Scott Lynda: Social Security (Long-term Residential Care) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Scott Lynda: Social Security (Long-term Residential Care) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:621;Page:16761] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 This is a prime example of the “Maharey principle”. This Government is doing in Government what in Opposition it said it would not do and Steve Maharey said: “That’s just what you say when you’re in Opposition.” We heard this Government say at every Grey Power meeting from one end of the country to another that it would abolish income and asset testing. That is what it said time and time again. Then that promise was watered down to “the Government would remove asset testing”. I think that was on the pledge card. 
Darren Hughes 
: No it wasn’t. 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT 
: Well the Government said that at every Grey Power meeting. I was at many of them and that was said from one end of the country to the other. The problem was that when Labour got into Government it found out that the cost would be phenomenally high and it backed down on that promise. The Government has spent 5 years getting to this point with continual promises. Now it has added a gradual phased process and Grey Power is not happy because the Government has broken its promises. 
Ruth Dyson said that the Government wanted to contribute in a fair way to older people and to other social spending. The amount people can keep in assets has been increased to $150000 which means that the cost to the Government will be $110 million in the 2005-06 year. But this Government along with not keeping its promise on asset-testing removal has not invested in other aged-care services. 
Grey Power said that today it has joined the growing campaign seeking urgent funding support from district health boards for elder-care facilities. District health boards now look after aged-care funding and they have offered a 1 percent increase in fees nationwide. This Government has kept money that should be going into all sorts of aged-care services simply and utterly for that promise—one it is not even fully delivering on. 
Since 2001 rest homes have been faced with an increase of 1.83 cents per unit in the cost of electricity. Rest homes now have to provide transport and a support person to accompany any resident who goes to a specialist medical appointment and that cost includes the time of that person away from the hospital and the need for replacement. Often the cost can be up to $100 per trip. The cost of cleaning and other products used has gone up approximately 15 percent. The cost of medical supplies incontinence products and doctors’ visits have all increased markedly. While rest homes are funded for $12 per visit visits now actually cost between $20 and $30 depending on the time of day. Then there is staffing. The Government has not been able to increase the level of funding for staffing. 
So this Government has not been investing in the care of older people when those people go into rest homes. It is all very well to say that older people can keep more of their assets but those rest homes have been run down considerably under this Government. It does not care about older New Zealanders. Grey Power national president Graham Stairmand said the 1 percent offer was not fair or equitable and demonstrated that the Government did not value elderly people. The head of Grey Power said about this Government that it should stop being complacent. 
Inflation as we know is running at around 3 percent. An offer of 1 percent will lead to the closure of homes—indeed we already know that the Mary Potter Hospital in Christchurch is going to close. That hospital has been there for 90 years. Since 1913 it has been run by a Catholic order of nuns. Now 68 frail elderly people are going to be kicked out because the order cannot manage to keep the hospital going. It cannot be said that the hospital is making a profit because it is not. We have also seen that Presbyterian Support has sold its facilities in Nelson-Marlborough Canterbury Hamilton Tauranga Thames Whakatane Kerikeri and Auckland. Why? It is because this Government does not care about the elderly. It is all very well keeping this political promise in a half-hearted sort of way but when people actually get into elder-care homes they cannot get decent care because the homes are not being funded. 
This Labour Government had better just shake itself up because Grey Power now thinks the Government does not care about the elderly and that is true. The managers of those homes know they cannot deliver quality care with the level of funding they get and we all know that district health boards are in deficit are cash-strapped and cannot offer any more. We needed this Government to give more funding to aged care but it has kept the money to deliver on an income and asset-testing promise. 
The Government said originally it was going to fund $200 million. We hear tonight from Ruth Dyson that it is $100 million. What happened to the other $100 million? It was not spent on dementia units where our frailest elderly are kept. It was not spent on our home carers. 
What about the carers? This Government has previously said it stood up for carers but what happens now? There is no increase in funding for our carers—not those who care for the elderly so they can stay in their own homes. In 5 years there has been no increase in the earnings of carers. I point out that carers in rural areas travel a long way to give somebody a shower help with a dressing or with medications or cook a meal. They do not get funded for their transport. They earn $10 an hour and out of that they have to pay for their transport. 
Rural Women New Zealand is saying that that situation cannot continue. Grey Power is saying that the situation cannot continue. This Government has not been funding elderly people’s care. The Government has been keeping that money to pay for this promise but it is a broken promise and only half-heartedly delivered. 
I want to say what a National Government would have done. Indeed when we were in Government we increased the income and asset-testing level—the amount that people can keep. That is quite justifiable which is why we have been supporting an increase in the asset-testing level. But getting the balance right between the other areas of aged care—equipment management home support carers carer support dementia care hospital care and rest-home care—is where the extra money needs to be. So we would not have raised the level as high as this but we would have made sure that extra money went into aged-care services. 
If someone is looking after a husband or wife who happens to have dementia then the carer needs support. Elder-abuse services have not had that support. The National Government set up 20 elder-abuse services in this country. They have not had any increased funding or any expansion. We all know that elder abuse is increasing especially financial abuse but we have not seen any increase of funding in that area. 
What have we seen from this Government in relation to aged-care services? There has been nothing—no increases in any other form or shape—and we have Grey Power saying that this Government does not value the elderly. Grey Power wishes to see an increase in that area and it says there are 800 aged-care providers in this country and they have 25000 staff. Public hospitals used to provide the level of care for our very frail elderly people then those people were moved into residential facilities in the community nearer to their families. I thought it was a very good idea when I was working as a geriatrician and fully supported it. But these nursing hospitals have nurses in them. Such hospitals have to have registered nurses but they cost money and these hospitals can no longer afford to pay for staff members at a level sufficient to recruit staff. 
The issues of recruitment and retention of carers and nurses in our aged-care sector are at crisis point. I have here an article in my local paper: “Aged-care operators may quit”. This appeared just 2 days ago. Throughout the country every MP will have people knocking on their doors. Every MP will have people calling in to say that their aged-care sector is under immense pressure and this Government is doing absolutely nothing about it. The wage that staff in rest-home care get paid per day is $78. That is low. It has been held at that level for the whole time this Government has been in office. 
We know we have an ageing population and that that puts increased pressures on the sector. We must make allowances for that but we must care for our frailest elderly in this country and help people to stay in their homes. This bill is just a broken promise by this Government.