Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Like many on the Liberal side, Senator Colbeck is quick to point the finger on inaction, broken promises and vulnerable older Australians being left in the lurch. What's surprising is that it's true, but it's not just Labor. We had workforce shortages before Labor. We had an ageing population before Labor. We had growing rates of chronic illness before Labor. We certainly had budget pressures before Labor. What we didn't have before Labor was a home-care package waitlist of over 100,000. We had a waitlist of 20,000. Such an increase is a huge failure. What's worse is deliberately withholding the rollout of 83,000 packages when you already have over 100,000 on the waitlist. These people are on average waiting at least six months and up to 15 months. That's over a year of extra stress on the individual and their family. Tasmania's got the oldest population in the country, so what happens in aged care hits us hardest and hits us first.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended that we should implement continuous reforms and ensure equitable access to aged care. Since then, to be fair to Labor, some good steps have been taken in our aged-care industry—better pay for carers and revamps of outdated care homes; all good things. But Tasmania has the greatest need for community-care packages and is the hardest hit by a government deliberately withholding them. The oldest, poorest, sickest state is the one that feels the greatest pain by a government induced shortage. We are the ones who pay. We need to streamline the assessment process and ensure the effective rollout of aged-care packages to all Australians. No-one should have to wait 15 months for a hand.