Adams Paul: Social Security (Long-term Residential Care) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Adams Paul: Social Security (Long-term Residential Care) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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PAUL ADAMS (United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to speak to the third reading of the Social Security (Long-term Residential Care) Amendment Bill. This bill has had the support of the entire number of parties in Parliament apart from ACT. In all fairness the deputy chair of the Social Services Committee Muriel Newman made some great contributions towards this bill during the committee’s discussions on it. I believe she had her head round the issues that we are talking about today and that have been coming through in the majority of the speeches from the Opposition parties but because of the philosophy of her party she has chosen to vote against the bill and I respect that. 
However as we discussed these issues at the select committee the main thing that came up from contributor after contributor from all the parties apart from Labour was the unanimous agreement that there were issues that we needed to deal with. Strangely only the Government members of the committee were very quiet on those. This is a Government bill. I am only a first-term MP and I could not understand why those issues which had been very clearly put before the select committee were not being dealt with. All the non-Government members sitting around that table voiced their concern and said that the issues that had been brought to our attention definitely needed to be dealt with. It was unanimous. Yet when we questioned the officials we were told time after time that those issues had nothing to do with the legislation and could be dealt with only by Government policy. 
These are serious issues affecting the elderly in this nation. Those people have in many cases been through two world wars. They have been through the Depression. They have seen Government after Government. I clearly remember my dad saying to me that if he had to tighten his belt one more time he would have to cut himself in half. Now those people are in rest homes and care centres throughout this nation. 
It is not that there are not people who want to care for them because there are. We heard from some wonderful groups of people who were passionate about caring for the elderly. But they have had a ceiling put on their funding. There has been no allowance for inflation. Those people have had burden upon burden put upon them as they have had to deal with compliance cost after compliance cost. They have had to operate in an environment in which we have a low unemployment level—which we are very joyful about. They run a 24-hour care service and have to compete against the nursing sector and hospitals for staff. Those people are being squeezed out. As I said previously when a well-respected organisation like The Salvation Army says it cannot afford to help and care for elderly people then I say to the Government “Shame! Shame on you if you will not take the time to address these issues!”. 
If these issues are a case of Government policy then United Future stands again in this third reading and says that the Government needs to bring that policy to its Cabinet table. I believe that all Opposition parties in this House would agree with me and would echo my concerns that it is absolutely and totally unacceptable that we can put this sector at risk—and it is definitely at risk now. Yet there is nothing on the visible horizon that it can see that can help it. That is a concern to me. 
I have also previously said that these issues occur not only amongst those who care for the elderly; the very same issues affect those who look after the disabled in this nation. They do a fantastic job yet they are hamstrung by lack of finances. 
I say that these elderly people who have worked hard and diligently in this nation deserve better in their latter days. United Future will support this bill because a small part of it removes asset testing. I do not believe that anybody believes that these people in their last days should have to go through such a regime. But really that is the only issue that this bill is dealing with. All the major issues concerning the elderly in this nation have not been dealt with in this bill because they are Government policy. United Future says to the Government that it should address that Government policy urgently for the sake of the elderly in this nation.