Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the three bills relating to aged care: the Aged Care (Bond Security) Bill 2005, the Aged Care (Bond Security) Levy Bill 2005 and the Aged Care Amendment (2005 Measures No. 1) Bill 2005. The first two bills are designed to protect accommodation bonds held by residential aged care providers in the case of a provider becoming insolvent. The third bill will serve to amend the Aged Care Act 1997 to establish new prudential regulatory arrangements to improve the management of residents’ accommodation bonds and entry contributions. The trio of bills will together strengthen the protection of residents’ accommodation bonds, enhance requirements of aged care providers and guarantee the repayment of bond balances to residents. The Aged Care Amendment (2005 Measures No. 1) Bill also includes consequential amendments to the act to ensure that all rules relating to the bonds apply to all services holding bonds, whether they are residential care services or flexible care services.

Labor has already indicated that it will support these bills but I would like to reiterate comments that have already been made by several of my colleagues. We are concerned with the way in which the Howard government has managed aged care. Many of us are already familiar with Professor Warren Hogan’s comments about aged care in Australia. He has called for a comprehensive review of the aged care system. But we are still to see the minister make a move towards fixing the problems which are growing by the day and we are still to see any planning for the future.

The sector, the community and Labor are all sick of the government’s quick fixes when it comes to the aged care system. Recently we have seen sickening reports of alleged physical and sexual abuse of elderly women in aged care homes. I am hopeful that these reports relate to isolated incidents, as I am sure that the majority of workers in the sector are respected, totally dedicated to what they do and do a fantastic job in circumstances which, in most situations, are probably not the ideal. However, the Minister for Ageing needs to take further steps to ensure that such abuses are not able to occur.

A meeting the minister held this month with the Aged Care Advisory Committee agreed to several proposals which were, in fact, recommendations from the Senate inquiry into aged care that was tabled in June last year. That the government had failed to respond to those recommendations is barely surprising. It has illustrated again and again the contempt it holds for the parliamentary process in its failure to answer questions on notice until the last minute, or not at all, so it is not surprising that the government failed to respond to the report and is still to do so. The mere fact that it has taken such terrible incidents to spur it to act is shameful. It is time for the minister to stop the talk and take action. The revelations of reported sexual assaults in our aged care homes are unfortunately just the latest in a sector that has been plagued by problems for many years.

The Howard government is still failing when it comes to delivering aged care beds. There is a shortage of almost 10,000 beds across the country. Waiting lists, particularly for high-care places, are growing. When we look at the issue of aged care, what is at the core of the system? Our elderly deserve the right to an efficient, safe, and high-level quality of care should living in their own homes become too much for them. The government has a responsibility to ensure that this service is available to all who need it, while the community has a right to know and be confident that their loved ones are being properly cared for by qualified staff.

The problem facing aged care is not a small one. To put it into perspective, it is projected that spending on aged care will more than double in the next 40 years. It is also projected that the number of Australians requiring high-care residential aged care will increase from fewer than 100,000 in 2003 to 337,000 in those 40 years. The size of the challenge is phenomenal. But is the government doing everything it can to prepare for that challenge? The answer is clearly no.

A testament to the Howard government’s failure in aged care is evident in my home state of Tasmania. It was Kevin Andrews, who was the then Minister for Ageing, way back in 2003, who worked with the Tasmanian Minister for Health and Human Services, David Llewellyn, and the Local Government Association of Tasmania. Mr Andrews was the first to announce a tripartite agreement between the federal, state and local governments in Tasmania to work together to improve aged care services. But, unfortunately, it seems that is about all that the minister did. The tripartite agreement was supposed to promote and further aged care in Tasmania. The Tasmanian government, along with the Local Government Association of Tasmania, has been and remains committed to the tripartite agreement. Both the Tasmanian government and the Local Government Association of Tasmania have signed-off on the agreement and it is presumably now with Senator Santoro awaiting the same treatment.

In his media release announcing the agreement, dated 20 August 2003, Mr Andrews stated:

The aim is to improve aged care services for older Tasmanians by three levels of government working together ... This is a major step forward in cooperation between government for the benefit of older Tasmanians particularly, but the whole Tasmanian community.

The failure so far to progress the agreement sadly seems to sum up the Howard government’s approach to aged care. The advice I have is that, since the recent state election—and I take the opportunity to congratulate Premier Lennon and his team on the wonderful result—the Tasmanian government has contacted the Department of Health and Ageing and remains committed to the agreement. I urge Senator Santoro to expedite the signing of this agreement so that older Tasmanians can begin to benefit from a more streamlined approach to delivery of aged care services across the state.

Coming back to the package of bills that we are looking at today, these bills will ensure that, in the event that a nursing home was to become insolvent, the Commonwealth will step in and ensure that accommodation deposits are refunded to the residents or the families of residents. Of course, this is a welcome change that has been long overdue and it is one which Labor supports. However, the burden is now on Senator Santoro to reverse the years of Howard government neglect of aged care. Senator Santoro faces the challenge of fixing the shortage of beds, cutting waiting times, guaranteeing our aged care centres are safe and efficient, and ensuring that those requiring high care places are not forced to stay in hospital acute care beds. The bills we are currently looking at will serve to assure our elderly that their accommodation bonds are protected. But what reassurance is it for people to know that their money is safe while wondering at the same time whether the same is true of them?