Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We need this government to step up and release more home care packages. Seriously, what will it take for this government to give older Australians the care they need? This morning I received an email from a constituent. They wrote:

I feel so let down by my government. My Aged Care gave me the names of providers to call. Every one of them told me they have no funding to send a carer. All I ask is two hours a week of home care support. Every day of delay leaves people like me without the basic help we need to live safely and with dignity in our homes.

That's the reality. People are being left alone, struggling and sometimes literally dying in squalor while they wait for help that never comes. What is the government doing? Why is it so difficult for them to just release more packages and deliver the care they promised? This is not a partisan issue. Everyone in the community agrees that older people deserve to be cared for, yet Labor still cannot get its act together.

I want to live in a country that values and cares for older people. That's why the Greens are fighting so hard for the government to listen, act and finally deliver for older people and for their children and families who are trying to find them care and are worn down by trying to fill the gaps. Let's join together and actually do something meaningful here for once for the people who built this country and who deserve to live in their later years in dignity.