ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - BILLS - Aged Care Bill 2024, Aged Care Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 - Second Reading

I have here the Aged Care Bill 2024. It is quite a tome. But in this volume you can't get the feeling and the emotion and the hurt and the angst and the despair and the anxiety of regional people, for whom aged care is so important. I understand it is important for everybody, but it is particularly so in regional communities, where, lately, all too many older Australians who've given so much for this country have had to be shipped out to far-flung towns to get care in their twilight years, and this is simply not good enough. This document won't expound just how bad that is for the families of those loved ones who are forced into not being able to get ageing in place.

I spoke this morning to Ross Tout. He was the chairman of Uralba aged care in Gundagai for 14 years. He's now the vice-chairman of that organisation. It is fully booked. Its 19 beds are all occupied by wonderful Gundagai people. Gundagai is a very hilly town, and Uralba aged care is right next door to the hospital. The MPS needed to be right next door to the aged-care centre in order to receive federal funding when it was opened in 2011. It's almost like an episode of Yes, Minister. I recall 'The Compassionate Society', which is episode 1 of season 2, where you had Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby talking about the best-performing hospital in Britain. The nurse who was talking to them said: 'Minister, it's one of the best run hospitals in the country. It's up for a Florence Nightingale award!' Jim Hacker says, 'Is it functioning now?' Yes, it was functioning, but it didn't have any patients. It's almost laughable. It was doing so well because it had no patients, so it was meeting all the criteria that a good hospital should for the mere fact that there weren't any patients in it.

I mention that because, at Uralba, they have a lift which joins, on this hillside location, the aged-care centre and the MPS. It has only been used, according to Ross Tout, about 10 times. Do you know why that is so? It's because there's a differentiation between the state and the federal departments that run these facilities. Rather than turn the lift on, unlock the lift and put in the patients in the aged-care centre who need to go to the MPS or to the hospital, they call an ambulance. Rest assured, there are just 50 metres separating these two facilities. But wait for it! The ambulance station is not that far away either. You could measure it in metres as well. They call the ambulance to pick up elderly patients in one facility and take them next door, because the state and federal government departments cannot agree about funding. This is right up there with Yes, Minister. This happened to Ross Tout's father, Ian, who is an 89-year-old fellow and a wonderful Australian. He gave so much to this country. And you have a situation such as that, which is just ridiculous. You've got these Tor Street facilities right next door to one another. And then you have the ambos, as good as they are. And they don't mind, because they're locals. They love their community. They do everything they can for their communities, and they have to drive up, get the patients and take them right next door.

The aged-care situation in regional Australia is dire, because you had a situation with a royal commission. No-one denies that royal commissions should not be very much adhered to in the main by governments which bring them on. But you have recommendations and then ministers not frightened to even so much as challenge a recommendation. I mention here the situation with the 24/7 nurses. You have regional communities right across my electorate and the member for Parkes's electorate, which takes up half of New South Wales—I have no doubt the member for Forrest has them too in Western Australia—with facilities that can't find registered nurses to fulfil the requirements that the aged-care recommendations said were necessary. You've got situations there like the one we had in Coolamon at Allawah Lodge, where they had to close an entire wing. In one of the three wings of that facility, they couldn't find enough nurses or staff, so they closed an entire wing of the Allawah Lodge. Fortunately, they've been able, using immigration visas, to fill those vacancies. Well done to Tony Donoghue, the general manager of the local council, which owns and operates Allawah Lodge, for being able to do that. Well done to the community for going along with it. That is fantastic.

But you also get the situation with Weddin Shire at Grenfell. They have difficulty—and I was very pleased that Weddin health council members, Chair Peter M   offitt OAM; Peter Spedding; the then mayor, Craig Bembrick; and the office of Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health, Emma McBride, were able to meet, and I was very pleased that they were able to put their situation forward: the capital investment they need, but also local aged-care concerns.

It wasn't that long ago that the aged-care centre at Harden closed. Harden, one of the little twin towns of Harden Murrumburrah, had acquired a community-paid-for, fully-subscribed facility from Galong, years ago, and moved it into the twin towns, and then, for a number of reasons—it was particularly brought about by the then operators—it just closed overnight, virtually. That led to much heartache and despair in the community.

It's important to note that, in aged care, the regions are doing it tough, particularly in trying to find the staff and trying to find the registered nurses. And why is it fair, why is it right—of course, it's not—that people who live in a community all their lives, and reach what should be their golden years, then, all of a sudden, because of a lack of beds brought about by provisions in a royal commission, have to be shuffled out of town and into communities that they are not familiar with, far away from the communities they've lived in and loved all their lives? So then, all of a sudden, they don't see their people, their families, and particularly, in the case of couples who are married for decades, they are separated for the first time in many, many years, because of funding arrangements, because of those provisions, because of lack of staffing. It's just not right. It's almost inhumane—especially if one of the couple might have early dementia, and they love seeing their partner and then, all of a sudden, they're not able to do that if their partner does not have a driver's licence. These are very real situations that I hear about, and that, no doubt, the member for Parkes hears about just about every day of the week. It's simply not good enough.

Recently, we had the Salvation Army divesting itself of its residential aged-care services in Parkes. Now, Parkes is a big community of 12,000 people. The Rosedurnate aged-care centre and retirement village in Parkes was just closed. Fortunately, the Moyne aged-care centre in Canowindra, just outside, in the electorate of Calare, was acquired by the Roshana aged-care group. But the situation of Parkes is not resolved. It is not good enough. As for an organisation like the Salvos—many regional people have given mightily to that organisation, and it is a wonderful charity, but, on this occasion, they have failed the community of Parkes. They've failed the people who they should be looking after.

Forty-five residents will be displaced, with no clear sight as to which facility they will be rehomed in. This does require urgent intervention. It's simply not good enough. The council is working hard with local families to rectify the situation, but it's very worrying, as are some of the provisions of the aged-care situation at the moment.