Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Franklin proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government's five years of failure on aged care.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we've seen in the five years of this government is its failure to deal with the reform that has been necessary in aged care. In fact, when this government called the royal commission, what it was actually admitting was that, after five years, it had failed and now needs a royal commission to solve this issue. The government has been sitting on a number of reports and recommendations. They've had three ministers for aged care. They've ripped out billions of dollars, and just a few weeks ago they said a royal commission was not necessary. In fact, when Labor said the aged-care system was in a crisis, they had a go at us for saying that. Clearly, things have changed. But what has changed, apart from the Prime Minister, is what the Australian public would like to know. This Prime Minister, who was then the Treasurer, ripped billions of dollars out of the aged-care budget for the Aged Care Funding Instrument. He can come in here and pretend it didn't happen, but it's in black and white in his own budget papers.

We know that those cuts occurred, the sector knows those cuts occurred, and we know that the funding per resident has been cut because of those changes. You cannot rip out billions of dollars and treat the aged-care budget like an ATM over three budgets in five years under three ministers and not expect the situation to get worse. Surely somebody on that side at some point thought: 'This cannot continue. We cannot keep doing this.' But the minister, just a few weeks ago, said that a royal commission was not necessary, and then it was called on the weekend, the day before the ABC Four Cornersprogram. And you wonder why the Australian public sits back and says: 'Well, what's change? Why do we need to know this?'

Then we had the revelation from the minister today that it has all happened because of one quality agency report that we are not allowed to see. You called a royal commission due to a report that you won't table or share with the Australian public. That is what you are saying. After sitting on all these reports, after all these cuts, after three ministers you call a royal commission into the system that you have been in charge of for five years in government, and you cannot properly explain to the Australian public why. Just a few weeks ago you said it was not necessary; the Australian public need to know what exactly has changed.

This royal commission is important and we absolutely support it. We want older Australians to have the dignity and support they need. We want them to be able to make choices about how they live their lives. We want the workers in the system to be appropriately paid and valued. We know the workforce has to increase threefold. We know we need a million workers in the system. How are we going to attract them when we see stories like on Four Corners where well-meaning, terribly overworked aged-care workers are so stressed by their jobs that they go to the ABC and talk about how bad the system is?

The minister says he has been to all of these aged-care facilities, has spoken to all these families and is aware of all these incidents. I am too. We all are. We have been talking about these issues for a long time. You have recommendations galore from reports, reviews and inquiries saying what is broken and what needs to be fixed. We need to get on with fixing it. The Australian public and older Australians cannot wait until the end of the royal commission to deal with some of these issues. I know the minister has legislation in the parliament today for the new agency, and we do support that, but it has taken a very long time. From the day the government got the Carnell-Paterson report it has been almost a year to when that legislation has been brought into this parliament. If every recommendation takes almost a year to implement, this is going to take a very long time.

We need a proper royal commission and a discussion with the Australian public. I understand that the terms of reference are not yet finalised. We want the terms of reference to look at the impact of the cuts to aged care, to ACFI, to look at the care requirements of the residents and to look at what the workforce are paid, their qualifications and the workforce regulations, but we also need a system where aged-care workers, their families and their friends feel confident to make complaints without fear of repercussion and know that they get fixed.

One of the most remarkable things that distressed me about last night's Four Corners show—and it was very distressing for anybody who watched it—was to hear that these complaints had been made to providers and that nothing was remedied or changed. If the minister knew about what happened on Four Cornersand heard about other incidents and situations, why did it take so long to admit that the system is in crisis, why did it take so long to call a royal commission and why, after five years, do we now have a royal commission? Why has it taken five years of recommendations, reports and inquiries—and three ministers' cuts—for the government to finally call a royal commission? I don't think the Australian public believe a minister who says, 'It was all in this one report that I've had only for the last couple of weeks since I said no royal commission was necessary.' I mean, seriously?

The Prime Minister denies that there were cuts, black and white, almost $2 billion. The sector is saying it's actually $3 billion, but we're not going to argue about whether it's $2 billion or $3 billion; the point is that billions of dollars have come out of the direct care of older Australians. That is clearly having an impact. What is the government going to do about that? Are they going to sit and wait for two years for recommendations from the royal commission before they do anything? Is that what's going to happen?

We've got a home care wait list. The government sat on the data for months and did not release it with the Braddon by-election. We know there are 108,000 Australians sitting on that wait list, waiting for care today. We had the Prime Minister and the minister continue to talk about choice and about supporting people at home. We all support that. That's what the Living Longer Living Better reforms were all about. They had bipartisan support. But how do you have choice when you're placed on a waiting list for two years? You don't have a choice. If anything happens, you end up in residential care or in a hospital. That's what actually happens. You don't get a choice at all. How are we going to deal with 108,000 people currently on the waiting list? In fact, the June quarter data is overdue. We don't have it. When is the government going to release it?

We need transparency. If you want a royal commission that actually looks at all the facts, how about some transparency? How about you actually tell us how many people today are on that waiting list? How about you actually tell us what people are being funded for per resident in residential care today? Did that ACFI cut have an impact? Of course it did. It's a cut of around 11 per cent per resident, $6,500 on average per resident, in money available for care. That is the reality. When 70 to 80 per cent of the funding in aged care goes towards staffing, that is a direct cut to staff available to care for people. That's what it is. The government knows it. The Prime Minister can try to pretend all he likes that this did not happen when he was Treasurer, but it's in his own budget papers. It's in black and white. I don't know how many times we have to read it out. I don't know how many times the sector has to say it was real for people to understand and for the government to accept that this has had an impact on the aged care that Australians are receiving today. You cannot continue to pretend that it did not have an impact. You cannot. If you are really serious about a royal commission and fixing things for older Australians, their loved ones and their families, you really need to fess up about what's going on. To just say, 'There's a report we've called a royal commission on, but we're not going to share it or table it,' is quite outrageous. The Australian public deserve better.

We've got legislation coming into the parliament this afternoon that I will be talking on. It is actually joining up the quality agency and the complaints commission. I thank the minister for the briefing that I received on that, but I've asked the department and the minister: can the commissioner actually arbitrate on complaints when people make them? Are people actually protected when they make a complaint? Can we actually improve the system? Are there any penalties payable for providers who do the wrong thing, apart from accreditation failures? So much more needs to be done. We cannot wait two years for the end of a royal commission for it to be fixed. The system is in crisis. Labor have been saying it's in crisis, and the government criticised us for it. Now there's a royal commission. We want action today. (Time expired)

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Franklin, you talk about reduction in funding. When we came to government, Labor had invested $13.1 billion in aged care. Over the forward estimates, that increased to $18.6 billion, and in the forward years, the next four years, that will become $23.6 billion. We are increasing it, and we have been increasing it, by $1 billion a year. It is a significant increase. Home care packages were not known under the Labor government, because the packages were provided to the aged-care providers, who had lists of people, and those lists were not known definitively. When I first came into my seat, I asked aged-care providers how many people were on their lists. The numbers were significant, and people were dying on those lists. On 27 February last year, we moved to having a national listing so that we had an understanding of the number of people who required packages who were receiving them. Whilst the numbers have increased, we also have increased our commitment, raising the number from 87,000 to 151,000 over the forward estimates. We also provided additional funding through MYEFO to create immediately 6,000 level 4 packages, and we increased it in the subsequent budget by another 14,000.

I want to say that we are committed to providing older Australians with access to care that supports their dignity and recognises the contribution that they have made to our society. Australians are living longer and improvements to health mean they are more likely to remain active for longer. The 2015 Intergenerational report identified that people aged over 85, the group most likely to need aged care, will be the fastest growing group in Australia over the next 40 years. There will also be an increasing number of people with dementia who need specialised care and support and increasingly people who use their aged-care services will want to be cared for in their own homes.

The member made a comment that I changed my mind. Yes, I did. I did based on evidence, and that evidence wasn't just a set of figures. It was also photographic evidence that I'm not prepared to table, because it goes to individuals whose level of care within aged-care facilities begs the question of what it was that resulted in what I saw in those images. In talking through and considering other elements of what I have at my disposal as a minister—in my visits to aged care and in meeting with Noleen Hausler, sitting with her and watching five video clips—I have for some time been considering the way in which we tighten the quality standards that are absolutely critical to ensuring that people are cared for.

Whilst five years seems a long time, when you look back at the Productivity Commission report, when that was tabled, the period of turning the action into legislation was important in the way it was designed. It is no different to the Carnell-Patterson report, from which we put into place a number of measures that are absolutely critical. But in creating the commission, there was a need to ensure that those very issues of sanctions and responsibility for the end-decision point, around the way in which you would make a decision about a provider and their failure, came into play. Since the Oakden inquiry, 14 aged-care providers have been sanctioned. Four no longer exist because they did not meet the standards that were required under the existing act.

What's important is that we've not fallen asleep in dealing with the issues in aged care. I know that each time I've been into an aged care facility and each time I have talked to all of the relevant elements that make up the responsibility in government for aged care, there have been reactions. Together, the Prime Minister and I have been looking closely at aged care for almost a year. A year ago, I had a discussion about the need to consider that we as a society are living from zero to 100. Today the Prime Minister indicated the number of Australians who will live to over 100. That has policy implications on many fronts, not just in aged care. Whilst I'm focused on aged care, there are other matters in terms of enabling Australians to have better choices and to live longer lives.

This has been carefully considered; I have been closely monitoring reports and reviews and have been acutely aware of the numbers. There is mounting evidence that despite wide-ranging reforms and annual funding increases, there continues to be significant incidents of completely unacceptable, substandard care which must be addressed. In the past two years, complaints have risen 47 per cent from 3,211 to 4,315. In the past year, with the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, unannounced review audits are up 323 per cent. Serious risks were found to be up 177 per cent. Revoked accreditations have tripled. Almost one home a month have had their accreditation revoked since the Oakden report on May 2017. In the past year, referrals to the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency from the Department of Health are up 188 per cent. Notices of quality non-compliance are up 185 per cent. Sanctions imposed are up 136 per cent. Our rigorous reform program will continue as the royal commission goes about its work.

Immediately after Oakden, we commissioned the Review of national aged care quality regulatory processes. We have actioned the 10 recommendations, including unannounced quality audits and the creation of the new tough cop on the beat, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. We have worked through the 2017 legislative review of aged care and responded in the 2018 budget with the More Choices for A Longer Life Package, supporting active ageing and providing an extra $1.6 billion for home care. We have legislated new aged-care quality standards, the first upgrade in 20 years. Just last week, we released Australia's first aged-care workforce strategy to rapidly grow the professional-care workforce.

I want to acknowledge the contribution that workers in aged care make. We stand with all Australians in supporting the overwhelming majority of the nation's more than 2,700 aged-care homes who provide quality care. We applaud the more than 360,000 dedicated staff who provide care of such high quality, many of whom have dedicated their entire careers to supporting our elderly and most vulnerable. We also applaud the world-class care and culture of continuous improvement implemented by aged-care providers across the nation. But, like all Australians, we cannot, and will not, accept instances of poor quality or unsafe care. The aged-care system must be prepared for a major increase in demand, with the number of senior Australians requiring aged-care services projected to reach 3.5 million by 2050. The number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to more than one million by mid-century. Despite the $5 billion aged-care boost announced in the recent federal budget, there are concerns that funding and regulatory arrangements for the sector will not be sustainable and require expansion.

Our focus on the needs of senior Australians has not diminished. We will continue to ensure that the work that we do and we've continued in conjunction with the aged-care sector—the providers, the department, all key stakeholders, the carers and the Older Persons Advocacy Network—will be done in tandem together to make sure that what is provided is of quality and that where there is risk it will be called out. I would encourage staff to use the 1800550552 number to lodge their concerns. It is confidential and we've had staff ring that number. The agencies shown in Four Corners last night will receive a visit from the relevant agencies to follow up on the issues raised in the Four Corners program. That will occur this week. I will continue to work with our government to make sure that the matters shown in Four Corners are addressed. I rang Four Corners after the program last night and acknowledged that their stories provided insight into those matters that a quality agency would not have seen—particularly the night-time events—and that the staff, if they ring, will enable the quality agency to become involved. (Time expired)

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Make no mistake, Labor supports the call—a somewhat belated call, I might add—for a royal commission into aged care by the government after five long years of falling asleep at the wheel. There has been ample opportunity for the government to respond to more than a dozen reports and reviews that sit on the minister's desk. Time and time again members on this side of the House have raised absolutely critical aged-care issues in this parliament. I know this because I've travelled with my colleague Dr Mike Freelander, the member for Macarthur, to many parts of our country. I can see here the member for Dobell from the Central Coast, who, like the member for Macquarie next her, has raised consistent issues around access to aged care and services in her region. We've held round tables in Katoomba and the seat of Dobell alike. Indeed, the member for Herbert, sitting behind me, Cathy O'Toole, and I have been to Townsville. Each and every time, what Australian men and women have to say to us is the same: that their capacity to navigate their way around this government's My Aged Care website is extremely limited. If they are without family or friends to support them, they haven't got a hope in hell of figuring out how to access half these services.

What else did they raise with us in these round tables? Well, they said that despite applying and being found eligible for in-home care packages, the packages are not there to access. Indeed, I raised in this parliament the case of a constituent in my own electorate of Newcastle whose mother had made application, had been found eligible for an in-home package and received a letter to say, 'Congratulations: you're successful in your level 3 package'—eight months after she was deceased. That was 12 months after she first applied. We heard similar stories from the people of Townsville. These are not one-off stories. These are stories that you will hear if you bother to ask the questions of Australian men and women. You just have to ask and be prepared to listen. As distressing, as sickening as those stories on Four Corners last night were, they were not surprising. None of us on this side of the House thought they were surprising. We were disgusted, yes. They were sickening, yes. And we were feeling every moment of the way for those families, for the staff working there. But it was not surprising. You would have to be deaf and blind to not hear the Australian people crying out for support in aged care, for the crisis that is in aged care in Australia.

The Minister got it terribly wrong when he accused Labor of scaremongering on this a few weeks ago. He got it very, very wrong. It was a gross overreach on the government's part. It's good that they have belatedly come to the realisation that nothing short of a royal commission is deserved in order to get to the bottom of the gross inequities that exist in aged care, the appalling rates of pay for the women—and it is predominantly women working in these caring roles in these facilities—and the fact that 108,000 older Australians, and it's growing, are on a waitlist to access in-home care packages but haven't got a hope in hell in accessing those. The minister was right earlier in his speech when he said that Australians are dying waiting for this in-home package. We've all got examples that we can bring to the table of that. Australians are dying.

Well, do you know what, Minister, and this government? You don't have to wait for a royal commission to do something about this. Release those in-home packages now. Stop stumping up your tax breaks to the big end of town and put that money where it's needed and where it deserves to be spent. Older Australians do not have to wait for you to have a royal commission so you can act. You need to drive down those waitlists and you need to do it now.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Assistant Minister for Children and Families) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank those opposite for raising this matter of public importance today on aged care, because it is quite clear that the past five years have been anything but a failure. In fact, the past five years have been a progressive march towards a better future for our elderly, whether at home or in care. We have a royal commission, but we will continue to work to help these people.

The other side doesn't like to admit this, but the Prime Minister's announcement to launch a royal commission into the aged-care sector is something they wished they'd come up with first. Now they have proved that they will make anything up in order to discredit what is a sensible and pragmatic approach to an industry that operates to care for our most vulnerable. We are abundantly aware of the fact that the vast majority of aged-care centres and the vast majority of those who work in the sector do a sterling job. Their work is tireless, and we quite honestly salute them for it. There is a problem in the industry, though, and for the sake of those who do a great job we must act against those who do not.

The playbook from the union-bred, union-fed and union-led opposition is now totally predictable. When faced with a national problem, they don't find out the cause, because they arrogantly think they already know the cause. Instead, they perform a campaign based on their preconceived ideas of how this problem can fit the union agenda. Step 1 of this campaign is to pretend all problems are because the government cut funding. Don't worry about whether we actually did or not. We have this week, of course, seen those opposite implement trusty step number 1, with members opposite lining up to take pot shots at alleged defunding of the aged-care sector. Their claims, as predictable as they were, have all been found out to be fake news. Just this morning, a fact check by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Eryk Bagshaw highlighted:

The Coalition has increased funding to aged care in dollar terms, as a proportion of all government expenses and as a fraction of the economy …

This leaves very little wriggle room for the bleats from those opposite about funding cuts. The truth is the coalition continues to grow aged-care funding, just as we do for our schools and our hospitals, something only possible while the economy is also growing.

Funding is only a small aspect of what is going on for a policy area, and I am confident that we are addressing in a methodical manner the issues that have our elderly at risk in our places of care. Immediately after the Oakden disaster was uncovered, we commissioned the Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes. We took the review seriously and have actioned all 10 recommendations, especially the delivery of a new tough cop on the beat: the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. For the first time in 20 years we have legislated for new aged-care quality standards.

We are doing these things and so much more, while those opposite can only jeer and propose tax increases for our elderly. By attacking imputation credits, the opposition place themselves squarely in the pockets of many of our fellow Australians who simply don't have extra money to give. This is a policy that has been proven to affect those on a low income far more than those on a high income. I for one stand with our self-funded retirees in defending their hard-earned money. I, like many, have been rather intrigued to see those opposite this week throwing the usual lies and misinformation around following the Prime Minister's announcement. One expects, in the hurly-burly of politics, one side to disagree with the other, but I think the Australian people hold a higher standard than to be lied to.

The truth is we take the health and welfare of our older Australians absolutely seriously. Just recently, I was proud to be able to deliver $1.2 million to Mercy Health and Aged Care in Rockhampton to help them expand their Bethany aged-care facility to encompass a new community centre. This project is all about making it easier for elderly residents in Bethany to interact with younger generations in a shared space housing extra services. This makes a lot of sense to anyone whose loved ones have ended up in a home and felt cut off from the outside world.. Re-establishing this connection will promise to make life more enjoyable and help keep older minds sharp. This is a great measure, and so are the myriad of other measures Minister Wyatt and the government are implementing, despite protests from across the aisle. Once again we see an issue we as the federal government wish to properly address, and the naysayer attitude of those opposite comes to the fore. Labor's spinning every false yarn under the sun to justify claims we are not doing our job. It's not going to work, because the Australian people are sick and tired of that. (Time expired)

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Forgive me, but can I just say what a completely Pavlovian display I have heard from those opposite. They are spouting things they don't understand and know nothing about, as was seen with their 'hands up' display in question time today and now with their responses to the MPI.

Australia is witnessing an aged-care crisis brought on by this government's five years of failures in aged care. This isn't a crisis that occurred overnight or an issue that has only recently come to light with some investigative journalism. We on this side of the chamber have been identifying issues in the system for years. It has been apparent to all of us on this side that the sector is in crisis and has been in dire need of attention from the government for years and years. Time and time again, though, our concerns have fallen on deaf ears. It now appear that the Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, and his coalition government will only begin to pay the sector some attention because not to do so would be politically unpopular and denying the undeniable.

For years now, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison coalition circus has been putting aged care in the too-hard basket. Forgive me if I don't applaud the government on their recent epiphany. It's come far too late. It is somewhat ironic that I was recently rereading the book of Awakenings by the great British neurologist Oliver Sacks about giving L-DOPA to those suffering from encephalitis lethargica after the influenza epidemic at the turn of the 20th century. If anything, the government's sudden awakening proves that it is those opposite who have been playing politics with aged care. They've denied all responsibility for this for five years and are now trying to appear proactive at a time politically convenient in their electoral cycle.

I am certainly not the most political person in the building. I've had my career and I'm not blinded by ambition. I am simply here to stick up for the families of Macarthur—indeed, for families around the country—and to try to secure better outcomes for our community. I'm not here to take cheap shots, but this coalition government is a completely shambles, particularly when it comes to aged care. They've had some five years to do good work in the aged-care field and they've failed at every opportunity. The bloke they've appointed their lord and saviour in this government's dying days is the one who is responsible for this predicament. The present Prime Minister, as I've already stated, was the architect of some truly horrendous cuts to aged care when he was the Treasurer. Older Australians deserve much better than a Prime Minister who does not understand aged care and then lies to them about it.

I have heard truly harrowing stories from constituents in my electorate and from electorates around the country—including the electorates of Dobell, Macquarie and Herbert. The waiting list for high-level aged-care packages continues to increase and all the government can do is try to hide the data. Again, we've been saying this for some time. Hardworking local members, senators and local candidates have been receiving this feedback on the ground right across the country. We've tried time and time again to get information from the government on this state of affairs and each time to no avail.

It is time the Liberals and the Nationals started doing better in this critical area of policy. Far too many older Australians living across the country are waiting for a package and the care they need, and some will die without getting it. All the while, the government continue to prove they are inept. I must stress that after five years in government every one of those opposite must accept some responsibility for what is happening today in the aged-care system. I've heard so much evidence, from every part of the aged-care system and from every part of the country that I've visited, about the need for improvements in staffing levels, pain management, dementia care, wound care, nutrition, staff training, medication control, employment of registered nurses and access, in particular, to general practitioners. I want to stress that I believe our aged-care nurses and workers provide excellent care, but they are underresourced and underpaid.

My only concern is that the royal commission may delay urgently needed reforms. Many people in aged care are extremely vulnerable. They often have very short life expectancies and deserve to be kept as comfortable as they possibly can be. We have heard horrific stories of what has happened in a poorly resourced aged-care system. In particular, we've seen people dying at home without getting the care they so desperately need. We should not delay urgently needed reforms and we must act now to protect our most vulnerable. (Time expired)

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud of the action of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care and our government to launch the royal commission into aged care, particularly when I hear some of the things I've heard from a number of my constituents and when I see some of the things like we saw on the Four Corners report the other night. I know from my own family's experience with my nanna some of the many issues across both the retirement village sector and the aged-care sector. I wish she had the experience of some of the great places in my electorate, like the Village Baxter in Frankston, which under a very strong model and management has shown an ability to show true care to residents. There are many other positive examples in the aged-care sector.

I thank the minister as well for coming down to run an aged-care forum in my electorate to listen to concerns in my electorate and for also twice now visiting the Village Baxter to see the wonderful model they have. Having helped my own mother-in-law at nursing home visits in Sydney over a number of years when she visited many elderly residents who often did not have immediate family to visit them on a regular basis or at all, I know some of the issues and some of the loneliness experienced by many people in the aged-care sector.

I remember a particular lady, Elizabeth, who, from my recollection, was about 99 years old at the time and had no family at all—no kids, no grandkids, no great-grandkids. I remember my mother-in-law and I going to visit her. My mother-in-law would take her out to go shopping and everywhere else to get her out and about. She really appreciated that connection that was made, which she wouldn't have had, given that she didn't have family. I also remember her making little scarfs, one of which I was able to give to my little daughter when she was born. Unfortunately, Elizabeth has passed on now, but she's one example of the many people in our aged-care sector who experience not only loneliness but also, in the wider sector, the bad experiences people have had.

I've listened to those opposite, and I wish that they would take a bipartisan approach to this issue instead of running matters of public importance like this, referring to 'The government's five years of failure on aged care'. I remember hearing, when Labor was in government over a six-year period, these very same issues that we are hearing now, and they didn't launch a royal commission as we have done. But I know that, across all governments, we want the best for our parents, our grandparents and our great-grandparents. So let's not play politics over this important issue of aged care. Let's work together to continue not only to resolve the issues as we've been doing—and as, I'm sure, Labor were concentrating on doing when they were in government—but to look even further into the things we need to do in this sector, as we will do through this royal commission.

As the royal commission goes about its work, our rigorous reform program continues. We commissioned, for example, the Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes because we know about these issues, as, I'm sure, Labor did when they were in government during the six years between 2007 and 2013. And we have been taking action while, at the same time, calling for a royal commission to dig even deeper into the issues facing the sector. For example, we've actioned the 10 recommendations, including quality audits and creating the new tough cop on the beat—the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. We have worked through the 2017 Legislated Review of Aged Care and responded in the 2018 budget with the More Choices for a Longer Life package, supporting active ageing and providing an extra $1.6 billion for home care. We have legislated for new aged-care quality standards—the first upgrade in 20 years. Just last week, we released Australia's first Aged Care Workforce Strategy to rapidly grow the professional care workforce, and we've greatly increased our home care packages. We stand with all Australians in supporting the overwhelming majority of the nation's more than 2,700 aged-care homes that provide quality care. There are many dedicated staff—over 360,000—who do a great job, but we need to tackle the issues facing the sector as we are doing through the royal commission, and I call for a bipartisan approach to the aged-care sector.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we go again talking about an issue that should have been fixed months and months ago. We have had five years of this government with lots and lots of reports trying to implement a whole range of things through the Living Longer Living Better reforms of the past five years. And what do we see? Absolutely zero. What we've seen is a government scrambling for a royal commission—and I have to say that we do support the royal commission—to see what they can do, when the reality is that they should have done something by now. They've had five years in government. This is an issue that affects all of us in our electorates and in our constituencies. Constituents come to visit us to talk about being on aged-care packages and being on waiting lists or wanting to get into a facility to be looked after. We get these queries regularly, weekly, continually. I'm sure members on the government side get the same inquiries. The reality is that you can't just cut $2 billion out of the aged-care sector and not expect that to have an impact on our elderly Australians, and that's exactly what's happening and what it's doing. They can deny it and they can dress it up in any way they like, but the reality is there in the budget papers of 2016, which say a $1.2 billion reduction. On top of that, there have been other cuts. As we heard the member for Franklin say earlier, that equates to each resident receiving about 11.5 per cent per less care than they were a few years ago. That cut has had an impact on the care of our elderly Australians. It has had an impact on the way that we look after them. It has had an impact on their health. It has had an impact on their families. It has had an impact on their carers. And what do the government do? They throw up their hands and say: 'We're tackling it. We're looking at it.'

I heard the minister earlier in question time when he was asked about this particular issue. He mentioned that I've been working with him on a whole range of queries that we've been sending to his office. Yes, we have, and he has responded, but, unfortunately, the responses are all form letters written by some bureaucrat that absolutely doesn't understand the issue that's sitting in a corner in the department. We have people on waiting lists. Over 100,000 Australians are waiting for care packages—people that should be having the care that they require—and another 54,000-odd have no care package at all. Some of them get care packages, but not the high-level ones that are required. Have a guess what? Those people deteriorate, their carers deteriorate and they end up in hospitals, costing the government much, must have more than it would have if we provided the proper care. How can you say that you're treating older Australians with dignity when more than 100,000 of them are waiting for care—and that list is growing, from memory, at approximately 26,000 per quarter. While you're plugging a hole here, a great big gush is opening up on the other end, and we're still not dealing with it. We're still not looking after these people. As I've said so many times here, our older Australians built this nation; built the foundations on which we enjoy this wonderful country today.

We've had three different aged-care ministers across the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, who have had carriage of the Living Longer Living Better reforms for five whole years but have absolutely failed to make little, if any, real reform whatsoever across the Ageing portfolio. We've had more than a dozen reviews, we've had reports and we've had inquiries—some of them are still sitting in the minister's desk collecting dust without being actioned—yet we were told two weeks ago that we don't require a royal commission, that it wouldn't do anything and that we should not look in that direction. Then, two weeks later, they've changed their mind and they're telling us that we now require a royal commission. Tell us what's in the report that has made you want a royal commission. Tell us what's in there. Be honest with the Australian public. Be honest with our older Australians, who have done so much for this nation and deserve dignity in their twilight years.

Unfortunately, like many other things in this place with this current government, the focus is on the rich end of town, where we're giving billions of dollars of tax cuts and billions and billions to multinationals. But what we're doing in our aged-care sector is taking money away. Earlier, someone on the other side said that they've increased the funding, but that is not correct. (Time expired)

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Aged care is fast becoming one of the most important policy areas faced by the nation. Australians have enjoyed unprecedented extensions of their lifespans over the past few decades. This has created challenges, as more and more people require care in their old age. We are fortunate to have the Honourable Ken Wyatt as our Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, a man of great integrity. The minister is absolutely dedicated to the cause of improving aged care.

It is also an area of great interest for me. Last year on my Bennelong 100-kay walk for the Leukaemia Foundation I not only visited every school and most local shops in the electorate but also visited many local aged-care facilitates. In fact, Minister Wyatt joined me for a day on my walk for the charity—it's probably what did his knee in—and accompanied me on visits to local aged-care providers. BaptistCare Shalom Aged Care Centre, St Catherine's Aged Care Services, Southern Cross Care Marsfield Residential Aged Care and Willandra Village were visited. Ken engaged with the residents and listened to them intently, as he does on all of his visits to providers that he has completed over the past few years.

After these visits he then fronted an aged-care forum in Ryde that I'd organised for the local community. He provided representatives from DHS and the Department of Health for this forum as well. It was a robust forum, with full feedback provided to Ken by those present. He engaged with my local community on this important issue and did not try to avoid any difficult question. Ken and I are committed to listening to the aged-care community and improving their lot as much as we can. Ken is not interested in playing politics with aged-care residents. He doesn't want to score political points with the challenges of improving aged care; he is simply committed to improvement of aged care. Through his many interactions, he has developed and delivered excellent policies that have improved the lives of many senior Australians. He's also received feedback on some terrible situations regarding the provision of care in aged-care facilities.

Ken Wyatt is not afraid of the truth. He wants the entire unvarnished truth. That is why the government has commissioned a royal commission into aged care. This is not about covering up anything. This is about exposing everything so that he, so that we, hopefully in a bipartisan way, can improve the system for all Australians, because improvement is critical. The numbers involved are staggering. The 2015 Intergenerational report identified that people aged over 85, the group most likely to need aged care, will be the fastest-growing group in Australia over the next 40 years, with the number of senior Australians who require aged-care services projected to reach 3.5 million by 2050. The number of people living with dementia is expected to increase to more than one million by mid-century. And it has been estimated that the aged-care workforce will need to grow from around 366,000 today to 980,000 by 2050.

There are huge issues and challenges involved in addressing the aged-care sector. The government is committed to seeing the sector improve, led by the most committed aged-care minister I have witnessed in the eight years that I've been here in this place. This royal commission is an opportunity for all sides of politics to gain the facts from which better policies can be developed to improve the lives of older Australians. This vulnerable community of elderly and frail Australians deserves better than to seemingly be used as a political football by the mover of this MPI motion. I look forward to working further on aged care with this committed minister. I look forward to reading the recommendations of the royal commission and then working with all sides of politics to make the system better.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The crisis in aged care is shameful. Aged care is a particular concern in my community, where one in five people is aged over 65. Labor supports a royal commission, but after five years the government must accept responsibility for what is happening right now in aged care across Australia. Older Australians can't wait until the royal commission reports before government acts. I'm speaking here today as a pharmacist, as a former mental health worker and as a daughter. I want peoples' experience in the future to be better than that of my father, who lived with younger-onset dementia. The government and this new Prime Minister must take responsibility for the cuts—almost $2 billion in cuts. You can't rip almost $2 billion out of an aged-care system over five years without it having an impact on the quality of care.

Central to the quality of care in aged care are the aged-care workforce—dedicated, hardworking, capable people working in very difficult circumstances, underresourced and underpaid. The government's cuts are leading to cuts in this workforce. Because of the government's aged-care funding freeze, workers in aged-care facilities in my electorate are having their hours cut. I've been told that around 800 hours per fortnight have been cut from rosters at the Reynolds Court aged-care facility in Bateau Bay, the equivalent of around 10 full-time staff. I've also been told of redundancies and cuts to rosters at the Japara aged-care facility in Wyong—around 375 hours cut in AIN nursing hours per week as a direct result of the government's cuts.

We are seeing cuts in the aged-care workforce right now in regional Australia. One worker who has been at the centre for more than a decade and working in the sector for more than 25 years told me her shifts were cut by around 10 hours per fortnight. She is a full-time carer. What effect will this have on her and her family? These cuts to shifts and services are as predictable as they are devastating. We must do better. How can we attract and maintain quality staff in the sector under these conditions? Jobs in aged care matter, and the wages and conditions of workers in aged care matter.

I'll now turn to home care packages. There are now more than 108,000 people on the home care package waiting list, including 88,000 people with high needs, many living, as my dad did, with dementia. In my community there are around 770 people waiting right now for home care packages. Three-quarters of them have high needs and are waiting for level 4 packages.

I went and visited Tom. Tom had a stroke about four months ago, and his family were told there was a small window where intensive therapy could have a major impact on his wellbeing. He was sent home from hospital with half an hour of physio and half an hour of OT per week. I met the physio. She was doing a great job, but there was barely enough in-home care to help with showering and some respite for his wife, Coral, to do the shopping. Coral has her own health issues, including a shoulder injury, and is struggling to care for Tom. Tom has been approved for a level 4 package, but, like so many others, he's now waiting to access his care, and he's only considered a medium priority. Tom is eligible, and his medical specialists know that, the more care he gets right now, the better he will be for the rest of his life. He shouldn't have to wait. He can't wait. His family can't wait.

It always strikes me as well that one of the aspects of problems in the aged-care sector is how disproportionately these problems affect women. Women outnumber men in every aged-care program. Around two in three people accessing aged-care services are women. Around 67 per cent of older Australians receiving home care packages are women. The aged-care workforce is predominantly female: 87 per cent of aged-care workers are women. The task of caring for older Australians and family members, often while they wait longer than they need to and longer than they should for aged care, falls predominantly to women. I can't help wondering if the government's failure to properly fund quality aged care and to ensure aged care workers are paid decent wages and properly resourced to support a family member caring for aged relatives is in part because these problems are predominantly women's problems. This government seems to have a problem with women.

It must change. There is a crisis in aged care. People like Tom and Coral can't wait. People post strokes can't wait for the intervention that they need, which will give them the quality of life that they deserve. Our aged-care system is in crisis. It is shameful: $2 billion of cuts from this Prime Minister, and then belatedly calling a royal commission. This is urgent. The government must act now on the information that they have about the crisis in aged care.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I say to those opposite: is there anything that they won't politicise? I note the contribution of the previous speaker, and they are the facts: there are more women in aged care. But that is because, quite simply, they live longer than men on average. That is just a statement of fact. So there will be more people in aged care who are female, because they live longer than men on average. That is just pretty straightforward. On all of these claims, once again, if we talk to the opposition, up is down, left is right, everything is incorrect and it's all a cut, cut, cut. I'll go to a quote on 17 September from that great supporter of the coalition at crikey.com, Bernard Keane, who I'm sure you've heard of, Mr Deputy Speaker. I quote from Mr Keane's article:

The claim that the Coalition cut funding from aged care is a bald-faced lie …

This is not someone who is in this chamber. It's not someone who writes the budget. It is quite simply someone in the media who put out a statement. I've got to say Mr Keane has probably not been that strong in his support for government positions before, but that is the quote:

The claim that the Coalition cut funding from aged care is a bald-faced lie …

So, once again, we have those on the opposite side out there making things up.

Mr Deputy Speaker, as you know, all politics is local. In my electorate of Hinkler, between Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, including the good burghers of Childers, Woodgate and everywhere in between, we have one of the largest percentages of elderly people in the country. As at March 2018, 27,738 people were on the age pension in Hinkler and 47,506 have a pensioner concession card out of roughly 104,000 voters. That is a substantial amount of the population. Why are they there? They are there for a few reasons. The first one is it is a fantastic place to retire. It really is. Housing is affordable and the weather is wonderful, with an average temperature of 25 degrees. You can live at the beach. There are all sorts of facilities, particularly medical and aged care.

One of the issues that's been raised with me a number of times over the years—it was very bad about three years ago and it is very bad again now—is the wait time for ACAT assessments. The federal government funds ACAT assessments through the state and the state coordinates the resources that deliver ACAT assessments. The wait times for ACAT assessments are once again unacceptable.

It seems to me that if you live in the city you get looked after by the Queensland Labor government, but if you live in the regions you wait months for your ACAT assessment. I find that unacceptable. I've called for it before and I'll call for it again. They need to provide sufficient resources into the regions—

Dr Leigh interjecting—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fraser is warned.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Department of Health and the Office of the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner held two aged-care forums in Bundaberg last month. We had around 100 people attend each session. There was one for consumers and one for aged-care providers. The reason for that was very straightforward. There were some concerns locally and we want to be able to deliver the facts. I'd say that this is one of the reasons that there is a royal commission, because it will be about the facts. It won't be about a union campaign; it will be about the reality of aged care in this country, what its needs are going forward and what is being delivered right now.

I had a meeting with a constituent some time ago and I gave them an undertaking that I would maintain their confidence, which I will and continue to do so. He was very concerned about his father, who was in an aged-care facility. As a result of that meeting, I met with Minister Wyatt and we arranged one of the first unannounced visits to an aged-care facility in Australia. As a result of that, there were issues to be addressed, and those issues are being addressed.

I want to give a shout-out to those people who are working in the sector. These are good, honest and hardworking people. They are good, honest and hardworking people who continue to do a fantastic job. Not all aged-care facilities have issues which have been identified in the media in recent days. In fact, there are some which are fantastic.

In terms of reductions, this is what we've been doing: in 2014, an additional 126 residential care places and 57 home care packages in my electorate; in 2016, 278 residential care places; in 2017, 174 additional residential care places. Last time I checked, that's an increase. It's not what's being put forward by those opposite. That is an increase and these facilities are first class, particularly the two new facilities in Hervey Bay, one of which looks just like you're stepping onto a cruise ship. There are good facilities available and there are great people who are staffing them, and I congratulate them on the work they do.