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become so complex , the information has been so hard to access , that it ’ s not until you actually try to access aged care services that people see just how difficult it is .
It wasn ’ t this difficult 20 years ago . You ’ d go to your GP , you ’ d go to your local council . You could start to access services . We had excellent home and community care services in Victoria that managed without all this complexity . I don ’ t understand why we have made these significant changes to our aged care system without consulting the people who it impacts , and that is older people .
You were the co-founder of Aged Care Matters , which started with 60 members and now has five-and-a-half thousand . How do you plan to bring that into your role if you do win the seat ? When you think about independence in parliament right now , we ’ ve got Andrew Wilkie . He obviously cares about a lot of issues but gambling is his main one . We ’ ve got Helen Haines who ’ s been a loud advocate for the integrity commission . Zali Steggall is a loud advocate for climate action . If I get elected , I will be a loud advocate for aged care . I will also be a loud advocate for other issues that matter , but aged care will be my primary portfolio that I will advocate on , because I feel that we need someone who ’ s had lived experience . My mother and father were in an aged care home , so there ’ s a lot of lived experience in me plus all these people I talk with .
I founded Aged Care Matters on my own , but I brought in an executive team who had expertise in certain areas . As with any grassroots organisation , you need people with specific expertise , like legal expertise , financial expertise , I needed a manager of an aged care home , I needed an older person who uses services . You need people who have different expertise as I can ’ t cover everything .
The Aged Care Matters Facebook group has become so important in this discussion around aged care because many journalists go there to see what ’ s happening on the ground . And seeing what families are saying , what residents are saying , and recipients of home care packages . They ’ re all speaking there without fear of favour .
The thing people need to know about me as a candidate , and I did mention to a Guardian journalist that I was the Jacqui
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Lambie of the left , because like her I speak without fear or favour . I speak what I believe to be the truth . I am not tied to a political party , and I am consulting widely with my community . And I will be representing my community .
A real theme on the Aged Care Matters website is a lack of public confidence and sense of betrayal in the government ’ s response to the age care crisis . How do we go about restoring people ’ s faith in the government ? I don ’ t think we can restore faith in this particular government . I think this government has failed aged care , and has failed other areas as well , and that is the primary reason why I am standing . I think this current government needs to go . I want it gone . Because I do believe it has failed . Honestly , I don ’ t trust this government , and I think a lot of people have lost trust in a lot of public institutions over the last decade .
We need to restore trust , and the way you restore trust is to do what you say you ’ re going to do . You don ’ t create spin and you don ’ t create a ‘ word salad ’ of
“ I will be a loud advocate for aged care .
things that no one can understand . If a journalist asks you a question , you answer those questions . You don ’ t have talking points that you try to get across . You just listen to the questions and you answer them to the best of your ability .
People will start to trust politicians again if they ’ re seen to be speaking authentically and genuinely . That ’ s the only way I know how to behave in this world . I ’ m not speaking on behalf of anybody .
I think other politicians can learn from the independents who are standing because there ’ s so much spin at the moment , there are so many communication managers out there trying to create an image or to build an image . We don ’ t need to do that . We just need to be authentic and be honest and be honourable .
People now talk a lot about integrity , but as my late mother would say , “ It ’ s deeds , not words ”. So I ’ m hoping that people will see that it ’ s my deeds that are honourable and I will do what I say I will do and I will , as I said , consult with my community .
If you are successful in the election , what are your hopes for the future of the aged care sector ? I hope that it actually stops doing band aid solutions , and we stop throwing money at a dysfunctional system . I think there are some things that are absolutely fundamental . We must have a new aged care Act that has the human rights perspective of the older person front and centre .
We currently have an aged care act that is for the providers ; it is primarily about bringing capital or private money into the aged care sector . We need a new aged care act and we need the older person ’ s human rights to be what guides that act .
We also desperately need financial transparency . If you ’ re going to give billions of dollars to private providers to implement a service like an aged care home , you need to know how they ’ re spending our taxpayer ’ s money . Are they spending it on direct care for the resident , which is how they should be spending the money , for example food , nursing care and activities , or are they spending it on executive salaries ?
If we have financial transparency , we would have the good providers in the sector and the unscrupulous ones out of the sector . I ’ ve again been arguing that for six years .
We also need transparency around complaints . If for example there has been 20 complaints in an aged care home about medication errors , I would like to know about that before deciding to put my mother into that home . But you don ’ t even know who ’ s complaining , which aged care homes are getting all the complaints , and what the complaints are about .
We also don ’ t know rosters . We need to be clear about whether an aged care home has registered nurses on site 24 hours a day . We need to be allowed to access that information easily . I had a provider say to me when I asked some of those questions : ‘ That information is commercial in confidence . I am not allowed to tell you .’
Now that should not be allowed . This is a home for elderly , vulnerable people and we absolutely need to fix some of these fundamental , systemic problems that are causing older people in age care homes to experience neglect and abuse . ■