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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-18 Daily Xml
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Aged-Care Facilities

Mrs PEARCE (King) (15:15): I want to take some time today to speak about those who have helped to shape this country, because right now they need help more than ever.

We all in some way or another have an understanding of what is occurring in our residential aged-care facilities, and it is heartbreaking. These are people who have contributed to our country by working hard, paying their fair share of taxes and raising their families. They deserve to age with dignity, as we all do, and we must work together to improve the situation and to ensure that aged care is better for all who need it and those who work in the sector. Sadly, the current federal government have had more than a decade to fix this system, but under their watch it has only become worse.

All the while, aged-care workers are turning up to work day after day, night after night, and doing their absolute best with what they have to show love and respect to those in their care. Currently, there are nurses and aged-care workers who are being pushed to the brink with the added challenge of managing COVID-19, and it absolutely astounds me to learn that the minister responsible for aged care in this current federal government, led by Mr Morrison, would attend a cricket match in Hobart over a Senate select committee on COVID-19. We cannot trust them to fix the aged-care crisis. We cannot trust them to take responsibility. We cannot trust them to change.

I have taken the time to listen to those who work in this sector. I have heard the heart-wrenching stories from aged-care workers, like Julie who spoke at the aged-care rally recently. Having 40 years' experience in the industry, she shared how strong a toll it has taken and how it is pushing her to breaking point. This is a person who works in the industry because she has a genuine passion about providing dignity to older Australians. I also heard stories from the likes of Norma and Selina, who have 15 and 13 years respectively in the industry. They are tired of seeing food standards degrade, residents forced to use the same pad for hours in a day, washing residents with unsuitable equipment because they do not have the resources and being unable to put a resident to bed as they could not find a bedsheet.

Just this weekend, I bumped into a gentleman from my community as he was going to vote. He works in aged care, and he shared with me how painful it is to have a resident look him in the eyes, begging him to stay just a little longer, when he knows he simply does not have the time to give when he has so many more to tend to before his shift is done. Not having enough supplies, not having enough time and not having enough staff is forcing people like this gentleman, Julie, Norma and Selina to make heartbreaking decisions about who gets seen and when. This is not good enough, and we need to be doing more to back in workers in aged care. It starts by backing in those who want to train up to work in the sector.

I am pleased that this Malinauskas Labor government is reinstating TAFE SA courses in aged care that had been dropped by the former Marshall government. It also begins with taking responsibility and acting—something the Morrison Liberal government is often too resistant to do. A federal Labor Albanese government is committed to fixing the crisis in aged care and ensuring that older Australians are not just a number and not just a burden and are given the respect, dignity and attention they deserve.

By putting nurses back into aged-care homes and providing medical attention the moment residents need it, staff can spend more time with residents, helping people have a shower, get dressed, eat a meal or have a conversation, providing so dearly needed company and human interaction for residents.

They can provide better food for residents so they are getting the nutrition they need. They can improve transparency in reporting on expenditure, so we can identify providers who are not doing the right thing and importantly support and fund a real pay rise for aged-care workers because high standards of care require supporting higher wages for aged-care workers currently performing backbreaking work for as little as $22 an hour. I am so pleased that federal Labor has a plan—a plan not to turn their back on the crisis afflicting aged care but to take it head-on and solve it.

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