Nurses join campaign to pressure PM Scott Morrison on aged care

Marginal government seats will be targeted with a “shocking tale of neglect” of elderly Australians in aged care.

Nurses will join a landmark battle to demand the Federal Government dramatically boost aged-care funding to end the “shocking tale of neglect” of the elderly identified by the aged-care royal commission.

The 300,000-strong Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is calling for a big increase in the number and ratio of nurses in aged care after evidence to the royal commission that they have been slashed in the past two decades. Federal secretary Annie Butler said the union wanted government backing for mandatory levels and ratios of nurses.

It is also calling for a big increase in the number of all care workers.

Lack of staff – trained staff particularly – were key causes of problems in nursing homes identified by the royal commission.

Ms Butler said if the government did not listen “we will work to get the community on side and make this a top election issue”.

The push comes amid growing political pressure on the Morrison Government, with a new lobby group of more than 1000 private, church and charity aged-care providers vowing to target marginal seats around Australia, including two in South Australia.

Australia Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Annie Butler. Picture: Rob Leeson.

The Australian Aged Care Collaboration said yesterday it had identified electorates with the oldest populations, many in the bush, to pressure MPs to double aged-care funding with an extra $20bn.

It claimed that would bring Australia’s budget in line with comparable countries.

Two of the five “oldest” electorates in SA are marginal, led by Mayo, held by Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie, with just over half of constituents over 55, and Boothby, held by Nicolle Flint. Sturt, held by James Stevens, was also listed but has a margin of almost 7 per cent after the 2019 election.

Ms Sharkie, while supporting “significantly more funding” for aged care, hit out at the industry as a major part of the problem.

“Frankly I would be loath to throw good money after bad in a system that has resisted scrutiny and regulation,” she said. It needed to improve staff training and staffing levels, be open and transparent about where it spent taxpayer money and be prepared to have fees and charges scrutinised and regulated.

“The sector has refused at every turn to be authentic and accountable with taxpayer funds in relation to costs of care, food and management fees,” Ms Sharkie said.

Ms Flint said she had also supported the aged in her electorate and pointed to securing federal funding to re-open the Repat. The AACC campaign uses TV and social media ads and email to push a petition demanding change in the wake of the royal commission’s report, due on February 26, and ahead of the federal budget in May and a possible election later this year.

Spokeswoman Pat Sparrow said the aim was to elevate aged care to a top-tier political issue and she hoped voters would “unite as a community to make sure that our older people are getting the best service they can”.

Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie. Picture: Roy Vandervegt

Health Minister Greg Hunt, whose Victorian seat of Flinders is also being targeted, said the government would make its key response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in the Budget, but said critics failed to count all the money Canberra spent on aged care.

He said $12bn from the medical and pharmaceutical benefits schemes should also be included. The royal commission is expected to push for radical but costly reforms designed to improve care standards, boost staffing levels and slash waiting lists for home care. Its interim report in 2019 found a “sad and shocking system, that diminishes Australia as a nation”.

Key issues include cost cutting, which has led to poor food quality and malnutrition, insufficient and undertrained staff, overuse of drugs to sedate residents, and a blowout in waiting lists for home care packages with 100,000 people yet to receive help to stay in their own house. Thousands died waiting for packages or transferred to a nursing home.

The AACC says more than 20 reports over two decades to improve care have been ignored. While critics point out the problems identified by the commission happened in the lobby groups’ own homes, Ms Sparrow said the root problem was lack of funding, which at 1.2 per cent of GDP was half the OECD average.

The Federal Government spent $21.5bn on aged care last year, while consumers contributed about $4bn, with the bulk of spending going on about 240,000 people in nursing homes.