industry & reform
Aged Care Matters director and independent candidate for Flinders , Sarah Russell . Photo : Supplied
I was able to analyse that document , which was intended for the candidates , but we ended up having none after a very messy process . I really thought we needed a candidate to give momentum to this political representation that was genuine , that was authentic , that was based on what the people in the electorate want , not what parties want or what politicians want . I argued for that case and then I thought , ‘ Well , I should put my money where my mouth is ,’ so I put myself up for nomination with some other people and I was chosen . I woke up on a Monday morning thinking , ‘ What have I done ? I ’ m now the candidate !’
I ’ m very excited now and I ’ m giving this a red hot go , but it ’ s a huge thing to put myself forward for . We ’ re the second oldest electorate in the state of Victoria , so we will be fighting on issues that affect older people .
You will be contesting the seat of Flinders , currently held by the health minister Greg Hunt . What are your thoughts on his handling of the aged care system over the past two years ? First of all , Greg Hunt is the minister for health and the minister for aged care . He became the minister for aged care 12 months ago . Richard Colbeck is the minister for aged care services . So I have had the minister for aged care in my electorate for the last 12 months , and I have been arguing against him on so many things . In fact , I ’ ve been a very outspoken critic of the government ’ s policies on aged care : particularly their response to the royal commission , their response to all the inquiries over the last decade , their Covid response , and their lack of planning .
Unfortunately for me , Greg Hunt is not standing again . I was looking forward very much to debating these issues with him at candidate forums because I think he ’ s got some questions that need to be answered . But he has decided not to recontest the seat , so there ’ s a new candidate , Zoe McKenzie , standing for Flinders .
I don ’ t know anything about Zoe as an individual candidate , but she represents the Liberal Party that I have been so critical of over the last 12 months , the last six years really , but my criticism has escalated over the last 12 months because so much that happened in the pandemic happened because we didn ’ t have the systems reform that we needed , and we have known about , for at least 10 years .
What are your thoughts on the progress of reform more than a year on from the final report of the royal commission ? I ’ m very disappointed . Before the royal commission there had been numerous inquiries . Let ’ s just take one , the workforce inquiry in 2017 . It seems to me the only recommendation that was really implemented was to have a workforce strategy task force which cost another million dollars .
I ’ d challenge anybody to be able to read that report . I found it full of ‘ managerial speak ’: it ’ s not surprising that the recommendations haven ’ t been implemented because I don ’ t think anyone could really understand them .
Then we have a royal commission because there ’ s a terrible story on Four Corners , thanks to Anne Connolly who exposed some of the dreadful things that
“ The way you restore trust is to do what you say you ’ re going to do .
have been happening in aged care homes . After two years of a royal commission we have 148 excellent recommendations to consider , even though we had two commissioners who had very different views about what should happen , which made the recommendations a bit messy . But nonetheless , the government still had 148 very good recommendations to consider .
Now , what have they actually implemented in the last 12 months ? Can anybody actually see change ? I speak a lot to families and residents in age care homes and staff , and I am hearing that it is worse now than it has been in the last 10 years . To me , it ’ s criminal that the government has just kept kicking the can down the road : they haven ’ t implemented what needs to be implemented .
The workforce issue in the pandemic has been one of the reasons why this virus has spread like wildfire , one of the reasons why residents have died from Covid , and one of the reasons why families have been locked out of age care homes . The handling of the pandemic almost needs a royal commission in itself , because in my view it has been , and I ’ m going to use a very strong word here , but I think it ’ s been criminal . And the neglect by this government on aged care reform makes me very angry .
As someone with lived experience of navigating the aged care system and speaking with residents every day , what ’ s missing from the national discussion about aged care ? We really need to listen to older people . I ’ ve lived through the era when we had home and community care services in Victoria . We changed the system to home care packages and community home care support without consulting older people . We never used the word “ navigating ” before . The navigating of this system has
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