Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of the ministerial response and the ministerial statement in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety's report Aged care and COVID-19: a special report.

Government make a lot of the $1.7 billion that has been, they claim, invested in the sector for dealing with the pandemic. Of course, if the sector had been running effectively we wouldn't have needed to inject $1.7 billion. It was quite obvious the sector was not ready to handle a pandemic. It had multiple issues, as is evident from the fact that we've got a royal commission in the first place. Here we have the government saying that they've got an updated plan in response to recommendation 4, which is to 'establish a national aged-care plan for COVID-19 through the national cabinet in consultation with the aged-care sector'. What the government says in the report that has just been tabled, which we've all just laid eyes on, is that there's an updated national COVID aged-care plan. The royal commission clearly knew that in fact there wasn't an aged-care plan, but the government continues with the myth that there was an aged-care plan—that in fact they didn't just rip the cover off the general plan and put on a new cover that said 'aged care'. They've updated that. I hope it's more than just changing the report's title page.

The funding that's allocated here, which of course is welcome, is for investment in mental health care and allied health care. The very interesting thing to note here is that the government have now decided they can invest in better access in aged-care facilities. Some of us who have been around this joint for quite a long time have advocated and advocated to extend better access to aged care. First off I'll say: thank goodness it's now been extended. But why, for all these years, have we had the flawed approach of allocating a bit of separate money—which was better than nothing, I will admit—for mental health in aged care, which had to be diverted and then delivered through the different PHNs all around the country and which meant that somebody in an aged-care facility could not get the same mental health support that anybody else in the community could get? Now, all of a sudden—from 10 December—they can get it. But it's only for six months. It finishes in June next year. Then aged-care residents will have to go back to the same-old, same-old where they do not get adequate mental health support.

When we look at allied health—and I will preface this by saying I've only had a chance to have a brief look at it—the funding will be targeted to aged-care residents living in facilities which experienced outbreaks, and it will fund initial assessment and an allied health consultation for a six-month period. Again, it's only for six months. My reading of this is it's only for those that had an outbreak. We know many, many aged-care facilities around this country have been in lockdown and they haven't been able to receive visits, supports and the sorts of allied health that they need. On top of that, they don't get proper access to allied health services in any case. Again, it's only for six months. So while the government's making much of all this so-called new money—as was articulated earlier, there's been a whole lot of money taken out of aged care over the years—it's only available for six months.

I know the government are going to say, 'The royal commission is reporting in February and therefore we'll be rolling out new services.' But they won't be rolling them out that quickly, folks, because they didn't adequately cover this in the last budget. And, of course, the next budget's not until May next year. What will people do in the interim? They will not have access to mental health services. They will not have access to allied health services.

In terms of staffing, we all know that aged care is understaffed. The staff absolutely go above and beyond. They've had to work across multiple facilities, and they will have to continue to do that across Australia. That, again, will be a perfect tsunami, potentially, if we get further waves or outbreaks of coronavirus in our states. We're going to be back to the same-old, same-old situation where we had inadequate levels of staffing and where staff didn't get adequately paid. We could well end up in those same circumstances. We need to make sure that we have a staffing system that ensures that we have four hours and 18 minutes worth of care for residents. We need to make sure that we have the staffing expertise that can deliver clinical care. That is not being delivered in residential aged-care facilities right now.

Also in the report is the fact that the AHPPC has set up a subcommittee for aged care. We have been up hill and down dale through the COVID committee trying to get the advice that AHPPC provides. Do you think we could get that? No. Senator Gallagher will tell you very clearly how much we have been pushing in the COVID committee to get access to that advice. It also claims to have consumer advocacy. But the last time I asked about this there were no residents on that committee, nobody with actual lived experience. That is not to cast aspersions on the consumer advocate that's there, but they don't have lived experience. What about, 'Nothing for us without us'? People in residential aged care deserve a voice and deserve to have input into that committee. Just this morning we were talking about transparency when Senator Griff was moving amendments to a bill to actually try and get better transparency for the aged-care sector, yet here we have a body providing advice to the AHPPC that's not transparent and the community can't see that advice. Residents in aged care expect the best-quality care and families expect the best-quality care, not more ad hoc decision-making with bits of money being dripped in here and dripped in there and only going for short periods of time.

I'll come back to the issues around mental health services. All the experts are talking about it. Across the board, we have a mental health pandemic. Aged-care residents are right up there in suffering from the effects of the pandemic, particularly in Victoria, but across the country. They haven't been able to see their loved ones, or they've had to see their loved ones through glass, holding up their hands. They've missed birthdays. They've missed so many family occasions. They need ongoing mental health services that aren't limited. They need better access—whatever that looks like after the review—and they need guaranteed access to mental health services, allied health services, clinical care and a staffing level that's guaranteed to provide the best quality care.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.