Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking on this legislation today and very pleased to be following my colleague from Tasmania, who has been an incredible advocate for aged-care workers and for the aged-care sector in her time representing the people from Tasmania. I rise to speak on the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) Bill. But there's one word that rings in people's minds across the country when we think about our aged-care system, and that is 'neglect'. That is the hallmark of the former government's record on aged care—woeful neglect at the hands of a government that either did not care or was too incompetent to act. There have been 23 reports into aged care over the last decade. Let that sink in—23 reports that went ignored by the former government. Let us never forget that it was in this place that the former Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians turned his back on aged-care residents, dedicated carers and their families.

Today, a decade of inaction is finally about to end, as our government introduces this bill and starts to piece back together a broken system. The Albanese Labor government has fast-tracked this legislation because the time to act is long overdue. These 23 reports, all gathering dust under the watch of the former government, painted a horrifying picture. For over a decade, the sector has been crying out for support from the federal government—advocates, workers and residents have all been banging the drum for reform, with no response and no reprieve. The onset of the global pandemic forced an ambivalent government to confront their own legacy on caring for older Australians. The former government failed older Australians and the workers that care for them. They failed to secure enough vaccines and PPE to protect residents and staff from COVID. They refused to act on the recommendations of the royal commission that they were forced to call. Their minister was asleep at the wheel while the sector was in crisis, and nobody stepped in.

Not enough resources, not enough action, not enough accountability—the stories that came out of the royal commission were horrifying. Residents and their families told us people were locked in their rooms without food or water. Aged-care workers told us they were overworked, underpaid and put at risk. They literally cried tears of exhaustion and for being ignored. And how was this received by the previous government? They consistently denied that there was a problem, voting consistently in this place against motions to acknowledge an aged-care crisis, making media appearances arguing that the lived experience of aged-care residents and staff were overblown, repeating their talking points through the shortage of PPE, vaccines and RAT tests. Time and time again, they refused to acknowledge that the problem was in front of them. Even when they were forced to initiate a royal commission, the former government's implementation of its recommendations were worse than half-hearted. In the 17 months since the final report was handed down, the former government addressed only six per cent of those recommendations. Six per cent—what a slap in the face for those workers and residents.

For over a year, not even one-tenth of the recommendations have been addressed. With all the resources of a parliament and a government and a bureaucracy at their disposal, the former government only tinkered around the edges of a broken system. To top all this off, the Morrison Government tried to buy the votes of the aged-care workforce with a one-off payment just before the election. Instead of using their time in government to fix the real structural issues in the sector that they had been told about for years, they tried to paper over it with a quick sugar hit for front-line workers. Well, we know how that turned out for them. At the last election, aged-care workers, residents and our community sent the former government a clear message that meagre adjustments around the edges would not cut it. The Anthony Albanese Labor government was given a clear mandate at the election. It is time to fix up aged care and build a sector that respects older Australians and those that care for them.

Labor's Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) Bill amends Australia's aged-care legislation to deliver a suite of long-overdue funding, quality and safety measures. These reforms are borne out of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which was called after countless disgraceful reports on the treatment of older Australians made it impossible not to act. The royal commission was intended to be a line in the sand, one that said aged-care residents and aged-care staff deserve to live and work in a sector that is centred around care and not around profit. Labor's bill sets the foundation for a better aged-care sector in Australia. These urgent measures respond to a range of recommendations from the final report of the royal commission. These are structural reforms and lay the foundation for a more compassionate and sustainable sector.

So, what will the bill do? It will deliver a more equitable funding model. It will protect residents through a code of conduct for staff and providers. It will recognise the skill of aged-care workers through a national registration scheme, and it will improve transparency through a provider star rating system and stronger governance. It will extend protections to older Australians receiving care in their homes. This is a vital first step towards getting the settings right to put the pieces back together of a broken system.

But Labor's work to fix this broken system doesn't stop here. Further reform to aged care is currently before the House. The Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill will deliver three important reforms. Under Labor's plan, every residential care provider will have a residential nurse on staff 24/7. We are putting the nurses back into the nursing homes. We're making sure funding gets to residents by capping management funding allocations, and we're improving transparency in the sector by making service providers' expenditure publicly available, delivering the transparency and accountability that aged-care workers and residents have been calling for for so long.

I'm really proud that the Labor government is prioritising these long-overdue reforms. We weren't quite on these issues in opposition. We worked hard to hold the government to account on behalf of aged-care residents and their staff. For months—years—we urged the former government to act, and now, at the very first opportunity in government, that is exactly what we are doing. We are doing what they refused to do. This bill should be a statement to all Australians that Labor are committed to doing what we say we will do. We've said all along that we'll stand up for workers and for vulnerable members of our society, and we're getting on with the job of doing that. The bill is the product of a new Labor government that listens, considers and acts. It is the product of a government that wants to bring people together and leave no-one behind, the product of a government that cares.

This bill starts the incredibly hard but important work of piecing back together a broken system. It is the product of thousands of residents, staff and families generously sharing their stories, their recommendations, on how to build a sector that all of us can be proud of. It is the product of aged-care workers coming to this place time and time again, sitting in the gallery, marching down the corridors of this place, pleading for help, pleading for assistance. It is the product of those aged-care workers time and time again marching on the streets, going out there and talking to people about the conditions in their industry.

Today, as I finish my contribution, I want to thank those aged-care workers for their contribution; for going that extra step for their residents, day in, day out; for being engaged on this issue; for coming here and telling us what needs to be done. This side of the House was listening. This side of the chamber was listening to those workers, and that is why the passage of this bill is the foundation for a safer, more respectful workplace for Australia's aged-care workforce. It is the foundation of a more safe, healthy and dignified life for older Australians, Australians who have done their time, who have contributed to this country and who now deserve a dignified retirement. I commend this bill to the Senate.