Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mayo. Welcome back!

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You know how desperate things are in a sector when someone who gets very little sleep because she works in aged care and is also a full-time carer for her mum makes the time to be part of a local forum with some politicians, giving up the only moment of free time that she gets.

The members for Newcastle and Macarthur held a hearing of the Medicare Taskforce in the electorate that I represent, Macquarie, focusing on aged care. It's fair to say that we had a full house in Katoomba, with people who have gone through the process of helping an elderly family member, whether it's a mum or a dad, a relative or a partner, to tackle the bureaucracy to get an aged-care home package.

The room full of people sat in stunned silence as we took evidence by phone from Anthea Cox-Norman, an aged-care nurse who lives in Hobartville, who shared with us her experience in trying to get the appropriate level of home care for her mum. She works nights and cares for her mum during the day. She needs help. We first started speaking with Anthea in March, when she rang concerned that, despite the fact that her mum had been discharged from hospital into Anthea's care in early January, they had been advised of a nine- to 12-month wait for an in-home-care package. Her mum's needs had been assessed as meeting level 4 needs—that's the highest level of care. Anthea is at breaking point, as anyone would be when trying to do two full-time roles without adequate support. I wrote to the minister about this in early July after exhausting all other avenues, and there's still no response.

What the evidence from the forum tells us is that Anthea is not alone in experiencing long delays for care for a loved one. One of the key issues that emerged is that so many people give up on the wait and accept a package that is at a lower level of care and then find themselves facing big bills in trying to fill the gaps. The cost of that extra care can be a real shock and financially devastating.

I have an electorate with many retired and elderly people. In fact, people move to the area in order to retire and to breathe our clean air after living and working in their busy lives. It's completely understandable that people want to be able to age in their own home, in their own space, for as long as they can. The delays in home-care packages have caused grief for many, and I have heard the same story over and over again: that someone was on the waiting list but their package didn't come through until they were just about to be admitted to residential care or, in several cases, the person needing the care had already died.

It is a disgrace that we show so little respect for the older and more vulnerable members of our community. It seems bizarre to me that it is now August and we are well overdue for an update on the current waiting list. The Department of Health has previously committed to releasing data two months after the period that the data covers. So what has happened to the March quarter? And the July quarter shouldn't be too far away.

Of course, we know that if the figures were good they'd be out by now. In spite of the claims that there was money in the budget for packages, I wonder if they barely made a dent in the waiting list of more than 100,000 people. These are people who are eligible for an aged-care in-home package. They're meeting the requirements to be given that package. They're ready to accept that package, but they're still waiting.

We know that being cared for in your home has huge benefits, and that is not only the cost. It costs somewhere between $100,000 and $120,000 of taxpayer money for people to be cared for in a facility. It is much, much cheaper to allow people to be cared for in their own homes. People can sleep in their own bed, they can have their own bedroom, surrounded by their own things. They can have their pet and they can turn the TV up as loud as they like. Care can be totally personalised, which is much harder to do in an aged-care facility. There's also that sense of independence, of having some control over many aspects of your daily life. You get to decide when to eat, when to sleep and when to socialise.

This government deserves condemnation for what it's doing to people like Anthea. I think it should apologise to Anthea, to her mum and to people like Noeline O'Beirne whose husband, Patrick, didn't live long enough to see his level 4 package delivered. And she herself is no stranger to waiting. These people deserve the funding they've been assessed for, the funding that's been committed to them, and they absolutely deserve an apology from this government for what it's doing to them.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a very important issue. The number of our senior Territorians is increasing. The number of senior Territorians in Darwin and Palmerston, in my electorate, continues to rise. That's why I rise to put on the record my support for the motion moved by the member for Franklin. Constituents—not just senior Territorians—their children, their friends and their grandchildren, Australians across the nation, are concerned about this issue. Their loved ones, their elders, are languishing in limbo waiting for approved home-care packages from this government, a government that seems to have different priorities.

The Turnbull government's budget in relation to this issue was a cruel hoax. It was a cruel hoax for older Australians, with not a single extra cent for Australia's aged-care system in this year's budget. I know that members from regional areas in Australia will be getting the same feedback as I am. How on earth could a federal government have a tax policy that would give $17 billion for banks but cut the take-home pay of Australians? Pensioners, our seniors, get $14 a fortnight. More than that, how can the government allocate in their budgeting $17 billion for the banks but not put a single extra cent in Australia's aged-care system? That is unconscionable to me and, I think, to most reasonable Australians who respect their senior Australians.

The fine print of the budget has revealed trickery at the centre of its aged-care plan. It's slashing residential care and funding for nursing homes to try to fix the home-care crisis. The Prime Minister is simply giving with one hand and taking away with the other. What's worse, the government's con won't even come close to solving the crisis in home care. There are 100,000 senior Australians—or, as we heard the member for Mayo quote the minister responsible, 102,000 older Australians—still waiting for care. The Turnbull government has locked in a big-bank tax handout of $17 billion. It must hurt, if you live in a community like mine, to be a member of the government benches and continue to hear that reality.

This same government wants our tradies and nurses to work until they're 70. Forgive me for pointing out what's incredibly obvious, but this government is completely out of touch when it comes to senior Australians. I agree with the earlier speaker: this government needs to apologise for, once again, over-promising to senior Australians and then absolutely under-delivering. One constituent in my electorate, Rita Fisher, is currently on level 3 care. Rita has been approved for level 4 care but has been on the waiting list for two years, and counting. Rita has told me that she must pay out of her own pocket for level 4 services—that she has been approved for—as she waits. So she is paying as she waits, even though she's been approved for those services. This is completely unacceptable. We heard just before from the member for Mayo that the minister responsible, the member for Hasluck, says that the government doesn't have the money to do more. So the obvious question is: why does the government have the funds to allocate to tax cuts for the big banks when it can't look after our senior Australians?

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to condemn the Turnbull government for the crisis in home care which they have created by slashing funding for this very important service. These harsh cuts mean that older Australians often have to wait months and months to access desperately needed home-care packages. These packages provide vital assistance that enable our seniors to remain in their homes longer with effective support. There are currently more than 100,000 older Australians waiting for a home-care package for which they have already been approved. In my region, locals are constantly telling me they have to wait months and months to access these much needed packages, and they often just end up going without these services.

Despite this alarming figure, the Turnbull government continues with its inaction in the aged-care sector. It is truly extraordinary that, in the face of such a growing aged-care crisis, the government has failed to act. In an even crueller hoax, the Turnbull government has actually stripped funds from residential aged care in order to fund a very minimal number of aged-care packages—only 14,000 packages. That is a paltry number, considering the very dire need. These 14,000 new packages won't even come close to fixing the aged-care crisis. Taking money from one portion of the aged-care budget and then simply putting it in a different section doesn't actually address the problem. This reveals the dangerous and irrational approach this government has when it comes to the care of our older Australians.

In the last six months of 2017, the waitlist for home-care packages grew by 20,000 people. The fact is: older Australians deserve better. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and they deserve to be able to access services when they need them. Margot, a constituent in my electorate, still lives in her home and quite rightly wants to remain in her home with home-care help. Margot turned 99 in June this year and she is totally blind. She is currently receiving a care package at level 2. This funding provides her with two carers for three hours each per week to assist with her shopping, house cleaning and personal care. This level is clearly insufficient for her needs. Approximately eight months ago, Margot was assessed by ACAT, the Aged Care Assessment Team, as level 4, and she was placed on high priority, and she is still waiting today. After repeated requests for her to access level 4, she's been advised she's still high priority on the waiting list, but it could be six to 12 months before she actually receives it. So here is a woman in her 100th year who is blind and finds it hard to walk, and she's just told to wait. This wait is unacceptable. This situation is unacceptable. I call on the minister and the Turnbull government to address this desperate situation immediately and deliver those level 4 home-care packages now.

The crisis in home care shows how this government is out of touch and how fundamentally wrong all of their priorities actually are. Government is all about choices and priorities. In this instance, the Turnbull government has abandoned our older Australians and instead they've chosen to give the banks a $17 billion tax handout. They've put the banks above aged care. They've put the banks above health care. They've put the banks above our older Australians. In the regions, it's the National Party that puts the banks above local, regional and rural communities. How about this as a solution: instead of giving tax cuts to the banks, fund more home-care packages—fairly straightforward.

Australians know that the Turnbull government has abandoned so many people who have high aged-care needs. They can see that the government has left almost 300 older Australians on waiting lists for over two years. A further 636 older Australians have waited more than a year for care, and they currently have no care at all. There are thousands more getting less care than they actually need. As Ian Yates, the CEO of Council on the Ageing Australia, said:

It's absolutely clear the Government will have to bite the bullet and put extra resources into home care.

So I call on the government to act. Home-care packages make it easier for older Australians to remain in their homes and to keep living there. It's clear what needs to be done, and it's shameful this government has abandoned our older Australians. In fact, the Turnbull government should apologise to our older Australians and their concerned family and friends, and they should apologise to people like Margot for their failure to deliver much-needed home-care packages.

On this side, the Labor Party condemns this failure on behalf of all Australians. We are committed to holding this government to account when it comes to providing aged-care services. We won't stop until there's real action taken on home care. We won't stop until there is more funding delivered so that our older Australians can get the care and full services that they deserve. So we say to the Turnbull government: no more cuts and no more excuses. It's now time for action. Fix the crisis in our aged-care sector.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity to thank the member for Bass for raising this very important matter for debate this evening. I join with my colleagues in condemning the government for the way that they've handled the aged-care crisis that has occurred under their watch. We'll not let the government fool everyday Australians into believing that they care about our elderly. Time and time again, the government has shown no willingness to work with this side of the House to put the interests of older Australians at the front and centre of the debate. In fact, they've done the exact opposite. This government has played a hoax on the Australian people. They pretended to allocate more funding to aged care, but the fact is not an extra dollar was allocated to the aged-care system in this year's budget—not one extra dollar. How can the government find $80 billion of tax cuts for big business, including $17 billion for the big four banks—and the inquiry that's taking place at the moment is interesting—but can't find one single extra dollar to put into care for our older Australians?

Keep in mind that on top of this the Abbott-Turnbull governments have previously cut aged care, robbing the industry of billions of dollars over the past five years. The Health Services Union appropriately summed up the ramifications of the government's persistent attack on the aged-care sector in their submission to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport. They stated:

What is undisputed among providers, unions, consumer advocacy groups and residents is that cuts to aged care funding by consecutive federal governments are having a significant and adverse impact upon the provision of quality care to older Australians.

It's clear that in the build-up to the budget that the government's rhetoric around aged care certainly didn't match its final announcement. In the lead-up to the budget the government framed the message around aged care, particularly the support that will be given to older Australians choosing to stay in their own homes. In fact, in a doorstop only days before the Treasurer handed down the budget the Minister for Health said, 'It's going to be a very good budget for health and aged care in particular.' All they did in the budget was simply cut the money out of residential aged care to pay that money to home-care packages, therefore, there wasn't an extra dollar in it. In other words, Malcolm Turnbull was simply robbing Peter to pay Paul.

For what it's worth, the government won't even come close to resolving this aged-care crisis which has occurred under its watch. The funding is for just 14,000 new home-care packages over the next four years. That's nothing but a cruel hoax. The simple fact is, to put this in perspective, it's only 3,500 places a year. Frankly, that's not acceptable. It is insufficient to keep pace with current demand. We currently have more than 100,000 older Australians still waiting for approved home-care packages. What we know is that in the last six months of 2017 alone the waiting list for home care grew by a staggering 20,000 places. Once again this government has been caught overpromising and underdelivering for older Australians. The government's response to older Australians is an insult and does nothing to address the aged-care crisis which they have created. This has all occurred on their watch.

This is a government that has a proven track record in cutting funding and underinvesting in aged care. It has not shown much compassion for older Australians. We have a government that expects Australians to work until they're 70 and to pay more for their energy by ripping off the energy supplement to two million Australians—and that also includes 400,000 aged pensioners. We simply have a responsibility to ensure quality aged-care services and ensure that real and positive change occurs in this sector. If we can't positively resource the sector that looks after older Australians, Australians who have contributed so much to this country, then, collectively, we have failed.

On this note, I would call on the government to immediately address the home-care crisis. Our older Australians and their families cannot afford to wait any longer. This government must act and it must act now.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.