Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Hansard source

While it's Senator Keneally on the list, I will be speaking. Labor will be supporting the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Improved Home Care Payment Administration No. 1) Bill 2020. The purpose of the bill is to change the payment of home-care subsidy to approved providers from being paid in advance to being paid in arrears. The shadow minister first spoke on this legislation in the other place back in March this year. Although Labor supports this bill, we do have concerns we wish to put on the record. To see any impact to service providers will be unacceptable. To see any impact to the services older Australians receive will be unacceptable. To see any upward impact on home-care fees and charges to older Australians will be unacceptable.

The change from advance to arrears payments was due to commence in June 2020. There is an increase in financial risk for some smaller service providers who do not have adequate cash flow to deal with the changes. Those home-care providers currently losing money will face significant difficulties changing payment arrangements. Some service providers said that, as a result of cash-flow pressures arising from changes, they may be reluctant to take on new consumers during the transition phase. Service providers are concerned that, if the payment arrangements increase administrative costs, then costs would be passed on too.

The Liberal government is renowned for piecemeal reform. It is almost four years since the government introduced its Increasing Choice in Home Care reforms. Almost four years on and the question is: what has been achieved for Australians choosing to receive aged-care services in their home? These reforms have done nothing to address growing waiting lists. There are still more than 100,000 older Australians waiting for their approved home-care package. Over the past two years there have consistently been more than 100,000 older Australians waiting for the care they so desperately need. This is a national shame. Sadly, more than 30,000 older Australians over three years died waiting for their approved home-care package. Over 32,000 Australians entered residential aged-care prematurely over the past two years because they could not access approved home-care packages. Wait times have blown out, but older Australians waiting for their high-level package are waiting almost three years to get the care that they have been approved for. The median waiting time for older Australians going into residential aged care has grown under the Liberals and Nationals from just over a month to a five-month wait.

The Productivity Commission's report on government services released this year revealed older Australians waiting for high-level home-care packages are waiting almost three years for approved care. The report revealed that older Australians are waiting longer to enter residential aged care. The government has made improvements to the transparency of home-care fees; however, home-care recipients are still raising concerns about the rising cost of administrative and daily care.

Then there is the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety's interim report, handed down over a year ago. The report, titled Neglect, put forward a recommendation that required urgent action to address home care. The government's response was woefully inadequate. More than 100,000 older Australians were waiting for their home-care package, and the Morrison government's response was 10,000 home-care packages. In the budget, the government announced 23,000 home-care packages, but only 2,000 are level 4, the highest level of care. The actual number waiting for their approved level 4 package is 15,873. This is not acceptable. How can any Australian trust the Morrison government when it comes to aged care?

The aged-care system under this government is broken. We know that the Prime Minister when he was Treasurer cut $1.7 billion from the aged-care budget. This has had an impact across residential aged care. These cuts have had a significant impact. Funding has only been announced when the Morrison government has been under political pressure. The question is: why didn't the Morrison government put funding into the aged-care system before COVID-19? The interesting thing is that the amount of funding the Prime Minister cut from the aged-care budget almost matches the funding that he had to put back in because of the deadly COVID-19 outbreaks.

Let's have a look at how a lack of funding has impacted older Australians, their families and carers. We already know about the $1.7 billion cut from the aged-care budget. I've already mentioned the 100,000 older Australians waiting in the never-ending queue for a package. There has been inaction on hundreds of recommendations from more than a dozen reviews, reports and inquiries. Complaints about aged care doubled to almost 8,000 in just one year. The Morrison government has failed to fully implement even one aged-care recommendation from a landmark report to stop elder abuse released in 2017. The Morrison government delivered just 38 emergency food packages to older Australians isolating because of COVID-19. On top of all of this, there is the failed Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians. He has lost the confidence of the Australian people and the parliament. We know the Morrison government did not have a plan for COVID-19, and this has been stated in the royal commission's special report into COVID-19. We know the Morrison government was not prepared for COVID-19 in aged care. Tragically, almost 700 older Australians died in residential aged care across Australia. Despite the early warnings, the Morrison government didn't do enough. There was difficulty for aged-care workers to access PPE, inadequate infection control training, no surge workforce strategy and no idea of how many aged-care workers were working across multiple sites, and reports were not made public quickly enough.

The Labor Party has an eight-step plan. It's clear, though, that the Morrison government has no plan for aged care. The Leader of the Australian Labor Party outlined eight steps the Morrison government could take now to address the issues in aged care. These include (1) minimum staffing levels in residential aged care; (2) reduce the home-care package waiting list so more people can stay in their homes for longer; (3) ensure transparency and accountability of funding to support high-quality care; (4) independent measurement and public reporting, as recommended by the royal commission this week; (5) ensure every residential aged-care facility has adequate personal protective equipment; (6) better training for staff, including on infection control; (7) a better surge workforce strategy; and (8) provide additional resources so that the aged-care royal commission can inquire specifically into COVID-19 across the sector while not impacting or delaying the handing down of the final report.

We know that Australians are angry about this. They are upset. We know they don't trust the Morrison government or the current minister for aged care, Senator Colbeck. They don't trust the Morrison government to act on the royal commission's final report. Labor will continue to hold the Morrison government to account, not only here in the parliament but also publicly. Older Australians, their families and their carers deserve better.