PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (11:41): There are many times that I've got up in this House or in the Federation Chamber to address this issue of aged care and the failures that our elderly Australians are experiencing under this government. The incompetence is mind-boggling. We have 100,000 people waiting to be assessed.
We have 100,000 people who have been assessed, albeit with the failures within that system, who are now waiting to actually receive the care they have been approved for. So we have 200,000 people. The waiting times are blowing out for those who are sick, who are frail already and who have waited to be assessed on the phone in the regions and then had an algorithm applied to see what level of care they need and then waited until there is a service provider in the region who can actually provide that care.
I hear over and over again tragic stories from people in my electorate who cannot find a provider. We're talking about the Commonwealth Home Support Program and we're talking about Support at Home, just to be confusing for everybody to understand. Then the end of the road is residential aged care.
By 'the end of the road' I mean that most Australians want to age safely in their homes. That is not unreasonable. But what we have is a government that is slow to act and slow to implement.
Even when they do implement, it might be 60 per cent of an actual package that is delivered. A person may be assessed for a package and the government think they're playing very cute by providing only 60 per cent of that package. So people might be able to have an occupational therapist come to their home.
They might be able to go to a physiotherapist. But that funding is going to run out. The pressure that has been put on those elderly to pay additional out-of-pocket costs then is frankly outrageous.
We have a government who are happy to spend additional dollars or, in fact, rip out funding from those in private health insurance so they can apparently spend an additional $11 billion on residential aged care that people largely don't want to go to and would not need if they were provided with the care they could have at home and therefore costing the taxpayer a huge amount of money.
Every aged-care bed in a residential aged-care facility costs a whole lot more than a Commonwealth Home Support Program package or Support at Home. So we have a government and a minister who are flailing around at the edges pretending that they're acting and dealing with the wait times. Instead, they are dealing with algorithm assessments that mean people are not getting the care they need.
The delays between being assessed and having a package approved mean people's actual needs can go from a level 2, which is some support, to a level 4. Guess what happens then? They have to go through the assessment process again.
I happen to have an elderly blind man in my electorate who was assessed over the phone. I want to know which bureaucrat can actually make an assessment over the phone of what a blind man is able to do in his home. Most of the people in my electorate are pretty tough, I can tell you.
There are a lot of men who are pretty tough, and this is an elderly blind man. If he's asked if he can do X, Y or Z in his home, if he's asked if he can shower, I guarantee you his answer would be, 'Yes, I can do that.' It's because he doesn't want to be weak. He doesn't want to be in need.
But the fact of the matter is that, if an occupational therapist had done that assessment, they would have seen very clearly that he does need additional care. I've got to say that this government is out of touch. They're fantastic with the headlines, they're fantastic with the marketing—go them!
That is not governing for Australia and it's not governing for elderly Australians' needs and rights as they age.