By Bonny Burrows
McMillan MP Russell Broadbent has continued his fight against his own government’s aged care bed allocation process, this time questioning why a non-provider of the service was given funding while a local facility missed out.
During a parliamentary speech on 15 June, Mr Broadbent asked his government why property group Lendlease, which specialises in construction, property and infrastructure management, was allocated 756 beds, totalling $41,958,000, while Bunyip’s Hillview Aged Care, which applied for 14 beds worth $917,000, received none.
“They (Lendlease) do not deliver aged care, to my knowledge – I could be enlightened on that – whereas Hillview at Bunyip, which needs 14 beds, had nil allocation,” Mr Broadbent said.
He argued Lendlease had sold out of their aged care beds because it was not their core product and had “drifted back” into the market because “they may need some beds”.
Mr Broadbent announced in March 2017 he was “going to war” on his own government due to its treatment of local, community aged care providers.
He told the Gazette at the time that “time and time again” smaller facilities were missing out on bed allocations to larger company-owned providers.
During his latest parliamentary speech on the matter, the local MP said he had asked Hillview to “work closely” with the department to ensure their application was “correct and appropriate”.
However, he had recently been told they were not communicating with a person, but “we only get to talk to an 1800 number”.
He argued this wasn’t the case of larger providers.
“Do you think that Lendlease, Signature Care or Innovative Care, or ICL Operations or ICL Operations Two, who were given $137 million of public money; our money, delivered from the public sector to the private sector for aged-care beds, which are messy, to say the least, yet have wonderful care; would not have a name in the department they are dealing with?” Mr Broadbent questioned government.
He told Parliament he had “just started” on the issue and he wanted answers.
“Who is it that is deciding on these beds? Who is it that leaves people like Hillview; the tiny people in Australia, the little people who deliver the service and get into the messy part of aged care; on the starting blocks with nowhere to go compared to Lendlease?” he said.
“Do Lendlease deal with incontinence pads? Does Signature Care deal with incontinence pads? It is messy when we come into this world; it is messy when we go out of this world.
“It is appropriate that this government spends its time looking at how it has allocated this money and if it is appropriate.”
Federal Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt’s office was contacted for comment, but did not respond by deadline.
