Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Melbourne. It is a timely motion and it anticipates the discussions held at the COAG meeting on Friday where a decision was taken to at least address in a modest way some of the concerns of families who have had to place their younger family members into care and, indeed, into what many would argue is inappropriate accommodation. As the member for McPherson just indicated, there is a concern amongst many families about the future of their young children with severe disabilities. I have certainly met with parents who have been or are the primary carer of a child or children with severe disabilities. They are concerned about what will happen after their death to their children and, in particular, to attending to their children’s needs.

The motion moved today is about addressing the concerns of people under the age of 50 who find themselves accommodated with much older recipients of care. The motion, I think quite rightly, seeks to have both federal and state authorities and governments redress this problem of inappropriate accommodation. As has been indicated by other speakers in this debate, 6,000 people aged less than 65 years are living in residential aged care. About 1,000 of these people are aged less than 50 years. So clearly there are many who should not be placed in this area of accommodation; there should be greater efforts made by federal and state governments to rectify this problem.

As a result of the new Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement, from July this year the Australian government and the states and territories will provide matched funding of up to $244 million to jointly establish a capped five-year program managed by the states and territories. The funding will aim to, amongst other things, provide age appropriate care for younger people with disabilities currently in residential care and reduce the overall number of people in residential aged care. The program will focus first on people aged less than 50 years in residential aged care. Other people with disabilities inappropriately accommodated in aged care will also be eligible under the program as well as people at risk of being placed inappropriately in aged care residences. Any move will be voluntary on the part of the younger person. The Australian government has responsibility for aged care services while under the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement, signed by all jurisdictions, states and territories are responsible for accommodation support. The activities that will be funded include assessment of care needs for younger people with disabilities, negotiating and providing appropriate alternative long-term care options, monitoring program outcomes and sharing information between the jurisdictions.

This program announced last week is certainly an improvement upon the current arrangements. However, it is clear that it is not enough to address the systemic problems of accommodation of younger people in nursing homes. The fact is that, at best, one in six younger persons will find themselves placed in better accommodation as a result of this program. So a lot more has to be done by both federal and state governments to attend to this awful situation in which families can find themselves in having to make a decision as to whether they can continue to care or be the primary carer for their children with severe disabilities on the one hand and whether they can trust the accommodation that is currently provided and available to those younger people with severe disabilities on the other. It is a difficult dilemma and one that would be removed if governments at both federal and state levels collaborated properly and attended to those deficiencies in the current accommodation arrangements. (Time expired)

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