Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 1 November, this government's new Aged Care Act came into effect, and what did older Australians get? Confusion, chaos and higher costs. There was no proper education campaign and no clear communication about what these changes meant, just bewildered elderly Australians wondering why they were suddenly paying more than before for the same support they were already receiving.

These changes have older Australians concerned that they will have to cut back on essential services because providers can now increase their costs. That's right. For eight months, providers can charge what they like for at-home services as the government will not cap these prices until 1 July next year. What happened to the 'no worse off' guarantee that these changes came with? Older Australians are being forced to pick up essential services, like help with housework, personal care and everyday living support. This is yet another broken election promise, one that comes with catastrophic consequences. This doesn't include the thousands of older Australians who are still waiting for the care they deserve. In total, more than 230,000 older Australians have been stuck, left in limbo, waiting for access to home-care support under Labor. The National Ageing Research Institute has shown that older Australians forced to wait longer than six months for a home-care package face an 18 per cent higher risk of death compared to those who receive support within 30 days. Across the electorate of Grey, families are facing impossible choices and heartbreaking situations due to this government's failure to deliver promised care. The stories I have heard from residents across Grey, both raw and devastating, prove beyond any doubt that we are in the midst of an aged-care crisis.

This is the price of Labor's centralisation and their one-size-fits-all policy approach. What works for cities does not work in small regional towns. Where is the compassion for the spouse who can no longer visit their partner because daily trips are around 400 kilometres return? Where is the plan to ensure that a retired farmer in the far north or a beloved community volunteer on the west coast can age with dignity in the town they love? This is what people in Grey are experiencing every single day—the shortage of essential services from aged care to dental care and child care. It's a failure of responsibility by all involved.

This government's failure to deliver adequate aged care in regional Australia is a betrayal of trust and shows a lack of foresight. Real people with real needs have been left behind by a system that does not properly work for regional Australia. Spouses caring for partners while their own health deteriorates, adult children forced to leave their careers to become full-time carers, families stretched to the breaking point—these changes only add to the burden they are already carrying.

When we talk about aged care in the electorate of Grey, we're not talking about statistics on a spreadsheet in Canberra. We're talking about the women who volunteered at the local CWA for 40 years, the farmer who built this community with his bare hands, the teacher who educated generations of our children. These are the people who have made our towns what they are today. They deserve better than confusion about new legislation. They deserve better than broken promises. They deserve better than a government that treats regional Australia as an afterthought. These changes have added another hurdle to an already difficult system for regional Australians to navigate—without proper education, without price protections for eight months, without adequate support. This government has let our elderly down. It can be the difference between living with dignity in the community you love or losing everything you've built over a lifetime. Our elderly built regional Australia. Now, it's our responsibility to ensure they can age in it with the support and dignity they deserve.

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