Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Ageing (Senator Santoro) to questions without notice asked by Senators McLucas and Forshaw today relating to aged care.

Six years ago Australians were horrified at the revelations that elderly residents in residential aged care were subjected to kerosene baths, that residents were neglected and that the care that was being provided was far from standard. Confidence six years ago in Australia’s aged care system was seriously undermined. The minister at the time, Mrs Bishop, convened meetings, consulted and set in place systems that she said were designed to protect vulnerable Australians in residential aged care. And here we are in 2006 with horrific allegations of elder abuse in residential aged care—allegations that have horrified every single one of us whether or not we have a relative in aged care. The allegations in Victoria and in Queensland have once again shaken the confidence that Australians have in our aged care system.

The response from the Minister for Ageing today—and, I might say, last week—was one of the best applications that I have ever seen for a scriptwriter for the TV program Yes Minister. Despite his assurances, the minister did not respond openly, transparently or, in my view, honestly to questions put to him in question time today. I asked the minister why no action was taken after relatives of the alleged victim wrote to the department in May 2005 complaining about neglect and asking why the department had not acted in the way that they can.

Under the Aged Care Act it is quite possible for an allegation that has been sent to the department or the minister to be sent, through the department, to the standards agency. That option was not taken, but the minister did not use question time today to explain to the community why it did not happen. As we know, it is quite possible for that to occur. Senator Santoro did advise the Senate that the investigation by the department will be concluded this week. He then obfuscated—he was not clear—about what was going to happen to that report. I call on the minister to make that investigation public, to provide it to the Senate, so that confidence in our aged care system can start to be restored in the community.

I further asked the minister about an aged care facility in Queensland—the Immanuel Gardens Nursing Home. I asked him to confirm reports that the carer involved in the allegations got another job at another nearby residential aged care facility after he got the sack from the first one. The minister did not even attempt to clarify that situation. We have to make sure that confidence in aged care can be restored. It is encumbent upon the minister to use the opportunity of question time, to use the opportunity whenever possible, to restore confidence in aged care by coming clean—by telling people what has happened, by telling people what his department has and has not done and by telling people what he and the previous minister have done.

The minister did explain that on 11 and 12 August 2005 an examination of Immanuel Gardens Nursing Home was undertaken—and now, at the end of February 2006, finally, sanctions have been imposed. That is on top of the fact that the report that was done in August 2005 said that the problems were systemic, that they had been going on for three years. So the report said that these problems had occurred and then the department did not act promptly. It has been seven months since the first inspection happened and we finally have a response this week.

I reject absolutely the minister’s assertion that the Labor Party or in fact anyone involved in this matter is trying to politicise this issue. Aged care is a significant sector of the care component of the Australian community. We have to be confident in it. It is our job as the opposition to monitor the actions of government—and I take that job seriously. But the bottom line is: it is the minister’s responsibility to restore confidence in aged care—and we are providing that opportunity. (Time expired)

Kay Patterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the issue at hand, which is the motion to take note of Senator Santoro’s answers to questions. It pays to have been around here for some time, because I remember very clearly the state of aged care facilities when Labor was in government. It was disgraceful—and in Victoria, in particular, it was nothing short of an appalling situation. In Victoria there were large nursing homes which had run down in terms of capital and leasehold nursing homes where the facilities and the services offered to older people were enough to make you want to vomit when you left after visiting.

I visited nursing home after nursing home after nursing home, particularly in Victoria, and it was nothing short of an absolute disgrace. Labor did nothing. Labor had a report written by Professor Gregory. Professor Gregory said that there was not sufficient funding for nursing homes and there was not sufficient means for using the resources of people who go into nursing homes. I have always given credit to the Labor Party for the reforms they undertook in hostels by allowing an ingoing, which meant that there was the ability for providers to have capital for nursing homes. But Professor Gregory said that something like 80 per cent of people were living in rooms with four to five people, 75 per cent of nursing homes did not meet building standards, 11 per cent of homes did not meet basic health standards and funding to nursing homes had been cut by 75 per cent over a four-year period—the four years before we came into government in 1996. So Labor have nothing—no record, no credibility, nothing to stand up and be able to say, ‘Look what we did.’ When they hold a mirror up to themselves, they will see the disgraceful state that existed in nursing homes, particularly in my state of Victoria.

A range of measures have been introduced by various ministers for aged care since we have been in government. A system of accreditation has been introduced—the first nationally legislated quality assurance program for aged care. Directors of nursing homes and providers around the country say that the government’s accreditation system is the best thing that has happened in aged care. It has lifted the standards. We now have an aged care system that most countries would be proud of. We have introduced certification providing standards to ensure that the buildings and the physical environment are what Australians would expect for older Australians needing care.

I admit that the allegations that were made about what occurred in a nursing home in Victoria are very serious. Senator Santoro, a very new minister, has responded very rapidly to those allegations. He announced that a special meeting of the aged care advisory committee will take place in Canberra on Tuesday, 14 March. This meeting will explore solutions to allegations of abuse in Australia’s aged care facilities. Short of having a video camera in every room, unfortunately there will be situations like this. What we have to do is minimise the likelihood of it happening. I am sure Senator Santoro is going to be discussing that in great detail with the aged care advisory committee.

That committee comprises representatives of the aged care industry, staff and residents and is regarded as a representative committee. The government is keen for members of the public and aged care industry professionals who have ideas and suggestions for improvement to have input into that process. Senator Santoro has called for people to email the task force at aca.taskforce@health.gov.au with any views or any suggestions they might have. If requested, they will be treated confidentially. I think that is important. There are people out there who may have suggestions and ideas about what should happen. Senator Santoro has met with the granddaughters of one of the alleged victims to hear a first-hand account of their experiences and he assured them that he would do all he could to bring about an improvement in the aged care system with a view to preventing the sort of abuse that their late grandmother experienced.

All of us are shocked, no doubt, by the allegations of this abuse. But, as I said, you can put all the best measures in the world in place and unfortunately, whether it is in child care—and the states know this because the states have to regulate and monitor child care—or aged care, there will be people who find their way into those systems who are less than desirable. That may be the thing we need to be looking at, but Senator Santoro has made a very immediate start on this issue. (Time expired)

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by the new Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro, during question time today. Although he has not been in the seat long, any objective observer would have expected him to be across this most serious and important issue. Indeed, this very issue is a litmus test for him early on in his ministerial career. Is he going to be a minister who fudges and hides behind his bureaucrats or is he going to be a minister who is prepared to call a spade a spade and decry mismanagement and scandal? Is this a minister who will seek to sweep things under the carpet, as so many of his predecessors have done?

Not since the kerosene baths of Bronwyn Bishop have we faced such outrageous and disgraceful treatment of elderly Australians in the nation’s aged care facilities. The revelation that four dementia patients aged in their nineties were allegedly raped and assaulted at a Victorian nursing home are a national shame. No amount of clouding or fudging can hide it. This is a test for Minister Santoro—a test of frankness and openness, a test of the strength of his mettle—for while I am sure all senators in this place are appalled at what has happened it is to Minister Santoro that we turn for a resolution of this disgraceful situation.

That is why today I am saddened. I am saddened that, with the opposition seeking legitimate answers to questions, Minister Santoro has gone the bluff and bluster instead of being open. He has told us in this chamber today that he will review a review of a review of the complaints resolution scheme. Let me say this to you, Minister Santoro: while your feet are barely under the table you cannot be held personally responsible for these instances, but the government you represent can, and the government you represent will be held to account for its mismanagement. Do not fall into the trap of blindly following the line established for you. Blaze your own trail.

In the aftermath of these recent Victorian cases, we see a litany of failings resurface from our aged care sector. Today in the Herald Sun we hear of a woman conducting a bedsheet sting to see how often her mother’s sheets were being changed and discovering they were not changed for a month. Families bring food in, particularly fresh fruit, because of concerns over their loved ones’ diets. Homes provide only two pads a day to incontinent aged care residents. There are concerns about theft and inappropriate standards of care. It all smacks of a system failing.

Aged care Australians deserve more than this. Working Australian families deserve more than this. Aged care has become an increasingly important service as our lives grow more complex and busy, and life expectancy in our community rises. Traditional extended family models have given way to nuclear families and, with parents and partners working full time, the capacity for families to care for aged relatives is constantly diminishing. It is only going to get worse as the impact of the government’s new Work Choices act is felt in our community, and working hours and conditions become even more demanding. It is only going to get worse as demand for aged care places increases in line with our ageing society.

We need to arrest this problem now. We need real solutions from this minister to the national aged care crisis. But what has happened? We are getting no answers or solutions from this minister in this place. We are getting a summit at some time in the future so he has the breathing time he needs to get his lines right. But, as Kim Beazley said last week, this government has had all the breathing space it needs. This government needs to do more than just concede that standards are not being met; it needs to ensure that they are met.

For almost seven years we have had a system in crisis. Consider this time line from the Herald Sun. In 2000, 57 residents were given kerosene baths to treat scabies. Also in 2000, a Caulfield aged care resident was sprayed in the face with fly spray when found covered in ants. In 2001 a woman was found to have lost a leg to gangrene due to a lack of proper care, and another was found to have been left alone, restrained in a chair, for five hours in complete darkness. Also in 2001 a woman died of head injuries after being assaulted by a male resident at the home where she lived. In 2003 another woman died after being assaulted by a fellow resident. Skip ahead a few years and it is the same all over again. An advocacy group highlighted claims of bed linen not being changed for weeks at a time, of patients’ teeth not being brushed and of Jewish patients being fed pork. And then we have these latest explosive allegations—and bear in mind that this is just Victoria that we are talking about. It is time for real answers and solutions to our aged care crisis. (Time expired)

Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have not often seen such a shameless beat-up on the floor of the Senate as I have seen with this issue today. Frankly, I think the members of the opposition do no credit to themselves by using the language that they do about Australia’s aged care system. ‘A system in crisis,’ we hear. ‘A system that isn’t working,’ we hear. Members opposite not only are obviously quite content to play politics with this issue and to take what information they have to paint a picture which is a very serious distortion of what is taking place in Australia’s aged care system at the moment but are also quite prepared to do so in circumstances where they treat the sensibilities of those in that system and the families of those in that system as merely pawns in this rather tawdry game that they play.

The fact is that Australia’s aged care system, while far from perfect, has experienced enormous improvement in the last 10 years under this government, and nobody could objectively look at the way in which Australia’s aged care system operates today and not honestly come to that conclusion. Senator Carol Brown jumped up in this debate and made a series of claims about things that have gone wrong in nursing homes around Australia. I do not have any evidence to suggest that the things that she listed did not at one stage occur, but I think Senator Brown and those with her on that side of the chamber need to answer two questions. First of all, can she honestly say that incidents of that character did not occur during the 13 years before 1996 when the Labor Party was in government? Of course she cannot guarantee that. Secondly, can they really promise to the electors of Australia that somehow under a Labor government incidents of that kind would not occur? Of course they cannot.

The question is not whether in isolated cases around this country there are failures in the standards that we expect of our aged care system. The question is: have we done enough to lift that standard, to better fund the aged care system and to provide an adequate safety net for those who enter aged care facilities in this country? I believe that we have taken very important steps towards achieving just those goals. The fact of the matter is that we have in place across this country today, for the first time, a comprehensive accreditation system of nursing homes and aged care facilities which never existed under the previous Labor government. The fact is that in many cases we would not know whether the sorts of incidents that Senator Brown listed in her speech actually occurred, because there was not an accreditation system to pick those things up.

Today, we have standards in place. They are very high standards. Obviously, not every aged care facility in this country is able to meet those standards to the same degree as every other. We have the enormous irony of those opposite attacking the government because certain homes on occasions—I suggest fairly isolated occasions—do not meet the standards that they themselves could not be bothered to put in place when they were in government in this country for many years. You did not have those standards and now you criticise us because on occasions people in this country do not meet the standards that we have put in place.

We have required the certification of aged care facilities so that a certain standard has to be met in terms of the infrastructure and the quality of the fabric of those buildings in this country, and we have backed those demands for higher standards with funding to the aged care system to ensure that it is better able to meet those new standards. We have also of course greatly increased spending on aged care across the board in this country, including more than doubling the amount we spend on aged care by, for example, enlarging the number of places available in Australia for those who seek residential accommodation.

That is about doing something to improve the system. It is a comprehensive response to that problem. It is a response to a system which was left to us in disarray and disrepair 10 years ago when we came to office, and we make no apologies for the fact that we have made enormous strides in meeting those new standards. Senator McLucas describes this as a system which is not working. That is a disgraceful claim, and it is not borne out by the evidence. (Time expired)

Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro, arrived late for question time today, and he may as well not have turned up at all, given his failure on at least three occasions to answer serious questions put to him by the opposition. Senator Santoro attempted to fob off the outrageous, terrible things that have been reported in recent times that have occurred in at least one nursing home in Victoria, where allegations of rape have been made. He said he is going to have a summit, he is going to have an inquiry, he is going to have a review and he is going to have a meeting of the state ministers.

Senator Santoro has recently been appointed as the minister, and it has become very obvious, through the estimates hearings two weeks ago and his performance here in question time, that he either fails to read his briefs or he is completely ignorant and fails to understand them. I suspect it might be both. It is an outrage that the minister dealing with serious issues such as this can stand in this parliament and say we should depoliticise this issue. In other words, the opposition, according to Senator Santoro, should not ask him questions regarding his responsibility as Minister for Ageing. He wants to get off scot-free.

Let us have a look at the situation to date. The Howard government have been in power for 10 years. They are making a big thing about celebrating this anniversary. In 1996 the newly elected Howard government introduced the new aged care legislation. I remember it well because I was in charge of it from the opposition benches when the debate took place in the Senate. It was a long, drawn out debate and the legislation was very detailed. The new coalition government at the time promised a new world for aged care.

Senator Patterson, who has once again made a contribution on this issue, as she has been doing for many years, talked about the supposed terrible, disgraceful years under the previous Labor government. The coalition government said they were going to change and improve things. Today in this debate Senator Patterson could not address the issues that are occurring now under this supposed new beaut system. All Senator Patterson did was once again go back to those old arguments that it was pretty bad back in the eighties, as if somehow that excuses their failure to resolve issues and ensure that standards are kept and our aged people in this country are not mistreated in nursing homes.

It is happening today and it has been happening with regularity since this government came to power. Senator Humphries a moment ago could not think of one example to point to from when we were in government, but he said: ‘There must have been some. We just assume that it happened.’ The fact is that under this government some of the most outrageous situations have occurred, and we have raised them in this parliament time and time again. We all recall the outrageous conduct in a nursing home where patients were given kerosene baths. Senator Brown in her excellent contribution told of a litany of problems that have occurred under this government. We have had situations under this supposedly great accreditation scheme where homes have been given accreditation and passed all tests one day and then three months later failed half the tests after a particular serious incident has occurred.

We now have this terrible situation where a person has been charged with the alleged rape of elderly patients in the nursing home. That is happening now under this government. You have to accept responsibility for it. You cannot walk away from it and you cannot try and point to what you think may have happened 15 years ago as some sort of an excuse. You have to start acting on this serious issue. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.