Mr DICK (Oxley) (12:11): I will pick up on what the previous speaker, the member for Goldstein, was saying.
He is 'frustrated' that he's got to defend this government's appalling record. He wants an honest conversation about
what's happening in aged care in this nation. Well, I'm going to give him one, and I'm going to give him some
honesty, because, whilst the government is 'frustrated' about motions in this parliament, I wish it were frustrated
about the 120,000 Australians who, on its watch, are waiting for home care packages. That is practically an entire
electorate of people who are not receiving the care that they desperately need. Perhaps most shocking of all is
that 72,000 elderly Australians have no home care package at all. There are 72,000 people in this country with
their names on a list—parents, loved ones, people with children and grandchildren—and the government come
to this chamber and say, 'We're frustrated that we have to get up and talk about these issues.'
I bet you they're frustrated! How about the people who are frustrated and worried about their parents, their
mothers-in-law and grandparents who are frail and invalid in their homes? That's what's frustrating, not sitting
in this chamber and lecturing everyone to just wait until you get a stronger economy. Where is it? Where is the
stronger economy? When's that happening? The last time I checked, our economy was starting to tank.
Let's not have any more weasel words from this government. Get on your feet and start apologising to Australians.
That's the first step you need to take. The number is growing. In their time, in almost seven years in government,
the waiting list for home care has grown from 88,000 to 120,000 older Australians. We have been calling for
action on reducing the waiting list since the first release of data, and we are not alone. Doctors and nurses are
banding together to call for immediate action to fix the nation's aged-care system. Fine, ignore what Labor has to
say, but listen to what the health professionals are saying. Listen to what doctors are saying about what we need
to do with regards to fixing the aged-care crisis in this country. The AMA President, Dr Tony Bartone, said that
the peak medical body 'can no longer wait and watch the aged-care system in Australia deteriorate'.
That is part of their detailed submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which
has been extended for six months and has so far received more than 6,000 submissions and heard hundreds of
hours of evidence, including of alleged neglect and mistreatment. People in aged-care facilities are malnourished.
People in aged-care facilities are dehydrated. And we hear from this government that it's frustrated that it's got
to come and debate a motion today. I'll tell you what's frustrating: it's when you're in an aged-care facility and
you're dehydrated and malnourished, or you're a son or grandchild worried about the care of your parents or your
grandparents in their own home. There is no more serious statistic in the AMA submission, when they called for
a big investment in home care packages, than that there are 119,524 older people waiting for the level of package
they had been assessed for in June, and 16,000 people had died waiting for one. And the previous speaker says,
'You shouldn't politicise this issue.' Well, it is political. You're in charge; do something about it!
So not only would we be saving people's lives; this would also help the budget, because at the moment many
older Australians are waiting for more than 12 months for the package they have been approved for and some
are waiting for more than two years. This is unacceptable. We know that 14,000 elderly Australians have had
to enter residential aged care because they could no longer stay at home waiting for the care that wasn't there.
Others enter the hospital system and emergency departments. A week does not go by without another disturbing
account emerging about the mistreatment or neglect of older Australians in residential care. Review after review
has been ignored. Recommendations after recommendations have been ignored. Not only are the government
not putting extra money in aged care; what's worse is that the government are cutting funds meant to find ways
to improve the system.
We see time and time again that the health and wellbeing of our eldest Australians should not be a political
football. I will agree on that. But this should hardly come as a shock when we have a prime minister with an
awful track record when it comes to funding for aged care in this nation. We know that the government has
ripped billions of dollars out of the aged-care sector for the past five years. Funding for residents has indeed gone
backwards. The Prime Minister cut $1.2 billion from aged care in his first budget paper as Treasurer, backing in a $500 million cut in the 2015 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. Not with a mediocre handout but
with a decisive response that this crisis deserves, this government should be hearing these messages. I commend
the member for Parramatta for sticking up for older Australians—I'll continue to do so, as every single Labor
member will.