Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak up for Mrs Clarke of Endeavour Hills, after receiving a cry for help from her daughter and her family. Mrs Clarke is losing her memory and her mobility and she is desperately in need of a level 4 home care package. She applied in October 2017. In April 2018 My Aged Care claimed not to have received the application. They lost it. So her daughter applied again in May 2018 and was told it would be about 12 months. In December 2018 the family were desperate and they applied for a reassessment, but My Aged Care said no and that 'there was no immediate risk of entering residential care because your carers are no longer able to provide care'.

Mrs Clarke is now incontinent. She has a heart condition and severe arthritis. As of last week, she cannot stand without assistance. The only help she gets from My Aged Care is three showers a week from the council. That's it. To the government, Mrs Clarke is just a number on a list. Her life is in limbo. Her family's lives are in limbo and in chaos while they wait and she deteriorates. Her family now provide her with food and transport, and one family member somehow stays overnight with her every night, because they're too scared to leave her alone, because she has no other care except three showers a week. They're neglecting their own families. They work full time. They get no other support from the government, no carers payments. They pay their taxes. They expect some care for their frail mum. They're being punished by My Aged Care now because Mrs Clarke is not a priority—perversely, because her family are helping so much. Maybe if they stopped helping and left her in her nappies by herself, then the government might care. In July Mrs Clarke's daughter Anne called My Aged Care again, desperate because the family can't do it anymore. She told them that her mother had had two falls. Their response was to say: 'It looks like it's going to be at least another 12 months, but we can get you a physio appointment.' So Anne had to take the day off work to take her to the physio appointment.

Mrs Clarke is one of 129,000 Australians waiting at home, and the list just gets longer. Mrs Clarke's daughter told My Aged Care—and she wrote it in a letter to me—that her mum may not be alive by the time she gets help. Sadly, Mrs Clarke's daughter may well be right, because 16,000 older Australians have died waiting for the help that they deserve. The government are failing. They've had six years of cruelty, of failure, of cuts. The Prime Minister, when he was Treasurer, cut $1.2 billion from aged care. This is his legacy. It's all politics with this government. Everything is 'a test for Labor'. If you want to talk about the 'quiet Australians', how about you do something to help Mrs Clarke and the people like her? There's a test for you, Government.