Lucy Gichuhi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm here today to contribute to this very important debate. This government, our government, takes aged care as one of its top priorities. There is no doubt that Australia's demography is one of an ageing population. The demand for aged-care services is driven by the size and health of the older population.

There are currently over 5.5 million people in this country who will need aged-care services in the next 10 to 20 years. This is what this government is planning about and is funding on. The Australian population is ageing rapidly, with the proportion of people aged 65 years or over in the total population projected to increase from 15.3 per cent in 2017 to 21.8 per cent in 2056, according to the ABS.

This government is very committed to strategically funding this ageing population issue. To accommodate the needs of the rising older population will require a quadrupling of the aged-care workforce by 2050. Our government, this government, is very much aware of the workforce needs. Recent reports on the ageing of baby boomers show that they are eight times more likely to have health problems than the previous generation.

Our government, this government, is so focused on this issue that it has given it a strategic approach that covers not only the short-term and the medium-term but the long-term needs of older Australians. Currently, the number of people over the age of 65 receiving aged-care services exceeds 1.2 million. Of those, 83 per cent are classified as requiring high-level care needs. This government, our government, has recognised that the systems and priorities of those opposite are not enough to cater for the high needs of this ageing population. An estimated 60 per cent of the residents needing high-level care have dementia, at least 40 per cent suffer from chronic pain, over 50 per cent are incontinent and 45 per cent have a sleeping disorder. This government, our government, is aware of these facts. In light of these statistics, it's clear that aged-care funding remains a key and very critical factor to support the welfare of the most vulnerable people in our community.

I am sure that everyone in this chamber agrees that aged care is an issue that hits home for each and every one of us. This should be one of the bipartisan issues. We should come together in a bipartisan fashion and manner to put our heads together and work for all Australians. We all know someone who is receiving some form of aged-care service, whether it is our parents or grandparents. This is not the time to take political capital or capitalise on issues that affect all of us Australians. Old and young: we are all affected by ageing processes.

I'm particularly passionate about aged care because I was honoured to look after my grandmother, who still holds a special place in my heart. She was a woman of strength and wisdom and one of my solid rocks that I stood on. I see so many grandmothers on the streets of this country every day, every hour, and we cannot turn a blind eye or take political capital or take advantage to capitalise on an issue that should be one of the most bipartisan issues this parliament has ever handled at such a critical time. I talk about my grandmother because I link my experience with her to the experience of so many families with elderly parents, elderly grandparents, elderly relatives or just elderly neighbours. In Australia, I encountered aged care while training aged-care workers and nurses. I have had the opportunity to look into the eyes of ageing Australians and wonder if we will be able to give them the dignity and respect that I saw with my grandmother. I wonder how they feel. I wonder what they think.

The need to value and look after our seniors is so central to Australia as a civil and noble society. The need for dignity, respect and freedom has to be maintained and preserved, and we can't afford to make political gains and capital and mileage out of our seniors. As a society, we can never forget that older Australians are the people on whose shoulders we stand. We are whom we are today because they worked, they paid taxes and they looked after us when we were younger. Now it is our time to come together in a bipartisan fashion and give back to our seniors.

Because of this, our government, this government, is providing record aged-care funding of $19.8 billion this year. Our government is not—and I repeat 'is not' with 'not' in capital letters—planning any changes that will reduce funding to aged-care services. Annual funding will increase to record levels by $5 billion—yes, $5 billion—over the forward estimates, from $18.6 billion in 2017-18 to $23.6 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. For this government, aged-care spending has increased by more than an average of six per cent each year. That is an average of $1 billion of extra support for older Australians each year. Our government is adding an additional 13,500 residential aged-care places and 775 short-term restorative places. Since the last budget, this government has been delivering 20,000 new high-level home-care packages to support senior Australians to remain at home longer.

This government is doing what it can, what is needed, to support our senior older Australians remain in their homes for as long as they can and for as long as they want. By 2021-22 more than 74,000 high-level home care places will be available, an increase of 86 per cent from 2017-18. Over $100 million investment in mental health services for ageing Australians in the community and in residential care has been provided, consisting of a $20 million trial to improve mental health services for Australians over 75 years of age, and $82.5 million in new mental health services for people with a diagnosed mental disorder living in residential aged-care facilities.

Last week, this government announced an additional $16 million to police the quality in aged-care services and providers. This government is also bringing forward $90 million this financial year to support quality in residential aged care and aged-care capital works in regional, rural and remote Australia. The government is also examining options for a more stable, certain and efficient residential care funding tool to replace the current Aged Care Funding Instrument, which has been recognised by the independent Aged Care Financing Authority as no longer being contemporary and as inefficient, too subjective and lacking stability in outcomes. Development of a new funding tool is being led by the University of Wollongong, who will provide a report to the government by the end of this calendar year. Any new tool adopted by our government will involve a better and more efficient way of allocating the funding pool. Let me reiterate once more that our government is not considering any options that would reduce, in any way, manner, form or shape, the funding pool.

This government is committed to ensuring that Australians in the aged-care system are better cared for. The need to value and look after our seniors is central to any civil and noble society. Their need for dignity, respect and freedom has to be maintained and preserved. We cannot afford to take political gains or political capital from such an issue affecting very vulnerable members of the community. This government knows that our older Australians are the people on whose shoulders we all stand on. This government has demonstrated that senior Australians' needs are a top priority.