House debates

Thursday, 28 November 2019

Constituency Statements

Moreton Electorate: Aged Care

10:11 am

Photo of Graham PerrettGraham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | | Hansard source

Acacia Ridge is a suburb in the southern part of my electorate. I know it well. When I was a kid, I used to come in from the country and spend time there with my grandad, who lived there ever since, basically, World War II, when he was a grader driver for Archerfield Airport, the big American air force base. Acacia Ridge is traditionally a blue-collar suburb surrounded by businesses and Archerfield Airport. Seven and a half thousand people live at the Ridge and, of these, about 2,000 are over the age of 50.

Like many communities, it's facing the challenges of an ageing population: the challenges in providing services to deal with some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Acacia Ridge does okay in terms of what the local community provides in the way of support services for our seniors. For example, 'belong', with Trish Cattermole at the helm, has been servicing the residents of Acacia Ridge since 1989, providing community and welfare support not only for seniors but for anyone in need. The Acacia 50 & Better group, run by Larissa and other volunteers and workers, includes programs designed to encourage exercise and interaction to increase health and prevent social isolation. Acacia Ridge Meals on Wheels, led by Margaret and her dedicated team of volunteers, offer a friendly smile and a bit of a cheery chat to anyone they deliver a meal to.

Last week I hosted a seniors morning tea, and the folks who attended confirmed that they know the Morrison government has not been kind to its senior Australians. The last time they saw a significant increase in their pension was when Kevin Rudd was their Prime Minister. Under this government, aged-care services have been neglected and wound back. We see a government committed to increasing the pension age to 70. Although the government has just announced another 10,000 home care packages, which I commend them for, that's just a drop in the ocean when you think of the 120,000 people on the waiting list. Not only is there a waiting list to get onto a package; there are also a lot of instances where people are not getting the level of package that they should be receiving.

The seniors of Acacia Ridge find it hard to access services like Centrelink and My Aged Care. Everything is online, and it's difficult to navigate and access this world if you don't have a commuter or a smartphone, as was raised at the community meeting.

I think we need to be kinder and more accommodating to this group, who in many cases could not afford to enjoy the privilege of new technology when it first came about but worked hard to ensure that their children or grandchildren wouldn't be disadvantaged. I do think we need, as a rule, to be kinder and more accommodating to this generation. These are the people who came out of tougher times like World War II, and so, if groups that do the supporting, like belong, like the 50 & Better group, like Acacia Ridge Meals On Wheels and some of the churches in the Acacia Ridge area, can get it right, surely our governments can get it right. I turn again to the government to say that, when you have a waiting list of 120,000, announcing 10,000 places is mathematically a long way short of sorting out what we need to do to protect our seniors.