Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Government's commitment to fix the mess the former Government made of aged care and that this is a priority for the Government;

(2) acknowledges the Government's support for a pay rise for Australia's aged care workers as recommended by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety; and

(3) recommits to delivering a better standard of care for Australians in aged care.

The Albanese government has made an important commitment to all Australians: we will take better care of your loved ones in aged care, and to do this we will also better support the workers who are crucial to their care. We are now delivering on those promises. After nine years of neglect, reform in aged care has finally begun.

The Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill implements several urgent reforms that were key recommendations of the royal commission into aged care: care, dignity and respect. We know that funding cuts, inadequate staff-to-patient ratios, low wages and a casualised workforce have all led to an aged-care system buckling under intense pressure. This was happening before the pandemic but became a full-blown crisis during the pandemic. The former government's neglect and failure to prepare and plan contributed to residents being locked down, isolated and disorientated. Who could forget TV footage of an aged-care residents with dementia who was regularly tied to his chair with a lap belt, sometimes for a total of 14 hours a day, heavily sedated with psychotic drugs? Our fathers, mothers, grandparents, aunties and uncles deserve better in their aged care. Such stories are appalling and have rightly shocked the community.

Severely neglected, underfunded and poorly resourced, the aged-care sector's reputation has dropped to an all-time low. Over recent years I've hosted forums about aged care. Sad, tragic stories were commonplace. Tears flowed as family members, care workers and aged-care residents told the stories. Aged-care workers do some of the most important and compassionate work in our communities and yet many get paid $21 an hour, less than someone who stacks shelves at a supermarket. This must change if we are to retain and attract skilled aged-care workers in the sector.

I met earlier this year with nurses from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation who were incensed about what has happened in aged care. They told me harrowing stories that illustrate the crisis. They spoke of being overworked and overstretched and understaffed. They spoke of the devastation of not being able to provide the quality of care that they want to give to the elderly. But it isn't all bad. I believe that aged-care workers and providers are genuinely trying their best to give high-quality care to residents, and our government will support them. But it shouldn't be a game of chance. That's why, as part of a package of wider reform, this bill implements the government's most urgent election commitments.

From July next year, the bill will introduce a responsibility for approved providers of residential care and of specified kinds of flexible care to have a registered nurse on site, on duty, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is a fundamental change that will save thousands of stressful, expensive and ultimately unnecessary trips to hospital emergency departments. Importantly, it will ensure older Australians living in residential aged care have access to the nursing care they deserve.

The bill also delivers on the government's commitment to cap the amount that can be charged for admin and management. The royal commission heard that up to 50 per cent of some home-care packages were being eaten up in fees. That's money that should be spent on care. The government is also committed to improving integrity and accountability in aged care and providing greater transparency on what and where aged-care providers spend Commonwealth funding. The bill requires the secretary of the department to make information on residential aged-care services and provider expenditure publicly available. That includes information about labour, care, food, nutrition, cleaning, administration, maintenance and profit or loss.

Labor is committed to moving quickly to reform aged care. This bill, coming early in the life of the Albanese government, gives faith to that commitment. Older Australians have worked hard all their lives contributing to their community and to our nation. They deserve the best. They deserve to be supported in their frailer years with dignity and humanity. This bill is about respect for older Australians. It ushes in a new standard of respect for those in aged care and for the workers who care for them.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for this motion. Aged care is so important. I'm very pleased that the government has already committed so much in this early term of parliament and for its interest and investment in aged care. I welcome the passage of the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022. I think about the private members' bills that I have brought into this House and that they also form part of this bill. That's really the point of what we do in here; that we lean on each other and work collectively.

I want to talk about aged-care workers. We don't talk enough in this chamber about the good people working in aged care on very low wages, as the member quite rightly pointed out. So I support the Fair Work Commission's application to lift their pay because working in aged care is backbreaking work, and it's work that tears on the heartstrings of those who work in this area and care very deeply for the people they support. Every time I stand and talk in this place about where I see the need to make changes with respect to aged care, it's important that we also talk about the good things in aged care, and at the top are the people who care and work for those in aged care.

I want to reflect on some of the wonderful events I have attended at some of the aged-care facilities in my electorate. You could see how the workers, particularly the care staff, the nurses and the cooks, had gone over and above to make those events special for the residents. Whether recognising Melbourne Cup or International Women's Day, the work that the aged-care workers do is extraordinary. Many of them do it for love; they certainly don't do it for money. It's critical that we make sure that we lift, along with staffing ratios, the number of people who are working in aged care. Six minutes is not enough time to get someone out of bed, showered and ready for breakfast. In many cases, workers are working beyond their shift hours to get this done.

I also want to talk about the fact that we don't talk about working in aged care as a career. I think that government policy can do a lot more—and it was in Pollaers' report—to support people who work in aged care to be part of the broader allied health profession, to encourage people to see working in aged care as a career and to make sure there's career progression in aged care. We lose too many good people out of the system due to being burnt out or going and working in the NDIS space or, indeed, going to work in the hospital system or other allied health areas. This is because the pay is so much better. I don't think we can talk about career progression and the value of aged-care workers until we pay them a wage that is attractive and appropriate for their enormous hard work. Often they are the last person to hold a person's hand before they say goodbye and depart this world. People in aged care do extraordinary work. I thank them for all the work they do in my community, including in-home care, and I thank the member for this wonderful motion.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The aged-care system in Australia is in desperate need of repair. For almost 10 years, those opposite wasted opportunities to fix our aged-care crisis, and now, as always, it is up to a Labor government to deliver the big reforms needed to ensure our ageing Australians are looked after. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety brought to light some of the worst atrocities older Australians have faced. The findings reflected failures of public policy—failures that hurt real people seeking care in our communities. For years, older Australians have been calling on the government to act, to help them, to ensure they receive the care that they need—care that they deserve after building modern Australia, a country we are so lucky to call home.

With the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022, Labor has begun the necessary work to fix our aged-care system. This reform makes three urgent changes to restore security, dignity, quality and humanity to aged care.

The first of these changes brings registered nurses on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in residential care and specified kinds of flexible care from 1 July 2023. This is such an important reform because it will save thousands of unnecessary trips to hospital. This will help to ease the pressure on our strained hospitals, which are providing incredible service in extremely difficult times. It will also reduce unnecessary stress on both the patients and the aged-care workers looking after them.

Aged-care workers are so important to our society. They look after our elderly, helping them with day-to-day tasks like shopping, bathing and preparing meals, and assisting with mobility and countless other tasks. They also provide social interaction—human connection that is vital to good health. But, as is the case in so many female dominated industries, these workers are overworked and underpaid.

Labor knows this, and this is why we have supported a significant, meaningful pay rise for aged-care workers. We have written to the Fair Work Commission in support of a pay increase for aged-care workers, because it is only Labor that has the will to look out for working Australians.

During the election campaign, I visited an elderly gentleman in one of our aged-care homes in the Illawarra. He loved where he lived, but he was worried about the staff and their workload. As the member for Mayo has indicated, we have heard reports of staff being allocated six minutes to help elderly residents get out of bed, help them shower, help them with medication, help them with their breakfast and help them with a cup of tea. There is no way I could do that in six minutes. We have committed to fund the Fair Work Commission's decision because, unlike those opposite, we know that, if you want to attract and retain aged-care workers, you need to pay them more. It is fair and it is right. Quality aged care is worth the investment.

The second change implemented in this reform places a cap on administration and management fees for people receiving home-care packages and removes exit amounts entirely. This is good for older Australians, and it is good for the aged-care providers who are trying to do the right thing. As the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety heard, up to 50 per cent of some home-care packages was consumed by administration and management costs. This change will ensure that more of the money spent on care goes directly into care. It is what consumers expect and what good providers are already doing.

Lastly, we are increasing transparency and accountability in the aged-care sector. The bill will require the secretary of the department to publish information online about residential aged-care services, including provider expenditure breakdowns. This will help older Australians and their families make better informed decisions about their care. This will create healthier competition amongst providers as it rewards good practice and increases transparency. This bill will change lives for the better by repairing a sector that has been crying out for help for far too long.

For too long, older Australians were neglected by the previous government. For too long, the workers who care for older Australians were left behind and forgotten. For too long, those opposite buried their heads in the sand as Australians suffered. But this bill brings positive change to a system in crisis and will start the healing process for the aged-care sector and for so many Australians let down by the previous government. Labor is listening. We are listening to older Australians and their families. We are listening to workers and their representatives. We are listening to the peak bodies and the smaller providers, and we are taking action to develop effective and evidence based policy.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to speak against the motion moved by the member for Corangamite, that the coalition are responsible for the mess the aged-care sector is currently in. The coalition's 2022-23 budget delivered $522 million in funding for aged-care reform. This is on top of the funding contained in the 2021-22 budget.

The coalition delivered record investment across the aged-care sector during its time in government. To paint a very clear picture, the coalition committed $30.1 billion in 2022-23—compared to $13.3 billion committed by the Labor government in 2012-13—a growth of 126 per cent. The total investment made by the coalition, in response to the final report of the royal commission, exceeded more than $19.1 billion. By 2025-26, funding in aged care was estimated to grow to $34. 7 billion per year under the coalition.

Speaking to this bill is very close to home for me. At the age of 86, my father is currently in the aged-care system. This has given me an acute understanding of the issues families face. The aged-care staff who care for my father work tirelessly, and I wish to thank them. But, while visiting him, families of other residents have grabbed me in the corridors to share their own experiences. They've asked for my help to find doctors for their parents or their elderly loved ones.

In my electorate of Capricornia I met recently with the CEO of Benevolent Aged Care, Alison Moss. Alison told me they are struggling to provide quality care due to a lack of staffing. Benevolent Aged Care have 22 beds available in their newly built state-of-the-art facility. Sadly, these beds remain vacant because of struggles with staffing and a shortage of doctors and nurses. There is potential to put on qualified nurses from overseas, but the hoops that providers have to jump through, to recruit this staff, are prohibitive and time consuming for all.

I was notified recently that Access Aged Care, who provide clinical services to residential aged-care facilities, will soon be withdrawing services from Rockhampton. Sadly, even with a vigorous and far-reaching recruitment effort, Access Aged Care have been unable to secure the services of a GP in Rockhampton and will no longer be providing services. A knock-on effect of this is the impact on the already-stretched emergency department of Rockhampton Base Hospital. This hospital currently has one of the worst ambulance ramping rates in Queensland, sitting at a rate of 45 per cent. The dedicated hardworking staff are now further stressed as elderly patients are being sent to A&E for scripts or check-ups that would normally be done by a GP in a nursing home.

The election mantra from this new federal Labor government was 'Medicare, aged care, we care'. During the recent election I heard this over and over again. The public were told that a federal Labor government would listen, they would consult and they would care. As far as issues of a bipartisan nature are concerned, surely fixing the aged-care system is one. I will soon be hosting an aged-care forum, in my electorate of Capricornia, and have written to the Minister for Aged Care, Anika Wells, to invite her along. I've also written to Minister Wells on many occasions about the situation with aged care in Capricornia and about Access Aged Care pulling out of the Primary Health Network.

In our time in government we engaged in generational reform of the aged-care system, and I'm urging the new federal Labor government to continue this reform for the benefit of all older Australians and their families. I am proud of the coalition's record funding in the area of aged care, but there is still much work to be done. We remain committed to providing older Australians with support to live in their own homes for longer. It is imperative that this new government continue our work to support the aged-care sector.

Finally, I'd like to thank all the workers in the aged-care sector for going above and beyond what is in their job description, from what I have observed. They are so dedicated and amazing people. I look forward to working with the government so we can make the system better for everyone.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Corangamite for putting forward this motion. Like me, she cares deeply about the residents and workers in aged care and wants to see the essential, significant changes which we have already begun. I want to start today by speaking about the need for a pay rise for Australian aged-care workers. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended the government contribute to the case before the Fair Work Commission that aims to raise workers' wages. Unlike the previous Liberal-National government, we are doing just that. We are speaking out in support of the workers. The government made a submission to the Fair Work Commission that unequivocally supports a significant wage increase for aged-care workers. Our submission reiterates the government's commitment to fund any increase to award wages made by the independent commission in this case. This is absolutely crucial to bring workers back to the aged-care sector and to keep them there and help fill the shortages created by nine years of neglect. We need more staff in aged care, and a pay rise is the start of seeing workers being rewarded for the absolutely crucial role they play.

Of course, whatever the decision by the Fair Work Commission, that on its own won't be enough. So we've established a wide range of programs to attract staff and support retention, including a program with 1,300 transition-to-practice places in aged care for newly graduated nurses, 1,900 scholarships, support for 5,250 clinical placements and the nurses' retention payment. That has to happen so we can lift the standard of care for Australians in aged care.

It's well known that, until his recent death, my father spent two years in aged care. So I've seen firsthand through one of the most difficult times in history the reality of care in aged care. What I've seen reinforces what unions, media coverage and the royal commission told us, which is that good people working in the sector don't have the time they want and need to provide the care that residents deserve. I acknowledge how challenging the current situation remains for residential care in my own community, where Anglicare has decided to close the Carol Allen facility in Richmond. Other facilities are sharing with me their concerns, having faced such a difficult few years. I will continue to advocate for these facilities, some of them quite small, that provide a really important home for locals who don't want to be, in their last years, a distance away from family and friends.

Change is going to take time, but we have to remain committed to it. Our Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill, which implements three of our government's urgent election commitments, puts security, dignity, quality and humanity back into aged care. From 1 July next year, the bill will require approved providers of residential care to have a registered nurse on site and on duty at each residential facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's obviously a cost to this, but there's also a saving. It will save thousands of stressful, expensive and ultimately unnecessary trips to hospital emergency departments and ensure that older Australians living in residential aged care have access to the nursing care they need in their homes. There's also the ability for smaller facilities in regional and remote areas to have temporary exemptions in recognition of the fact that it can be hard to find the RNs they need. This is a sensible measure, but I want to note that 80 per cent of residential facilities already have a registered nurse on site 24/7, including many in my electorate. All of that should be standard.

We've also acted to make information about aged care more transparent. We're making sure information on the services and provider expenditure is publicly available, including information about the workforce, the care that's delivered, food and nutrition, cleaning, administration, maintenance and profits and losses. All of that is published online so people can make more informed decisions. It will also incentivise good practice. I know only too well how hard it is to compare like for like when you're seeking a place for a family member.

I also want to talk briefly about home care. This is a preference for many people. In the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains, there remain challenges, but I'm pleased to see the cap on admin because no-one should be paying more for admin than for the care that they receive. We will change this.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In speaking to this motion, can I start by saying that I'm sure everyone in this chamber has very personal experiences with the aged-care system. It's important to absolutely every Australian. Three of my four grandparents have gone through residential aged care. One, thankfully, is still with us—he's in a residential care facility at the moment—and my two grandmothers both had excellent care in the aged-care system. I really want to start by saying, despite some of the issues in the royal commission et cetera, how amazing the care that has been given to members of my family was and is.

It's certainly my judgement that, by and large, the people that work in the aged-care system do such an amazing job in caring for older Australians, and I really hope that no-one who works in the aged-care system feels that they are unfairly maligned for the great work that they do because of some bad examples that have been—and should have been—highlighted by the royal commission. It's important that we use the opportunity of the royal commission to make changes and to improve some terrible circumstances that were discovered through that process. Like all members of parliament, I visit a lot of aged-care facilities in my electorate. It's been a little bit more difficult over the last couple of years with COVID, but I'm always so impressed and grateful for the amazing work that people do in our community to look after older Australians, as do any of those that work in the care sector and as is certainly the case in the aged-care facilities that I visit in my electorate.

Yes, the royal commission highlighted some important areas of reform. It's also worth remembering when we talk about the royal commission and about reform in aged care that, probably not surprisingly, the royal commissioners weren't unanimous in the recommendations that they made in that royal commission. That really underscores that it is quite legitimate and quite reasonable for people to have different perspectives on what reform and what change needs to occur in our aged-care system. The fact is that, with all of the resourcing and the very comprehensive inquiries that were undertaken by that royal commission and by two very eminent people as royal commissioners, they weren't in unanimity on all of the recommendations that they made. That probably underscores some of the real challenges that we have in reform.

Other speakers have touched on the challenges in workforce. They are particularly significant in aged care and, frankly, across the care sector and across the economy right now. We all understand that. That's why it's really important that we get past the political bluster in some of these debates. This is a motion in this chamber, but, when we're talking about bills and reforms, we need to understand what some of those serious issues are. Workforce is going to be one of the most significant challenges, in this sector and many others, for this government to address and to look at what they are doing.

The government could probably take, frankly, a much broader view of workforce challenges than just the aged-care sector. We've got concerning issues in the broader care sector. In South Australia, for example, there's something in the media today about nurses being lured from the state of South Australia to the state of Victoria because of certain inducements that are being provided by the Victorian government, who are addressing their own workforce challenges regarding nurses. Well, us losing our nurses to the state of Victoria because of a program that the Victorian state government has put in place is not the kind of equity we want in our health system and the care system more broadly. That's one of the issues we're going to have with aged-care reform as well: how do we make sure that we're increasing the workforce, not seeing people move from one part of the workforce to another part of the workforce and therefore having a benefit in one part of a particular sector at the cost of a loss of those resources somewhere else?

We just need more people. I don't think anyone is debating that. I think we all understand that. It's very important that we as a parliament are working together on that challenge, because there are some important things we can do together to help improve how we're providing a workforce that is only going to be even more substantial, needs wise, into the future. With those comments, I'd reiterate how grateful we are for the people that work in the aged-care sector and what they're doing to care for some very cherished members of our own families and our society. I commend the work that they do.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for putting forward this motion and giving us the opportunity to speak on aged care. My mother passed away at the age of 90 in March of this year. She spent the last eight months of her life at an aged-care facility in our home town of Kurri Kurri, and she had a very, very good time at that facility. In fact, yesterday I was cleaning out some of mum's things—you might think that taking from March until September to do it is quite a while, but I'd had them at my house, and sometimes you just can't do these things so quickly. I came across a very small, simple Christmas card and it said: 'Dear Joy, it is such a pleasure to care for you.' Mum had kept that card. It was from one of the staff at the nursing home that mum was at, and I knew that it must have meant a lot for her to have kept it. She had it tucked in with her 90th birthday cards. I knew that mum had received many more Christmas cards than just that one, but she'd kept that one. To me, that spoke volumes, not only about my mother's sentimentality but also about the fact that an aged-care worker, on a very meagre income, would go to the trouble, in a busy life, of penning a note to my mum saying, 'I love caring for you. You're such a pleasure to be with and care for.'

And I think that speaks so much to aged care in Australia at the moment: there are people who love their jobs—they enjoy caring for our older Australians—and they say that it's a far richer experience than the money they're paid, and that they don't do it for the money, but it would be better if they were paid more. That was the overriding sentiment that I got when I talked to many of the staff at the facility where my mum spent the last eight months of her life. They were good people, highly trained and doing an incredible job under incredible pressure.

There are always lots of buzzes and beeps and whistles in healthcare facilities. I can tell you that when monitored patients in an aged-care facility are wanting to have a shower or have had a fall out of a bed, those beeps and those monitors are going off continually, and the person who is responsible for those people at that time is constantly having to prioritise, 'Who do I go to next?', and 'How do I make this all fit in?' That's where that care time—those minutes of care, and having those increased—is so important, as is increasing the wages of aged-care workers, because, at the end of the day, they are doing a very important job. Yes, we all want to be cared for professionally and well in our last days. But not only that: it's a hard job, and they should be recompensed appropriately for it. And we in the Albanese government are not wasting a minute. We said that we couldn't have a royal commission report titled Neglect and not turn our focus to it straightaway, and that's what we're doing.

In my electorate of Paterson, we have a very high population of older Australians. In fact, when I was last in a nursing home a very lovely gentleman said, 'Meryl, welcome to God's waiting room, darling.' It's affectionately known that way, especially up in Port Stephens. We say it in jest but it is true.

It is critically important that we ensure that people are being cared for adequately, and our bill, the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022, will ensure that registered nurses are in aged-care facilities 24/7, unless those facilities are in very small towns where it's just not possible. There will be provision for that. The bill also introduces a new responsibility for approved providers of residential care and specific kinds of flexible care to have those registered nurses on site and on duty at each facility, so it works for them. This is such a critical point, because we need to be taking the pressure off our emergency rooms, and, not only that, we need to be taking the pressure off our older Australians. For someone like my mum, who was getting pretty frail in the end, to have to be put into a patient care transport unit or an ambulance and be taken off to emergency because there is not a registered nurse or a doctor at the facility. It is traumatic, and it takes away so many resources, because usually someone will have to travel with them. If we can at least take some of that pressure off our older Australians, that is a good move. I commend this motion to the House.

Debate adjourned.