Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Blair stated earlier on in his remarks, Labor supports this legislation, the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Increasing Consumer Choice) Bill 2016. We do so because it effectively follows on with reforms that Labor began when we were last in office and, indeed, reforms that arose from the Productivity Commission's 2011 report titled Caring for older Australians. When that report was released, I can well recall hosting some forums in my electorate of Makin with the then minister, the member for Port Adelaide, to hear firsthand from older Australians about the aspects of the Productivity Commission's report that they would like to see implemented and how important some of those recommendations were to them. There was no doubt in my mind, from the feedback from those forums, that the aged-care services provided in this country needed to be reformed—and, in fact, needed to have been reformed years ago. The reforms are well overdue. Labor began the process of implementing those reforms when we were in office, and this legislation, as I said a moment ago, in my view, continues that process.

The notion of enabling people to live in their home for as long as possible has considerable merit. In my view, it is something that most older people would prefer to do if they were given the choice. Indeed, I have never heard anyone say to me that they would willingly like to go into a nursing home. Some may move on to a retirement village, depending on the nature of it—that is perhaps an easier transition—but most people prefer to stay in their home. That is because it enables them to remain in their local community, where they are in the company of the people they have grown up with, they are in surroundings that they are familiar with and they will still have access to their friends.

Often it is the case that a person wants to stay in their own home because, even though they might be at an age where they need considerable care, they might still be with their husband or wife, who might be able to provide some of that care for them. It also means that, in essence, they are surrounded by the comforts that they have become accustomed to living with and the freedoms that they would otherwise not enjoy once they are transferred to another place. Staying in a person's own home has considerable advantages to all concerned. There is no doubt in mind that it ultimately means that it is a less expensive way of continuing a person's life than moving into a retirement village or a nursing home. There are cost savings to government and, as I said a moment ago, it also meets the needs of most older people.

One of the important matters relating to people being able to stay in their own home is the ability for them to continue the lifestyle that they have had, particularly if that lifestyle is tied to a cultural difference that they might find if they are placed in a nursing home or even a retirement village. When I have spoken to older people, I have particularly noted that cultural differences are one reason that they want to stay in their home for as long as they possibly can. There are of course other matters relating to financial differences that sometimes arise and also the fact that, for some people, moving out of their home also means that they have to move away from the local area in which they were raised, particularly given that not all areas have all of the facilities that an older person requires. This is particularly so if we are talking about regional and country areas, where sometimes there might be some facilities but not all of the facilities that are required by a person who reaches a point in their life when they require a range of services. For them, moving out of their own home becomes very, very traumatic.

Another issue that I have noticed in recent times—and I speak with experience about this, because I have dealt with some families who have faced this very issue—is that, in today's lifestyle, the work commitments of children often take them away from their local area and sometimes interstate or perhaps even overseas. So, whereas in the past older people might have had children who would pop in and care for them from time to time, that is sometimes becoming less the case because their children have had to move interstate or overseas in order to secure work. So there is a whole range of issues that need to be taken into account.

If we are going to enable people to remain in their own home, services like the Home and Community Care service, the National Respite for Carers Program, the day therapies centres and the assistance with care and housing for the aged that has been made available all need to be accessible to those people who are staying in their own home. I note that there have been some significant changes to the Home and Community Care services that are provided. I also note that, as a result, many of the people I represent have had some difficulties in accessing those services. Either they have become ineligible or there are only a limited number of services available and therefore they miss out. For them, staying in their own home becomes difficult. We are talking about people who are getting on in life, older people, and sometimes single older people who do not have any support, who might have to do basic home care and maintenance which they are simply no longer up to and for which they need a little bit of support.

Aged care issues are, in fact, frequently raised with me and, certainly, access to services that are available for the aged is one of the main issues raised. The difficulty is that, for many older people, getting through to government departments has become increasingly difficult. Many of them are not familiar with the use of computers and IT systems, and so navigating the bureaucratic system and trying to access services online can be not only difficult but impossible for them to navigate. When they hit a barrier they inevitably contact my office, and then we intervene and try to assist.

The other area where there seems to be a problem is the aged care assessment process. My office has been able to assist people on several occasions with respect to getting the assessments carried out in a timely manner. Without the assessments, they can get no services. In fact, they will not be admitted to a nursing home unless they have gone through the assessment process. Again, it seems that if we are going to provide a system where people can have services, we need to ensure that the process by which they access those services is easy for them to get through. One of the issues the member for Blair touched on is that dealing with government departments has proven to be problematic in the past, with both service providers not being paid and people having to wait unreasonable lengths of time to get the answers they require in order to access the services they need.

I just want to briefly touch on some additional issues with respect to keeping people in their own home. For some people, it is not even a matter of choice any more. It is a case where they have no choice but to remain in their own home. They have no choice because the cost of entry into nursing home facilities, or even retirement villages for that matter, is prohibitive. They might have some assets but not sufficient assets to give them access into those other facilities, and so they have no choice but to remain at home. That being the case, we, as a society, should be doing everything we can to assist them with the in-home services they require to continue on with their lives. I know that many people who stay in their own home and require those services struggle. They struggle in a way that none of us would like to see our own family members or parents struggling. Indeed, when you go to services like Meals on Wheels you get a terrific understanding of that because, quite often, it is services like Meals on Wheels that enable these people to remain in their own homes and at least have someone call in on them every so often to ensure that they are still okay. Whilst I am on that topic, can I just take this opportunity to acknowledge the terrific work that Meals on Wheels does for communities right around the country and the tireless work of the volunteers I see in my own community; and I hear from other members in this place that that is the case right across the country.

The same applies with retirement villages. I know of many older people who would dearly have loved to downsize their homes. They might live in a home that has three or four bedrooms and a reasonable backyard of some kind, but they are no longer capable of doing the maintenance, and nor do they require that property. But, firstly, if they want to relocate into a smaller home that is more modern and does not require maintenance, they may not be able to afford the transfer costs. Secondly, they might also be concerned that, when they exit that retirement village, they lose too much of their money because of the financial structures that many of them operate under. These are issues that we also need to address. Whilst I accept that aged care has always been and continues to be a matter of responsibility between the federal and state governments, it is high time that all of us in government work together, because we all have a common objective here to try to assist the older people as much as we can and resolve some of these issues that are not helpful to older people or governments.

My understanding of this legislation is that from 27 February 2017, roughly a year away, the home care packages will be allocated directly to the consumer and not to the service providers as they have been in the past. That is a good thing, because that gives the consumer much more choice. It also allows the consumer to move from one place to another without the loss of those services that are required. It is something that, I believe, will benefit the consumer immensely. The critical concern, though, as outlined by the member for Blair, is the number of hurdles people have to jump over to access those services, and there is also the issue of having appropriately qualified personnel to deliver the services. Since being elected to this place, I have regularly gone into nursing facilities and spoken with aged people. One of the things I have noted is that many of the staff who work in this industry sector are people who have come from overseas, which highlights to me the shortage of the number of qualified people within Australia who are willing to work in the aged care sector broadly. We currently have, from my estimations, about 3½ million Australians who are aged over 65. By 2050, the figures are probably likely to rise to about 10 million. That is, the population of Australia is projected to be about 40 million and, if you look at the stats which suggest that 25 per cent of Australians will be 65 and over, that means we will have about 10 million older Australians who might require some form of care. If we cannot manage the provision of services to them now, with numbers being at about a third of that, then what is going to happen in years to come, unless we start to plan the workforce that is required to provide those services. We are simply not doing that well enough. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, when I sat down and spoke with some people from the aged care sector, it was clear to me that the shortage of appropriately qualified staff working in the aged care sector is becoming a problem. It will be a greater problem in years to come so, hand in hand, we are trying to assist people to stay in their own homes. We also need to ensure that we have a workforce that can provide the range of services they require, so it will be a multipurpose workforce.

As the member for Blair has made clear, we support this legislation but want to ensure that the aged people of this country not only have a legal right to the services but also can access them in a timely way.

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