'll identify the person—and people are afraid to speak up because they may be put further down the list—but this person has been waiting 850 days, having been assessed for a level 4 package of home care. That's almost 2½ years! This is totally unacceptable. We're a rich nation. We have to do better and we can do better.

Earlier this month, we heard from the member for Newcastle in the other place that one of her constituents had spent over 300 hours talking to My Aged Care, desperate to get help for her parents. This is the 21st century. This isn't okay. The situation has reached crisis point and is no longer tolerable, especially in Tasmania—my home state—where we have the oldest population and the highest rate of chronic illnesses in the country. Instead of putting consumers at the centre of their care, the Turnbull government is leaving thousands of older Tasmanians in limbo, without the care that they need. The waiting list, based on the Department of Health's own numbers, tops 2½ thousand older Tasmanians, and that is growing. There are almost 2,000 older Tasmanians requiring a higher level package who are either waiting with no care at all or with a lower level of care than they require.

This demonstrates very clearly how out of touch this government is. Don't you move around the community? Don't you listen to what people are saying? For the last four years and more, since the election of the Abbott government, we haven't had a minister who has taken responsibility, led the policy and built on the Living Longer Living Better packages that the previous Labor government introduced. Under this government, aged care is no longer just bleeding; it's haemorrhaging. That's what's happening in this country. The Turnbull government has known about the home care package waiting list crisis for almost a year and has done nothing of any substance to try to address it.

Mr David Tune's legislative review on the progress of the Living Longer Living Better reforms raised concerns about this. Appointed by this government, Mr Tune raised these issues, but what did we see? The Turnbull government sat on its hands and did nothing. They did nothing when that report was released and they still haven't done anything. The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook rolled around and still they did nothing. What an insult to those older Australians! Those opposite come in and say that people who have worked all their lives deserve to be looked after—they've paid their taxes. These are the very same people that, having paid their taxes, can't get the assistance they need to see out their life with the support and respect that they need to stay at home.

Let's be realistic here, and I've said this time and time again in this place: it is far better economics for any government, no matter what persuasion, to have people ageing in their own residence. It's cheaper, it's better for the individual, it's better for the families and it's better for the bottom line of the nation's budget. But it won't be if we fail to show the respect and give the care that people need. What's happening is these people are going into residential care when they shouldn't be going into care, because there's no alternative. They're ending up at accident and emergency in acute hospitals, which is the last place that older people should be. They just need to have the support to keep them well and healthy and in their own homes. You can't keep passing the buck on these things. The minister was talking about loneliness, and I have to give him credit—loneliness is a big factor for older Australians, but it's not at the core of this issue. As I said, there are people who are dying, waiting for these packages. That's the reality.

Earlier this month at Senate estimates, it was revealed that older Australians waiting for aged-care services at home are being left in limbo for over a year without any care. When asked what the average waiting time was for a level 1, 2, 3 or 4 home care package, the department officials said, 'Level 1 or 2—six to nine months; level 3 or 4—over 12 months.' You can't tell, as we have heard time and time again.

One person, a 94-year-old man, had to wait another 12 months for the level of care that he needed for him to be able to stay at home. That's absurd—94 and he has to wait another 12 months. Wake up! We need to do something about this. We can't afford to wait any longer. I have another elderly gentleman who is 89 and has high-level needs, who is currently waiting for a level 4 package. He's been on the interim level 2 package for 13 months while he waits for a level 4 package to become available. He has just been told it will be another 12 months before he receives the level of care he actually needs. So he has already waited 13 months; he's now going to have to wait another 12 months. He's 89 years of age. Where is the respect?

This cannot continue to happen. I implore the government. We have a minister who doesn't sit in the cabinet room. The Prime Minister needs to take control of this situation. He needs to intervene. We need to see older people being given the support to stay at home. That's what we need. Every Labor colleague in our caucus has raised their concerns because this is the feedback they're getting within their communities. Every time Bill Shorten has a town hall meeting, aged care is raised. Dementia is raised. The government are failing their responsibilities. I urge them: do not follow the same path as John Howard's government when they failed to address ageing and aged care in this country for too long. We had a government where Mr Mark Butler led a reform of this policy that actually set the framework, but he worked with the opposition of the day.

We have said since the Abbott government was elected and said repeatedly to every health minister who has had responsibility for ageing that we will work with them to address these issues. We're happy to sit down and work with you, but time is running out. It has unfortunately run out already for some older Australians who were waiting for the care that they needed. We need to see some action. We need to see a genuine commitment from the government that they will address this. Having 105,000 Australians waiting for the care that they need is unacceptable. We will continue to talk. I will continue to lobby. I meet with the sector. I'm listening to the community. We will continue to do that because Labor do not believe this is good enough.