Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022. I will give a bit of advice to those opposite: you know you're not going well and your government hasn't handled an area well when the interim report of a royal commission you initiate is titled Neglect. You want to have a read of the foreword of that report. You don't even need to read the final report titled Care, dignity and respect, which called for far-reaching and fundamental reform, to know the coalition, in nine long years, failed abysmally in terms of the aged care of our people, whether in residential aged care or in home care or of those people getting the Commonwealth Home Support Program.

This was a government that went through aged-care ministers like throwing confetti. I think it's important to look at where we've come from. One of the first acts of the former government—they think they're now a government in exile but they're actually in opposition—was to get rid of the Aged Care Workforce Development Fund, which we brought in as part of our Living Longer, Living Better package. It was a $40.2 million fund. I heard the previous member talking about developing aged-care workers and people who can work in regional areas. Well, you don't get rid of the fund that was there to assist as one of the first acts of your new government back in 2013. This is a Liberal Party and National Party grouping that decided they would demote aged care out of Health and Ageing and put it into the mega portfolio of Social Services. Eventually, after Labor campaigned for years—the stakeholders did—to bring it back into a DOHA situation, they finally did so.

One of the first acts of the coalition government back in September 2013 was to get rid of the workforce supplements. To those opposite: we're crying out for workers in aged care. In none of their speeches do they talk about what they really did. They didn't develop an aged-care workforce strategy. They abolished the panel for positive ageing, which was led by Everald Compton, Susan Ryan and Brian Howe, which went ahead and did its report anyway. If you're interested in positive ageing, you don't abolish that panel. They got rid of $1.2 billion straightaway. That was funding to go to residential aged care to assist in increased wages, training and workforce development. That was one of the first acts of the Abbott government in 2013—$1.2 billion of funding cut. When Labor opposed that, it took them 32 minutes in this chamber—I was the shadow minister for ageing, in the opposition—to cut $1.2 billion in funding in aged-care workforce development. That's all it took them. Then, in June the next year, they cut the dementia supplement and the veterans supplement to help people stay in their homes and get the care they needed. That was to help providers support people living with dementia and veterans staying in their homes.

So don't come into this place and give us sermons about aged care as if the last nine years didn't happen. They certainly happened. That's why there was a royal commission. That's why the interim report was titled Neglect. That's why the final report talks about far-reaching and almost traumatic changes that need to happen in the sector, because those opposite neglected it again and again and again. They can barely find a budget or a MYEFO where they didn't cut funding again and again. This is what the 2016-17 budget papers said.

This is the coalition government: 'The government will achieve efficiencies of $1.2 billion over four years'. That's not the $1.2 billion I was referring to before; that's additional cuts of $1.2 billion over four years through changes to the scoring matrix of the aged-care funding instrument that determines the level of funding paid to aged-care providers. So they cut $1.2 billion directly from the sector and they wondered why there was neglect. They wondered why people were leaving the sector when they weren't being paid enough and didn't have career development, training or opportunity. People were malnourished. There were maggots. They were literally starving in soiled bedsheets and soiled clothing under the Liberal and National parties' watch. Those two royal commissions are damning.

This Labor government is trying to correct the failures, the follies and the foibles of those opposite, who failed the aged-care sector and failed those people who were going before us who needed care. They were vulnerable, living with dementia. More than half the people living in residential aged care are living with dementia, and those opposite failed them monumentally. They shuffle money around all the time. We saw situations where, for example, they would take money off 26,000 packages from residential aged care and they would give it to home care for 10,000 packages. There was no new money; it was sleight of hand. That's why the sector was crying out for reform. Only this Labor government is taking reform and taking seriously the recommendations of the royal commission.

If the recommendations were taken seriously by the former coalition government, they should have had a look at the fact that the interim report, titled Neglect, was handed down in October 2019. And what did they do? They continued to use sleight of hand to cut funding. And they did things just before the interim report was handed down to see if they could provide a bit more money in the sector to satiate the aged-care providers and, effectively, to con people. We're putting more money—billions of dollars extra—in aged care because those opposite failed the sector and failed our senior Australians. Care, dignity and respect is the title of the final report. That's what those opposite failed to do—provide the care, dignity and respect that those older Australians deserve.

This government is taking steps and acting on the recommendations of the royal commission. We know that it's backed by the sector. I noticed those opposite not quoting the sector. COTA, the Council on the Ageing, suggested to the Senate inquiry looking into this bill that it welcomes the commitments made in this legislation and supports its intentions. 'We warmly welcome priorities which the Albanese government and the minister for Aged Care has given this bill in the legislative program. This is unprecedented.' That what COTA said. National Seniors Australia commented to the Senate inquiry:

The peak consumer body for older Australians, National seniors Australia, as long advocated for improvements to aged-care services and, as such, we support the intent of proposed amendments.' The HSU, the Health Services Union, supports the bill in its quick passage through the Senate, welcomes the new government's prompt and decisive action in aged care in making it a first order of business for their members. I praise the members who work in aged care: the nurses, the personal carers, the administrators. The 'heroes of the pandemic' those opposite called them but never supported them. The HSU said, 'This bill addresses the deepening workforce crisis, and the public's trust deficit in the sector is long overdue and therefore most welcome in terms of this legislation.'

The coalition has no good track record. John Howard in 1997 produced the Aged Care Act, which governs this particular sector, and those coalition members opposite who were in the dregs of the previous government should hang their heads in shame for what they've done to the aged-care sector in this country. They never saw a budget or a MYEFO where they wouldn't cut funding. This bill goes a long way, but it is a first step for transparency and accountability. It makes sure that those in the sector know they have to deliver the care that they espouse in their propaganda and their advertising.

This is about committing extra support. We're making sure that, from 1 July 2023, approved providers of residential aged care and the specified kinds of flexible care have a new responsibility to have a registered nurse on site. This will help alleviate pressures on public hospitals and GP clinics. The sector has been crying out for 24/7 care for years, and the coalition refused to listen to them. Again and again, people from the sector would come to this place and speak to Labor and coalition members, and the coalition government would refuse to act on it. The member for Cook, the former Prime Minister, was the Minister for Social Services for a long time. He cut billions of dollars out of the sector when he was the Treasurer and also when he was the Minister for Social Services. The previous government neglected older Australians.

What about clarity? There was virtually no clarity at all in the sector in terms of where they spent money. At one stage, the previous coalition government, knowing full well that they'd failed the sector, decided to throw some money at it. There were no conditions on workforce development training and no conditions on how the money would be spent in terms of food, standards of nutrition or quality of care. Nothing like that was done. It was just, 'We'll throw some money here and there, because we know we've got a political problem.' Aged care was a political problem for the previous coalition government. They knew it—they had a royal commission. They didn't act on the recommendations quickly enough. They got the interim report in October 2019, and they didn't do what they needed to do.

We're going to cap the amount that can be charged to people receiving home-care packages for administration and management. We're going to make sure that we cap these charges and maximise the funding available to address the care needs of the 210,000 people currently receiving home-care packages. I can't count the number of times I've stood in this place or up in the Federation Chamber giving example after example of people who had to wait for assessments, then, when they got an assessment that they needed a level 4 home-care package, they could only get a level 2 and then only eight to nine months—sometimes even 12 months—later. People were dying before they got the care they deserved. Families were in distress. It wasn't just Labor MPs; I guarantee coalition MPs got the same entreaties and urgings for help that we used to get. I gave example after example in speeches I made in this place. I think I've spoken more on aged care than I have on just about any other topic, but the coalition government failed.

For 14 years before I came to this place in 2007, I sat on the board of Carinity, an aged-care provider in Queensland. As a lawyer working in private practice, I and my colleagues at Neumann & Turnour Lawyers acted for many, many aged-care providers. I worked with and for the sector. After I became Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, I remember going to a conference and speaking on aged-care reform and what we were doing. I saw so many of my clients in Queensland—in Brisbane, at the time—sitting there. They urged reform.

I want to commend the current Minister for Health and Aged Care, because he was the architect of Living Longer Living Better, which was prostituted and abolished, effectively, by the previous coalition government when they came to power in 2013. I'm so glad to see him as the minister now in this place, along with the member for Lilley as the Minister for Aged Care and the Minister for Sport, to make sure that we can do it better.

We need people to live longer and live better in this country, and we need to make sure that the recommendations of the Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing and the things that people like Everald Compton, the late great Susan Ryan and Brian Howe said about turning grey into gold are taken up. I want to commend the former member for Lilley, Wayne Swan, who had the vision to put forward that panel on positive ageing, and I'm pleased that the current member for Lilley is now the Minister for Aged Care, taking up that step.

This government is absolutely committed to remedying the failings of the previous government. They should have a look at themselves and what they've done. It's no good coming into this place and acting as if the last nine years didn't happen. They were there; they were on the treasury bench. It's no good being in office and in power if you're not doing things.

This government will act. We will act on aged care. We will give people the dignity, the security and the humanity that they deserve. I'm pleased to support this legislation. It's part of the first steps that the Albanese Labor government is taking to address the myriad failings of those opposite on aged care.

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