PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Dr RYAN (Kooyong) (11:51): I'd really like to thank the member for Casey for bringing this motion to the House. The baby boomer generation is beginning to turn 80 in 2026, and Australia's aged-care system is not equipped to handle the current demand, let alone the approaching silver tsunami. There are several actions that I'd like this government to take immediately.

Once a person is approved for Support at Home, they lose access to equipment and home adjustments through the Commonwealth Home Support Program, the CHSP. This measure is intended to stop double dipping, but it can leave some people facing gaps in their access to technology while they wait for their new Assistive Technology and Home Modifications funding. I wrote to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors about this on 25 May.

I've not yet received a substantive response to this concern. We need to make sure that older people aren't left without the equipment that they need or forced to pay for it out of their own pocket because of gaps in our system. I'm pleased to see that older people living with motor neurone disease now have priority access to ongoing support at home and immediate priority under the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme.

I raised this issue in my recent Support at Home submission. But the fact remains that there are countless other Australians with other neurodegenerative and progressive medical conditions which are associated with rapid changes in their functional capacities. Our aged care needs to recognise and act when people's circumstances demand immediate access to therapies.

The government is now allowing use of AT-HM funding for equipment obtained through private rental arrangements. Rental models work under the NDIS. We've seen that equipment rental is estimated to save the scheme as much as 85 per cent of the cost of purchasing new equipment outright.

Permitting clients to use their funds for aged care is a start, but I call on the government to invest in existing equipment loan services, like MND Victoria's assistive technology equipment loan service, to deliver a complete and robust national assistive technology loan scheme. I'm also calling on the government to take action on data collection in aged care.

Fast healthcare interoperability resources, or FHIR health record standards, are an international standard for exchanging health information. FHIR was actually created by an Australian, yet our country has not yet adopted these standards widely in aged care. The fact remains that about 6,000 Australians every year move between residential aged care and our hospital system.

If we're serious about reducing bed block, we need to ensure that functional assessments and other health data follow older Australians to whatever healthcare setting they find themselves in. This would reduce costs, it would reduce wastage, and it would reduce resource requirements across our healthcare and aged-care systems. I also ask the government to urgently address the gaps between Support at Home and the Commonwealth Home Support Program.

I ask the government to ensure Support at Home and ATHM funding are made synchronous to fund proven equipment loan programs for services like assistive technology home modifications, and to urgently adopt interoperability standards to improve the supports provided to older Australians and to reduce the costs of delivering them.