Page 1150 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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Recently, I met with providers that run a number of aged care facilities. Their concerns are not just with pay, although pay and the ability to pay their staff seem to be at the top of the list. It is an area that, in the ACT, certainly is within the purview of the federal government. I have asked them to collect details to find out what is really the shortfall for each of their facilities. I have said that I am quite willing to facilitate meetings by them with the new federal minister so that they can go and put their case to him and he can learn first-hand, as I am sure he does in other parts of the country, exactly what the challenges are, especially those particular to the ACT.
We have seen from the federal government with the announcement earlier this week of hundreds of more beds for the ACT a firm indication of the federal government’s commitment to helping people age and age in appropriate facilities should they require them. They have also made available more nursing positions so that we can train more nurses to make up for the shortfall that is being experienced, as we are told so often by the government, round the world.
But it has been put to me that there are things that the ACT government can do. If you look at the motion you will see that it does not mention that the ACT government is interested in doing anything at all in this regard. I recall seeing a letter to the editor published recently about an aged care facility which was having to pay a change-of-use charge. The author of the letter called on the government to waive this charge because it was obviously adding to the costs and the burden that are passed on to the residents. A simple thing that the ACT government can do to make nursing home facilities and aged care facilities more viable would be to get rid of that cost.
The second thing that a number of the facilities have said to me is that the inordinate amount of time that has been wasted by this government in getting approvals through for the development of aged care facilities has added dramatically to their costs. The government does not seem to understand the old adage that time is money and for any sort of development, let alone a community-based development for an aged care facility, any more cost that is added to that burden or any delays that are put in place obviously add to the costs that they have to carry. Perhaps that should be looked at.
I know that the government will come back and say that it has a land bank and things will happen in the future. There is no indication that it is happening any faster and I think that we need to make sure that we take every opportunity that we can to remove any burden on any aged care, retirement and nursing facility that we can and make them more cost-effective. We should also look at providing some concessions in regard to the actual cost of the developments when they are being undertaken.
The other thing that I think we need to look at is, of course, the whole area of education and training and the sort of image that we put out about aged care. That is also a role that I think the ACT government can undertake, particularly in ACT government schools. As I say that we are joined by the minister for education. Quite clearly, lots of young people would not even consider entering the field of aged care. The point has been made, and I think the point is correct: why would you bother if there is a wage disparity?
Until we have educated enough people to overcome the skill shortage, which falls fairly and squarely within the bailiwick of the ACT government, this is an area that we will
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