Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Boothby for bringing this important issue to the chamber. This week we enter a new era in aged care with the commencement of the New Aged Care Act and the replacement of the Home Care Packages Program with the Support at Home program. It's understandable that, when a new government comes in, they want to leave their mark on existing policies, but the real questions for my community are these: Will these changes actually make life easier for the people who need care? Will it shorten the waiting time? Will it simplify the system? And, most importantly, will it make sure that older Australians get the support they need when they need it? Because, right now, that's not what's happening.

In Fowler aged-care issues cut right to the heart of our community. Every week I meet families and older Australians who tell me the same thing: the system is too complicated. There are too many forms, too many departments and too many long waits. Even for those with urgent needs, those waiting for level 4 packages, the delays can stretch out for more than 15 months. In that time people's health declines, families burn out and their faith in the system disappears. For many in my electorate, one of the most multicultural in the country, the problem is even worse. Carers who don't speak English fluently are often left struggling to navigate a system written in complex language. They face forms they can't understand and call centres they can't communicate with. Even when language isn't a barrier, navigating the system proves to be complex and time consuming.

Take Jenny—that's not her real name—who came to my office desperate for help. Her brother had been waiting for a year for his home-care package. She'd called My Aged Care again and again, but no-one could tell her where he was on the list. She told me she feared he would pass away before receiving the care he was entitled to. Or take Anna, who works a full-time corporate job and came in to see me to share her frustration at not being able to find a provider to deliver the services her father had been approved for while waiting for his home-care package. Multiple days off work to secure care services for her father left her disheartened when faced with being turned away due to lack of provider capacity and long wait times. Instead of dignity and support, the system delivered months of silence and confusion.

The government says the new aged-care system will fix these issues, promising transparency and better access, but for families like Jenny's and Anna's those promises mean nothing unless they're delivered in practice. This massive transition introduces new contribution structures and new rules. But, if we're not careful, we'll simply replace one bureaucratic maze with another. The ones who will suffer most are our most vulnerable—our elders from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, those least able to navigate complexity or advocate for themselves.

The dignity of our elders must never depend on their ability to decode government bureaucracy. While the aged-care changes provide some positive relief, such as the $25,000 payment to help recipients spend their final three months at home and a new 12-week program to help when recovering from an illness or injury, what measures are in place to ensure a change such as capping admin fees to 27 per cent, which is designed to leave more funds to spend on care, doesn't drive perverse behaviours from providers who may increase their prices to recoup their costs? I call on the government to ensure this new system works with people, not against them. That means investing in frontline advocacy, frameworks that ensure provider accountability, accessible translations and face-to-face support that is culturally appropriate—not just digital portals, fragmented service delivery and policy papers.

In Fowler people don't need more announcements; they need a system that delivers. The dignity of our elders is not negotiable. It's time the Albanese Labor government matched its words of reform with real action for the families of Fowler and those in western and south-western Sydney to ensure that no-one will be worse off or left behind under the new-aged care system.

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