I too rise to speak on the Aged Care Restrictive Practices Substitute Decision-maker Bill 2024. This is a really important bill, and I really wish that my mum was able to sit here today in the chamber, because my mum was an aged care worker for the better part of a decade, much later in her career just before retirement. Mum had a lot to say about being an aged care worker and the type of care and compassion that she provided to people in the late stages of their lives and indeed to folks who had dementia, like my grandma, who was in an aged care facility, and what that was like, having cared many, many years prior for my grandma, who got dementia later in her life. Mum went on and had a career change as an aged care worker working in a dementia unit – how difficult and taxing that was on my mum. Mum had a lot to say, particularly during COVID, about how tough it was to be an aged care worker and – I am sure she would not mind me saying this, because she is not here in the chamber – being a woman in her early 60s, a very youthful early 60s, what that was like having to care for people, particularly in a dementia ward during that time wearing the full PPE gear, and the reaction of people who had dementia and Alzheimer’s towards that. It was a really difficult time.
My mum had a lot to say about the neglect of the aged care sector while it was under a federal Liberal government for nine to 10 years and what that was like. My mum really welcomed a federal Labor government coming into power a couple of years ago, in particular the federal minister the Honourable Anika Wells doing an absolute power of well-overdue work in this sector. I know this bill is not entirely attributed to that, but indeed we are here making changes, really important changes, to help protect really vulnerable elderly Victorians in the later stage of their lives whilst also ensuring that aged care workers have the support and the protections in place that they need to perform a really important job.
I do want to put on record that my mum worked for Bupa and the way in which she was treated as an aged care worker and the way they treated their aged care workers in northern New South Wales. Mum talked to me on a daily basis, and I was reminded of one of the most appalling practices and the absolute disregard for their workers, and this is why it is so important to respect these workers. It led every single day to my mum getting multiple texts because they were unable to get people to turn up for work. People took sick leave and mental health leave or just did not turn up to work because they were treated so poorly as part of that aged care facility. I do hope now that my mum has retired – she had to retire early because she could not take it any longer, how she was treated – that she can see it is a really important, caring, frontline profession looking after very vulnerable Australians. She could not believe the way in which she was treated.
But I digress. That is not wholly what this bill is about, but I do think it is really important, like the previous speaker said, to acknowledge the extraordinary work and the compassion and the care that aged care workers give to our senior and vulnerable Australians and Victorians. Quite often they are our mums and dads. It may well one day be us ending up there. That is why there has been an imperative and an urgency here in this country since the federal Albanese Labor government came to power to go and absolutely overhaul this industry and some of the practices that have taken place.
The main purpose of this bill is to bring out legislation in line with the requirements of the Commonwealth’s Aged Care Act 1997 and establish a hierarchy of decision-makers who will be able, most importantly, to act in Victoria as restrictive practice substitutes.
It is about making sure that when it comes to making those really big decisions about aged care residents, our centres have an order of people to go through to make those decisions. It is about ensuring that older people have as much autonomy as possible about the decisions that directly concern them. As my mum and dad get older and my in-laws get older they talk to me about the importance of still having that autonomy and that fierce independence of not only decisions that they are making about themselves, including where they will live as they get older, but also the ability to stay at home and be able to look after themselves into the much later years in their life. Autonomy and independence really matter to people.
I would say the aged care sector is hard work, and over the last couple of years all levels of government have had that really important conversation. They have woken up to how important this sector is, and they have had that important conversation about this work and this industry. Indeed our government really does believe that older Victorians should be able to access the high-quality care they need that works for them and that, most importantly, is closer to home. Whether they go into an aged care facility or a retirement village, folks still want to be close to their family. They want to be connected to their children, their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren. It is why our public sector residential aged care services play such an important role in making sure that all Victorians, regardless of where you live or who you are, can access this care.
I feel really proud of the fact that in Victoria we have the largest public sector aged care footprint of any state or territory, considering that the federal government is the primary source of funding and regulation for aged care services. It means that we have taken a hands-on approach to looking after vulnerable folks here in this state who require aged care services. We have not just left it up to the feds, we have been hands-on. We know we need to be in there, and we are committed to providing high-quality care and high-quality services that folks need and deserve. This footprint consists of more than 5400 beds across 171 facilities, with 90 per cent of them being in rural and regional areas. In more than 50 of them our public sector aged care providers are the only providers and at the same time a major employer for those towns.
I do have to say that I am really proud of the fact that our state-run facilities are governed by nation-leading nurse-to-resident ratios. I remember when we introduced this my mum said, ‘Thank God.’ She knew that it would make a difference. She knew what it was like working in an aged care facility where the buzzer was going off all night minute after minute because they did not have enough aged care workers or even nurses within the residential care facility to be able to help residents bathe and have a wash before bed, to turn them over so they did not end up with bed ulcers, to make sure that they had had dinner or to even just help them put on the TV.
I think one of the things in the national conversation that I felt we were finally talking about is that an aged care facility to us is about being a service and a facility. They are sort of really cold words. For people that live in these places, this is their home. That room is their home; the dining room is their kitchen. They may no longer be able to cook meals for themselves, but they certainly deserve the dignity of being able to be assisted to sit at a dining table and eat proper food in the aged care home. Being able to have the national conversation around that really highlighted the need to improve a lot of things, like the type of food that was being served at these facilities. I know that the nurse-to-resident ratio was really important. It was something that my mum talked to me daily about – she had a lot of grievances of the place that she worked – right up until the day that she left. She talked about the difference that that would make not only for aged care workers but, really importantly, for the residents that call those places home. That was a really good thing.
I will run out of time, but I do have to say this is a really great bill. This is a really, really important bill that is being brought before the house. I commend the minister, and I would like to give a big shout-out and thank all of the aged care workers that look after folks right across Victoria.
