Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I must say I was a little dismayed by the answer that Senator Santoro initially gave me to the question that I asked him today. Whilst I acknowledge and appreciate that he did provide some additional information after question time, his somewhat dismissive attitude—that I could not expect him to know about every aged-care facility in this country, all the thousands of them—was disappointing, to say the least. I do not expect Senator Santoro as the Minister for Ageing to know about every aged-care facility in this country, but I do expect him to know about each and every one that fails its audit or where the audit report shows there are some significant issues in that facility. If he does not know that, if he does not have time to read those reports, perhaps he should spend more time here and less time in Texas and actually do the job that he is paid to do. Surely, if there are thousands of them then really we should have a sense that there is a crisis—and there has not been a significant easing of the crisis, as claimed by those opposite. I do think it is the minister’s job to know about the audit reports. He seemed to know about the audit report on my grandmother’s aged-care facility, but he knew nothing about the audit report on the Greenmount facility, an audit report which the community in Western Australia has known about for quite some time.

This is not an issue that suddenly came up yesterday; this issue has been known in the community in Western Australia for weeks. If it is too hard for Senator Santoro to find out about that significant aged-care facility then perhaps he should give the job to someone else. I would also say that it is, perhaps, the last refuge of scoundrels to dredge back 12 years. If that is the best excuse the minister can come up with then it really is time for him to move on. I have raised my concerns about the Melbourne facility that my grandmother lives in. It is an issue that Senator Santoro is well aware of; it is one of the facilities that Senator Santoro has given his personal guarantee is going to be fixed and that everyone in the facility is going to get top quality care. I am not interested in what was happening 12 years ago. We are all prepared to concede that, with the ageing population—and we all talk about the ageing population in Australia—aged care is a much more significant priority for political parties on both sides than it was some time ago. Twelve years ago, my grandmother was living in her own home, on her own, fully self-sufficient. Her youngest grandchild was six. That is how ridiculous it is to go back 12 years to find some kind of comparison. If the minister is going to herald all the supposed great achievements of this government in the last 10 years then he should fess up to the problems, too. Do not dig back 12 years—fess up to the failings as well as trying to herald supposed achievements.

As for Senator Humphries coming in here today and saying that there has been an aged-care crisis but it has ‘eased dramatically’, I wish him luck explaining that to the people in the south-west suburbs of Perth. I do not think a 500-bed shortfall in the south-west suburbs of Perth is a crisis ‘easing dramatically’. Tell that to the 500 families that are looking for a safe facility—a facility that is going to look safely after their valued older parent or grandparent, be fully accredited, have the fire safety standards it is meant to, give them their medication on time, give them their medication appropriately, look after their hydration and give them all the critical care and pain management that they need.

According to the government’s own ratio, there is a 500-bed shortage in the south-west metropolitan corridor in Perth. That is 500 families that are having to look elsewhere to find someone to look after their loved ones. That is not an easing of the crisis. That is not a dramatic easing in these times of economic prosperity. It is absolutely outrageous to come in here and not know the state of the homes that are failing their audit reports, or to claim that things have eased dramatically when there are still significant older, established suburbs in Perth that do not have the aged-care beds that their families and residents so desperately need. And the only excuse this government can come up with is that, apparently, in 1994 it was worse. That is absolutely pathetic. If that is the best the minister can do then, as I have said, it is either time for someone else to have a go or it is time for Senator Santoro to stay here and stay away from Texas. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.