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

I rise to speak about Senator Fifield's attempts to provide certainty for the Commonwealth Home Support Program on Monday. His comments were nothing but a cosmetic job by a very desperate make-up artist, because he took his eye off the ball. Australia's aged-care reforms are in chaos, following an eleventh-hour backflip from the Abbott government last week.

When in government, Labor introduced the Living Longer Living Better reforms to aged care, with bipartisan support and following extensive consultation. Our reforms were designed to address some of the issues raised in the Productivity Commission's 2011 report, including the need to make aged care easier to access, fairer and more sustainable into the future.

The coalition promised to continue those reforms before coming to government, and the aged-care sector was reassured. But last week the government riled up more uncertainty for aged care by announcing plans to back down on their promise to continue the reforms put in place by Labor. The 2015 budget forecast significant changes to home care, with a major change to the way packages are allocated occurring as early as February 2017. These major changes included the integration of the Commonwealth Home Support Program into the Home Care Packages.

I must point out that the Home Support Program had not even been implemented, and you on the other side were planning to change it! And, as I said last week, the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Senator Fifield, made an eleventh-hour announcement to put the Commonwealth Home Support Program on ice until 2018. Does the minister understand that this gives the impression that the government has no idea what it is doing when it comes to aged care?

We understand that two of the biggest social reforms—Living Longer Living Better and the NDIS—have been dumped onto an assistant minister. But, as I have said in here before, you cannot afford to take your eye off the ball. Older Australians cannot afford for you to take your eye off the ball, Minister. Labor understood the level of leadership required to oversee the rollout of such a significant reform and we put senior cabinet ministers in charge.

Now the assistant minister has been forced to extend funding for home and community service providers at the last minute, in spite of months of assurances the reforms were all on track. Labor did the heavy lifting to transform the aged-care system. All the Abbott government had to do was oversee the rollout of those reforms in a timely manner.

What we see now is: major reforms have been banished to 2018—by which time it will most likely be someone else's problem. The government has not kept their eye on aged care since day one. There is only one issue that they have ever been passionate about, and that is cuts. They axed the aged-care payroll tax supplement within weeks of taking office, and then proceeded to do nothing. They created chaos when they took aged care out of Health so that it could be lost within the superportfolio of Social Services. Then we saw the way that the Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement blew out because no-one was watching. The minister did not have his eye on the ball. If it were not for Labor and our questions through the estimates process, they would not have even noticed. And now we all know that this year's budget did nothing but rub salt into the nasty wounds left by last year's budget.

The aged-care reform timetable has been well known since the legislation passed, over two years ago. There is no excuse for running out of time or leaving things to the last minute. The continued lack of leadership from the Abbott government is jeopardising Labor's aged-care reforms and is causing unnecessary angst and uncertainty in the sector and the wider community. Let me be clear: the reforms are not the problem here; the Abbott government's lack of oversight and failure to implement the reforms in a timely manner are the problem.

Labor is committed to consultation with the sector and to having their input. We have made it clear that we want to be bipartisan. But there is nothing bipartisan about announcing changes to the Living Longer Living Better reforms at the 11th hour without any consultation with us. Bipartisanship is not about making an announcement and expecting us to say nothing.

One of the important roles of a functional opposition is to keep the government accountable. That is what we are doing, and that is what I am doing here today. It is for this reason that Labor remains very concerned about the changes the assistant minister is planning to the aged care reforms. It really concerns me that there has not been a full oversight of the development of these policies going forward. These reforms were supported after lengthy consultation with the community and with the sector, and we had bipartisanship on that legislation. I am concerned now that the government's constant tinkering, short cuts, last minute decisions and budget cuts are undermining the reform process.

Aged care in Australia is in a shambles, and I call on the government to demonstrate a real commitment to aged care services and to our ageing population. There are critical issues facing the aged care workforce, and I would like to see a genuine investment in dementia, the workforce and bedding down the current reforms before running on to create new ones. The ageing of our population has put incredible pressure on the sector, and the projected demand for services in the coming decades means that we need to see the workforce triple by 2050.

According to Deloitte, our rapidly ageing population has made aged care the top growth sector in Australia. So, unlike mining, ageing is a growth industry and will employ more people than the mining industry did in its peak. In the next eight years we will need another 55,700 aged care workers. What is the government doing to ensure that we have the right workforce to meet the demands of older Australians now and into the future?

On 20 May the assistant minister told the Australian Ageing Agenda that:

Government can't escape their obligation in terms of funding workforce. Building a better skilled, more appropriate aged care workforce will improve outcomes for older Australians …

Unfortunately, like so many of his colleagues, his words do not match his actions. He has just overseen a 15 per cent reduction in the Aged Care Workforce Fund. He announced he would develop a workforce strategy in February 2014. We are now in June 2015 and we are still waiting to see that plan. He announced a grand plan to undertake a stocktake of the current government's funded workforce initiatives. We are still waiting for that too. The only workforce measure this government has delivered is a $40 million cut to the Aged Care Workforce Fund. The government's dithering, its delays and its disarray is being felt by the aged care workers, providers and older Australians who will feel the brunt of this government's lack of leadership and their lack of vision. This government is the reason why our aged care system is not world class and this government will turn us into an international laughing stock.

As I have said before, we are yet to see the Abbott government seriously invest in dementia care and initiatives. The government's inability to offer those living with dementia anything positive is reflected in a number of chaotic and thoughtless decisions. They axed the dementia and severe behaviours supplement without any consultation or warning and announced the untested, experimental flying squads to deal with the residents with severe behaviours. They cut $20 million further from the Dementia and Aged Care Services Fund and abandoned the National Younger Onset Dementia Key Worker program.

The ageing of our population, the alarming growth in dementia and the significant shortage in aged care and the workforce cannot continue to be ignored by this government. This government has just over a week before the programs—which are supposed to be rolled out—currently funded under the Aged Care Workforce Fund end. It has just over a week for the mystery stocktake and the workforce strategy to rear its very ugly head. It has just over a week to demonstrate it has a forward-thinking and coherent plan for Australia when it comes to older Australians and the aged care sector. I seriously am looking forward to this. I am looking forward to seeing some leadership from the government. But, like all Australians, and particularly those working in the aged care sector, those living with dementia, their families and the wider Australian community, none of us will hold our breath, because it is quite apparent that the only passion this government has is to offer cuts to those most vulnerable in our communities.