House debates

Monday, 15 February 2021

Adjournment

Werriwa Electorate: Aged Care, Liverpool City Council: 2168 Children's Parliament, COVID-19: Australians Overseas

7:50 pm

Photo of Anne StanleyAnne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

This government is not on the side of Australian families. Whether it's cutting wages, breaking promises, rorting community grants or making dishonest land deals, they continue to neglect everyday Australians. One area where this neglect is most stark is the growing waiting list for home-care packages. As of 27 October 2020, there were over 98,000 Australians waiting to be offered approval for their home-care package and more than 3,000 of these Australians are from the south-west of Sydney, where my electorate is based. Senior Australians in Werriwa have been waiting for years for their home-care packages. They now have to rely on the Commonwealth Home Support Program. The problem with the CHSP is that there is a lack of service providers to provide the services that are needed by older Australians. In Green Valley in my electorate, constituents don't even have access to services to mow their lawns, as there are no providers that provide that service in the district.

My office has received over 40 calls from senior Australians regarding My Aged Care recently. Complaints vary from unacceptably long waiting lists or no service providers to a lack of access for those who are from non-English-speaking backgrounds. With the complex and complicated processes to be navigated and the documentation required, many are more than likely to give up in frustration. The organisations that support older Australians from non-English-speaking backgrounds are provided with limited funding, as this government, as with most of its other policies, prefers a lazy, one-size-fits-all approach.

We know that aged care in Australia was in crisis long before COVID-19 applied more pressure. If older Australians are supported at home, there are significant savings to the nation—not to mention their quality of life and that of their family. Yet the government has also been failing senior Australians who choose to live at home. Over the last three years, more than 30,000 senior Australians have died waiting for a home-care package to be approved. Lives could be saved if this government had not neglected aged care. Despite the government's obsession with avoiding responsibility for anything, the fault sits fairly and squarely with them.

I've reported to parliament on many occasions about the Liverpool City Council initiative of the children's parliament. Children from years 5 and 6 from schools in the 2168 postcode are elected by their peers to represent concerns they see in the local area. The issues raised through the lens of our children have included the environment, safety around the school and, more recently, issues about poverty they see with their friends.

Liverpool council recently surveyed children from the 11 representative schools. Six hundred and seventy-five responses were received. Over 40 per cent of children see poverty affecting other children's families. Forty-one per cent of students have witnessed someone in their school missing out on food because of poverty. Seventy-one per cent of the students said they could do better at school if they had proper devices and access to the internet. There is only so much young students can do when they experience so much hardship in their lives. Too many children are being left behind because they don't have the essentials and the resources to do well. An overwhelming number of students have noted cases of poverty and peers who don't have food at school, and that is too high and too unacceptable. Governments on all levels need to ensure that students across Australia experience a fair level of schooling and support, no matter what their circumstances, or I fear many students will fall through the cracks.

Another month, and there are still thousands of Australians stranded overseas—Australians who have been left overseas with no money and no prospect of coming home. Abandoned by their own government, Australians have had to dip into their bank accounts to survive in foreign countries and pay exorbitant prices for commercial flights home. Government assistance shouldn't be limited just to loans. The loans don't guarantee you a return ticket to Australia, and they push citizens further into debt. They also have to pay out of pocket for their hotel quarantine, although, if they're back on Australian soil, many people are more than willing to do that.

Labor is on the side of families. It's time we brought people home. Whether it's those in aged care, those waiting for home care, students who live in poverty or those overseas waiting to come home, Labor won't neglect them as this government has. Under Labor, no-one will be held back and no-one will be left behind.