Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak today about the residents and staff at the Bridgewater Aged Care Facility in Roxburgh Park, which is in my electorate of Calwell. In particular, I want to acknowledge the resilience and courage they have shown over the last few weeks during what has been a very difficult time for them and their families. On 20 May, Bridgewater Aged Care Facility went into administration, leaving its 98 residents and approximately 156 staff facing a very uncertain future. Late last year, I had the opportunity to visit Bridgewater; it was the third or fourth visit I had made to that facility in the last couple of years. During my visit last year, I had morning tea and conversation with many of the residents and staff at the facility. I even tried, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, to play a bit of bocce, which is one of their favourite indoor games.

The staff and the residents at the Bridgewater Aged Care Facility are very generous people. They were generous with their time and their hospitality. They were just simply delightful and very kind. What impressed me the most during my visit was the sense of community that existed between residents and staff and the strong bonds of friendship that they shared. There was certainly no indication of the financial troubles to come. Indeed, when the news first emerged that the facility had gone into administration, it came as a shock not only to me but also to the local community—to the residents and the staff at the Bridgewater Aged Care Facility.

What makes this news all the more troubling is that, when it comes to the Bridgewater Aged Care Facility, we are not just talking about a company or business; we are also talking about people’s homes and their place of work. We are talking about the close friendships that residents have forged with each other over the years, about a sense of belonging and of being at home and among friends that residents at this facility share.

And we are talking about the livelihoods of those who work at Bridgewater. In late May many of the staff at the facility were still owed wages dating back to the period before Bridgewater actually went into administration. Yet, despite this, they continued to work and care for its residents. Their dedication and commitment need to be recognised and should be applauded.

The Rudd Labor government and the Department of Health and Ageing are doing all that they can to ensure that residents at Bridgewater receive ongoing appropriate care and that staff are looked after during this difficult time. My primary concern is for the welfare of Bridgewater’s residents and staff, and I know that this is a concern shared by the Minister for Ageing. The government has appointed and is funding a clinical nurse adviser team to help the administrator of Bridgewater ensure that residents receive ongoing and quality care. Unpaid staff wages that were owed from the time before Bridgewater went into administration are being covered by the Department of Health and Ageing, which has also brought forward monthly resident subsidy payments so that staff can be paid on time by the administrator. This is in addition to the nearly $314,000 in monthly resident subsidy payments that the department has been paying to the home to care for its residents. The department has also set up a dedicated telephone number for family members and residents to call for further information and assistance, and departmental case managers have been assigned to individual families. In the worst-case scenario, additional help to cover staff entitlements may be available under the Australian government’s General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme, should Bridgewater become insolvent. The department, in negotiation with the administrators, has drawn up contingency plans to find alternative and appropriate accommodation for residents. We are all hoping, of course, that it does not come to that.

Just how the Bridgewater Aged Care Facility got to this position is now the subject of an investigation, and I do not want to pre-empt the findings of that investigation in any way here today. What I will say is that this has been a very difficult time for residents at the facility and their families and has been equally trying for Bridgewater staff as well. I have written to them and have spoken about their plight in some of our local newspapers and I know that the Minister for Ageing has also been very vocal on this issue.

I can report to the committee that negotiations between the Department of Health and Ageing and Bridgewater’s administrators are ongoing. This is of course a very delicate situation and I do hope that a solution can be found. Between now and then, however, I intend to continue doing all that I can to make sure that the needs and interests of residents and staff at Bridgewater are met. They are first and foremost in our thoughts. I would like to say that we are doing everything we can to assist them. I admire their patience and I admire their wisdom—in particular, the wisdom that they have shown over the last few weeks. They are a wonderful group of people and I hope that I am able to see them remain in my electorate. I look forward to future visits to the Bridgewater Aged Care Facility.