Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a real pleasure to speak today on this Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022. I've got to say that today is' thank an aged-care worker day', so I think it can be no more an applicable time for this to come through than today. As I said, it's a real honour to speak on this today.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our aged-care workers. Everyone who works in our aged-care homes, whether they're our aged-care workers, our cooks, our cleaners, our nurses, our people working in admin: you are all important. I want to thank the Health Services Union also for raising this as well—in terms of 'thank an aged-care worker day'—and for all the work that you do every day to support aged-care workers and raise awareness of what's happening. I also want to thank the many aged-care workers who have raised these issues in this bill today. They have been tireless and fearless over many years. They've never given up. I am really, really proud to be here today to talk on this because it is so essential, not only for our aged-care workers but of course, most importantly, for our aged-care residents.

I come from one of the oldest age demographics in Australia, the electorate of Gilmore. Our aged-care residents are much loved, and they deserve that dignity and respect that they should have. I think that's why there is so much passion from our aged-care workers to reform the system and to make it better. As I said, it is about our aged-care residents. I also want to thank our aged-care nursing homes as well. I meet with a variety of nursing home representatives across my electorate, and we've had many a roundtable discussion about how we can improve the system. It is really good to see people working together.

Of course, I was absolutely devastated and heartbroken at the revelations of the aged-care royal commission, although it shouldn't come as any surprise because of those many discussions with aged-care workers. I know that many people in my electorate of Gilmore were also devastated by what came out of the aged-care royal commission and the harm particularly for our residents. 'Neglect': a powerful word and a truly devastating one. That was, of course, the summation of the royal commission. Older Australians deserve better than neglect. They deserve a system that is there for them as they age, to give them dignity and to care, to really care. That's what aged care should be: care, not neglect.

I have heard so many heart-wrenching stories over my time as the member for Gilmore, both in aged care and in home care. I hear lot of stories and a lot of people contact my office. As I said, my electorate has one of the oldest populations in the country. There are a lot of people who have come up to me, particularly people who might have their parent in an aged-care nursing home; they're worried about them, for their care. Sometimes they're children who might be in another state, but they just want to know that their parents are being looked after. It is a really huge issue that impacts so many people.

Of course, we know the electorate of Gilmore, on the beautiful New South Wales South Coast, is a place that many people want to retire to, and I can completely understand that. It is a beautiful place. It's a beautiful coastline. It's made up of around 100 individual villages, each with their own personality. Of course, we have many aged-care homes that are truly beautiful and really well loved in their communities. But it also means that there are a lot of people that have firsthand experience of our deteriorating aged-care system.

Since I was elected, one of the most common complaints I've heard is about the home-care system. In a regional area like ours there are limited providers, and it's really hard to find the right services. I just want to talk about some of the most recent examples. Patricia from Berry contacted my office just yesterday. She was receiving cleaning services but, without explanation, they have all of a sudden stopped. My office is working with her to find out what's happening. But complaints about access to providers and the fees they are charging are complaints I hear often.

In another example, a 95-year-old lady from Ulladulla had been waiting since January for her level 4 package, which she really needed. Her daughter told me that she's been on a level 2 package but her mobility is failing and she needs more equipment to help with her quality of life. The good news is that my office helped get that package through, finally, but this, unfortunately, is such a common story.

Sadly, many people have also told me they simply couldn't afford the prices charged under the package. Some home-care providers were charging incredible amounts in administration charges. A Burrill Lake resident told me one provider was taking 46 per cent of their package. They tried to find one that was cheaper, but there simply weren't any. Too many people are waiting too long, struggling to find services and being charged too much when they do find them. The system is broken.

This bill will place a cap on the amount that home-care providers can charge for administration and management, as well as removing the ability for providers to charge exit amounts. That is good news in our community. I know it will be very well received. Local people should feel confident that their money is going directly to care. After all, that is what it's for.

All up, this bill implements three key changes to fix our aged-care system. The second change this bill will make is to ensure that residential aged-care facilities have a registered nurse on site and on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is in response to another of the key recommendations of the royal commission.

We need to stop unnecessary hospital trips for our older Australians. We have a hospital system buckling under the pressure of COVID-19, combined with a GP crisis and a health system that has been mismanaged at a state and federal level for years. Just last week I attended the nurses rally at Shoalhaven Hospital. I note that there were many rallies across my electorate, and we had many nurses from Milton, Moruya and Batemans Bay as well. Many of those nurses came up to me to thank me and Labor for the changes we are making to aged care. It's given them hope for their future and hope for their patients. I wished them well in their fight for better pay and conditions from the state government.

I just want to take this moment, as well, to say that the hospitals in my area—the nurses, the hospital workers—are absolutely brilliant. They do a fantastic job, and I think there's general consensus right across the community in our region that that is the case. But they need more support from their state system; they absolutely do. I've lost track of the number of times I've been called about the bed block outside Shoalhaven Hospital. I say this as well because the nurses and the healthcare workers want a better system. Everybody wants a better system, and that's why nurses were rallying in a state system—because they want better for their patients. They want ratios. When we look at what we've achieved through this bill in implementing recommendations from the royal commission, we're actually moving forward, and I think there's great frustration that the New South Wales state Liberal government are just not providing that support or those ratios for their nurses. At the federal level we have taken leadership in that, and I'm proud of that.

I'll tell you who else was at that rally at Shoalhaven hospital: Katelin McInerney, the Labor candidate for Kiama. She's a mum, and she will absolutely stand with nurses, and she was there. There was no sighting of the Liberal state member for Kiama—or for South Coast—and that really disappoints me. We need to be supporting our nurses, just like we, federally, are supporting our aged-care workers. Everyone—our nurses and our workers—deserve better. I do want to say thank you to all our nurses across the health system for everything they do. We will absolutely keep working hard for you.

We need to make sure that, if there is a way that we can stop older Australians ending up in hospital unnecessarily, we support that to happen. So I'm really pleased about these changes. I know that registered nurses won't fix everything; they won't solve everything. In many cases, they certainly do need the support of good GPs. I'm also having the conversations with local GPs, like Dr Kay, who are delivering great GP services in our local aged-care homes. But she also needs support to keep doing this. We need to support our GPs more to do that important work in nursing homes to support our registered nurses. But this bill is a really good place to start.

We need to make sure that, when people living in aged-care homes have a problem that can be dealt with quickly and easily, there is someone there to do it. It just makes sense, and it is what the royal commission said needs to happen. We are doing it and we are doing it quickly. There is no time to waste. I know that this means we need to find the nurses—amazing, wonderful, beloved nurses. We need to upskill our workforce and we need to get the nurses we lost during COVID-19 back into the industry.

How do we do that? We start with a pay rise. Our nurses shouldn't be moving to other industries because they pay more for easier work. They should be paid fairly for the work they do, and that's a key part of Labor's aged-care plan: making sure that happens. We've also announced fee-free TAFE as part of the outcomes of the jobs summit, targeted at skill shortage areas, starting with nurses. Fantastic news. It will help, absolutely. It's one more step, one more piece of the puzzle, in fixing a system left to disintegrate for too long.

The third change this bill will make is to help ensure greater transparency on what aged-care providers are spending their money on. Once again, local people in my electorate of Gilmore want to know that their money—and aged care isn't cheap!—is going to care. That's what residents moving into care want to know. It's what their families want to know. This bill will ensure that this is transparent and that there is accountability in aged care.

I'm proud to be part of a government that is working every step of the way to ensuring that every Australian has dignity, humanity and support as they age. The families of older Australians in my electorate deserve to have confidence in the facilities that they entrust to look after their loved ones. They shouldn't have to worry about whether their mum, dad, auntie, uncle is getting fed, is having their bed changed, is getting help to go to the toilet, if they need it. Not one single person should lose someone they care about because they didn't get the care they needed when they needed it. So I am delighted to support this bill. I support it wholeheartedly. I want us to get on with putting the care back into aged care. I am proud to be part of a government finally delivering dignity and humanity for our older Australians. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context