Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

I'm going to begin with the questions from Senator Ruston to Minister McAllister in relation to aged care. This is something that strikes very close to home for me, having both had my late father, who passed away about ten weeks ago, on one of these packages and my 91-year-old mother currently on one of these packages, on a level 1. She has been waiting for over a year and has gone from level 1 to level 2, to level 3, to level 4 while she still sits on a level 1 package. So I found it very confronting to hear the statement that the government has designed their process to deliver packages. Well, guess what? You're not delivering them. They are not being delivered.

The comment that each and every week new packages are being released is factually incorrect, and it is a complete insult to the people who are waiting for these packages and to their families who are trying to keep their loved ones in their homes and out of residential care but are unable to do so because this government has fundamentally failed in the rollout of packages. I take note in particular of the statement around packages being rolled out every single week. I actually found that to be concerning because it is factually incorrect.

I've got some statistics here. For example, 87,597 older Australians are currently waiting on the National Priority System for a home-care place they have been assessed as needing. My 91-year-old mother is one of the 87,597 people. In addition, 121,596—let's call it 122,000—older Australians are waiting to be assessed for a home-care place. They're waiting to find out if they're eligible and, if they're eligible, what level of care they are eligible for—a level 1, level 2, level 3 or level 4 package. That means that more than 200,000 older Australians are waiting for access to a home-care package under this government.

Again, I repeat what the minister said. She said, 'Each and every week, new packages are released.' Would you like to know how many packages, how many homecare places, have been released this financial year? Zero—none. Again, the minister said, 'Each and every week, new packages are being released.' Well, in every single week since 1 July, zero new homecare places have been provided. That is shameful.

The thing that really struck me—there were two final comments that really bothered me; one was, 'This is ensuring that elderly Australians are getting the care that they need.' Well, I can tell you that right now 200,000 of them are not. And the closing statement was, 'Make no mistake, this is what Labor governments do'—referencing caring or looking after elderly Australians. Can I tell you, the families of 200,000 older Australians are finding out exactly what this government is doing, and it is not providing care packages.

Senator Askew asked some questions in relation to Margaret and her husband, who passed away waiting for a package. This is not inconsistent with the questioning that I and others made last year in the community affairs Senate estimates, where it was very clear that the manner in which some of the places on waiting lists are reduced is that people pass away waiting for them. We should be ashamed that we have 200,000 older Australians waiting for a homecare package and that they and their families watch them struggling at home or being forced into residential aged care because this government isn't doing the job it should be doing.