Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to speak in support for older Australians, senior Australians, at any time in this House, and I'm sure every member of this House agrees that it's always a very significant topic to address. I rise to comment on the motion and the issues raised by the member for Parramatta and, like others, I draw on personal experience. I'm of a generation where I can recall as a child seeing my late grandmother, Kathleen McVeigh, remain in her own home right up until her passing, almost 30 years ago. She remained there with the great assistance of my aunty, Betty Peters, who lived not far down the road. The fact is that her remaining in her own home up until her passing was a significant part of the enjoyment of her latter years and that of the rest of the family.

I'm at the age where I look, as so many do, towards the future residential situation for my own parents and for my mother-in-law. These are important issues for all members in this House to consider. We all have personal experience. In my case, Toowoomba, my home city, being the biggest inland private sector city in this country, represents a centre that is quite popular for those of advancing years—retirees—either locals or others from across northern inland New South Wales and southern inland Queensland, so this is a very important topic.

I'm pleased the Morrison government is so focused on investments in home care that aim to reduce the time taken for people to receive the support that they are assessed for. There's a lot of work being done. We need to look at the record. The national prioritisation list, as part of the February 2017 reforms, reflected the true extent of the work that we as a government needed to focus upon. New home care packages increased from 60,308 in 2012-13 under Labor to 124,032 packages in 2018-19, with up to 157,154 predicted by 2022-23. That represents an increase of 161 per cent. That is certainly in line with the government's 2019-20 budget, which will deliver an additional 10,000 care packages to be released across all levels. That represents an investment of just over $282 million, part of a $7 billion funding program over the next five years which I will touch on in just a few moments. Those packages announced in February 2015 do certainly recognise the increasing demand for home care. Packages will be released until 30 June 2020, in line with the budget.

Home care packages are supporting senior Australians to remain in their own home, but they do not replace the primary care that Australians receive as part of the broader health system in particular and that remains part of the government's broader focus. It's interesting that those opposite provided no additional funding in their costings for home care packages during the election campaign and no additional funding for aged-care quality workforce or residential aged-care support either.

In contrast, our record is proof of a focus on all of those essential elements. I mentioned the $7 billion over the next five years, more home care places and developing a skilled workforce. Improving safety and quality in both home care and residential care is so very important. That's important to my city, as I mentioned, and it's important to regional Australia, where I'm from. I'm so very proud that our government is focused upon just that. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the January 2019 Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission announcement, and other efforts to look at aged-care quality standards and, of course, aged-care rights are further evidence of the government's focus on appropriate aged care in home and certainly in residential care as well.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Skills) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to support this motion on aged care because this government must be held to account for its handling of the issue of home care packages and aged care in general. As this motion outlines, the coalition government have let 129,000 older Australians languish whilst waiting for the approved level of home care package. This crisis is getting worse. It seems the government has no idea what it means to watch an elderly parent wait in vain for assistance at home. It has no idea what it means for a family to struggle to provide that care, juggling work, juggling rosters and jugging care for their children.

Families are taking risks, ultimately, because sometimes it just doesn't work out the way you want it to. And then you worry desperately because you can't get home on time, because an elderly loved one is home all alone just for that bit too long, because they didn't get a shower, because they missed their midday medications or because they didn't eat their lunch. You worry that the post-it notes you put out to remind them to take their pills, turn off the gas or to put the heating on might have fallen away, or been pulled down or missed.

New government figures show that almost 30,000 older Australians died or were forced into an aged-care home last year while waiting for their home care packages. I read a particularly harrowing account published in The West Australian by Gemma Tognini, who wrote:

After nearly two years of waiting, the funding for my dad's Federally allocated home-care support package finally arrived, last week.

The letter came on Tuesday. The day after his funeral. Dad died waiting.

This is an experience shared by too many.

It's not just home care that is failing. The royal commission and the sudden evacuation of the Earle Haven Retirement Village on the Gold Coast highlight the inadequacies of some residential aged-care facilities. In the case of Earle Haven, 70 elderly, frail people, in some cases with dementia, were left in the lurch when the nursing home that they live in and pay fees for, and that taxpayers contribute towards, was shutdown without any notice. There are many questions to be raised about the Earle Haven Retirement Village closure. Why were medical records and medical equipment removed? Why was it so badly managed that police had to step in and relocate the patients?

The Courier- Mail reported that the global owner of aged-care contractor HelpStreet Villages, which was running the Earle Haven Retirement Village for owner Peoplecare, had been banned from managing companies by Australia's corporations watchdog because of unpaid debts. As Senator Watt has pointed out in the other chamber, Earle Haven has been repeatedly sanctioned by the government's own aged-care regulators for failing to meet safety and care standards for its residents. I think you really do have to wonder what it has got to take before some sort of serious action is taken.

How does a system from which some make a healthy profit from billions in taxpayer subsidies often show no real responsibility or accountability for care of our elderly? As a nurse and as the shadow minister for aged care, I am committed to holding the government to account for this. I want to finish on a positive, though. If there was any silver lining to the Earle Haven closure, it was the behaviour of the staff. Most of them have lost their jobs, but they turned up to care for the residents when they were being evacuated.

Next Wednesday is Aged Care Employees Day. I want to say thank you to everyone working in aged care. Being in the caring industry makes you special people. You do one of the most important jobs in the world. Your experience with people at the most vulnerable time of their lives means that you are trusted, you are dedicated, you are hard-working and you are loved. You are relied on by so many for so much. I came to this job via your pathway, from the caring industry and union movement, and I'm so glad and proud that I did. The royal commission into aged care and subsequent media attention has been tough for you. I know that. We've seen too much blame placed on aged care staff for what are systemic, long-term issues, mainly caused by funding cuts, poor management, lack of transparency and accountability and a lack of willingness by the Liberal government to tackle real reform. Aged care nurses and their unions have been screaming out for reform and resources, a call that has been completely ignored by the Liberals. I know what funding cuts mean. I know what it's like to be a carer or nurse and not to be able to deliver the care you want because there aren't the resources allowing you to do your job, because there is limited access to training and skills, and because the workloads are impossible. Thank you for everything, for hanging in there and speaking up. I hope the government listens to your experiences and your calls for funding, reform and staffing.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our elderly citizens are among society's most vulnerable populations. They depend on others for care. Yet this government continues to leave too many older Australians waiting in vain. More than 129,000 seniors are now without an approved home care package. This includes more than 96,000 older Australians waiting with high needs, many with dementia. It's a crisis that shows no signs of being contained by this coalition government. In December last year I spoke in this place about the dismal job that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government had done in reducing waiting lists for home care packages. Since that time even more Australians are now on a waiting list. The numbers are increasing, when they should actually be going down. It's part of a broader trend since 2017 that's seen the waiting list for home care packages blow out from 88,000 to more than 129,000 older Australians waiting for packages. That's too many waiting for what should be their right in modern-day Australia—the right to an adequate care package after a life time of hard work and service.

These really have been lost years for too many Australians waiting for care at home. As the list grows longer, fresh stories emerge daily of older Australians struggling because of this government's neglect. Bad government translates into worse outcomes for our vulnerable older Australians, their families and their carers. Some older Australians have been waiting for more than two years for their approved package. Over 75,000 older Australians on the waiting list have no home care package at all. Recently I took a call from a member of our community that was 92 years old and had been waiting two years to get some form of aged care package from this government. It's simply not good enough. The majority of older Australians are waiting for level 3 and 4 packages. They have high care needs. Older Australians are entering residential aged care or even emergency departments instead of receiving their approved home care packages.

How did it get to this, that some of our most vulnerable Australians are being treated in this way by the Australian government? Government is about priorities. We saw a couple of weeks ago what this government's priorities are when the entrepreneur Dick Smith, one of Australia's wealthiest Australians, uncovered that he's receiving half a million dollars each year in cash refunds from this government, simply for owning shares in Australian companies. That is his cash refunds from dividend imputation. He is getting half a million dollars worth. That's one individual, yet this government has 129,000 Australians waiting for aged care packages.

Reforms to aged care were meant to give older Australians the choice to age at home. But the latest figures confirm that the Liberals' policy chaos has failed older Australians. Aged care has again been locked out as a cabinet position since the federal election. It's had four different ministers since the Liberals were first elected in 2013. There's been no consistency in this portfolio from this government in terms of ministerial representation, but also no consistency of approach when it comes to policy.

The crisis in home aged care is unacceptable. Labor condemn this government for failing to stop the waiting list for aged-care packages growing. We call on the government to immediately fix the home care packages waiting list and properly address this escalating crisis. The coalition needs to act to find solutions, to pass legislation and to implement a plan to continue driving long-term reform. When we have some of the wealthiest Australians receiving half a million dollars in cash payments from the government for owning shares and we have 129,000 elderly Australians on a waiting list for home care packages, something is wrong in this country. What is wrong in this country is that we have a coalition government that does not care about the needs of elderly people in terms of providing home aged-care packages so that they can age with dignity and get the support and respect they deserve. The coalition needs to act. It needs to find solutions, pass legislation and implement a plan to continue driving long-term reform and to reduce the aged-care waiting list. Older Australians can't afford any more lost years and any more lost opportunities waiting for their aged-care packages at home.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on behalf of the 1,423 older Australians on the Central Coast of New South Wales waiting for home care and the estimated 2,846 people who care for them. In my electorate of Dobell, on the New South Wales Central Coast, and across Australia, the home care waiting list continues to climb. I have witnessed firsthand the impact of this government's failure to older Australians and those who care for them. In my community, over the last three quarters, this crisis has continued to grow. Of particular concern are those people how have been assessed and approved and who are waiting with no package and little or no support. Many have been told they can expect to wait a year or more before an appropriate service may become available. Most are waiting for level 3 or level 4 packages. These are people with high-care needs, many living with dementia. Some are offered a lower level home care package as a stopgap. Many are waiting without assistance.

In my community on the Central Coast of New South Wales, as at 30 September 2018, the number of people waiting for a home care package who had been given no assistance was 1,178. By December last year, the total number of people waiting for home care of any description on the Central Coast had increased to 1,286. By March this year, the number had climbed to 1,423. As I mentioned, in my community some people have waited over two years for an approved home care package. Sadly, they're not unique or alone as this crisis deepens across the country, demonstrating the failure of the Liberal government to properly recognise or respond to the crisis. People are entering residential care while waiting for their approved level of home care package. People are ending up in emergency departments while waiting for their approved level of home care package. And, sadly, people are dying while waiting for their home care package.

Labor has been calling for urgent action to reduce the waitlist for home care packages since data was first released, yet the government has failed to properly respond. This government sat on the January to March quarter data for over three months and only released the figures after the election. Reforms to aged care were meant to give older Australians support to stay at home and to live with dignity, but these figures confirm the Liberals are failing older Australians. Based on the most recent data, more than 129,000 older Australians are currently waiting for their approved home care package.

I want to turn to carers. What the government hasn't recognised or acknowledged is that, for every elderly Australian waiting for a home care package, there's least one, but usually two or more, carers under immense pressure. That means, when the impact on primary carers, partners, family members and friends is considered, an estimated 250,000 Australians are caught up in this crisis. Ara Creswell, CEO of Carers Australia, who I met with again today to discuss the crisis, said that long waiting times for home care packages which provide an adequate level of support can seriously affect the capacity of older people to cope at home in both the short and longer term. While they are waiting:

… their level of health is likely to decline and their need for support increase, making it difficult to live at home unless they have family and friend carers who can provide the level of care they need. Working carers may have to give up their jobs, while partner carers may also be ageing and not able to provide the level of care needed, or can only do so at the risk of compromising their own health and wellbeing.

…   …   …

It needs to be remembered that 36 per cent of all carers are over the age of 65 and most are caring for a partner. Their ability to keep on providing high levels of care will frequently depend on additional support from the aged care system.

Lorraine from Gorokan in my electorate in New South Wales is one of the 129,000 older Australians waiting for a home care package. Her husband, Tom, is 73 and is one of the estimated 250,000 Australians caring for a loved one without proper support. Lorraine was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017. She needs a wheelchair outside and uses a walking frame at home. Lorraine applied for and was approved for a home care level 3 package this month and has been told she may have to wait a year for the service to become available. She has organised some help in the meantime with household chores, but her husband, Tom, has, out of necessity, become her primary carer. Fortunately, right now his health is good. Lorraine says:

He is my primary carer, doing all the cooking, shopping and gardening and I do worry about the stress. I don't want to see my husband get worn out.

As Carers Australia rightly points out, aged care is a very complex space, and, while many things are being addressed, carers keep getting pushed to the bottom of the heap. This Liberal government has abandoned thousands of elderly Australians, their partners, family and friends. I speak from my firsthand experience as a carer helping to look after my late father, who lived with young-onset dementia. The government must act urgently to fix the home care crisis. (Time expired)

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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