Judi Moylan & Children In Detention, National Aged Care Alliance Election Kit Stephen Smith - Shadow Minister for Immigration, Acting Shadow Minister for Ageing & Seniors

Doorstop Interview

Transcript - Parliament House, Sydney - 30 June 2004

SMITH:  A couple of different matters today, an immigration matter and an aged care matter. 

Firstly on immigration, you would have seen reports overnight of a letter signed by Judi Moylan, Member for Pearce, senior backbencher and a former Government Minister complaining about the Government’s policy of detention of children in immigration detention. 

The letter is dated May and she refers to long term detention of children.  This is clearly in reference to the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Children in Detention Report. 

Here for the first time we have a senior Government figure lending support to Labor’s policy that children in detention ought to be released immediately.  I again call on the Government to reverse its policy in this area – to release children immediately from immigration detention and set up the system so this can’t happen again.

Secondly in the aged care area, wearing my Acting Ageing and Seniors cap, today the National Aged Care Alliance released its federal election kit which will be of benefit to the community, the public and candidates in the run up to the next federal election. 

An important point is the Alliance calling for a benchmark of care approach.  This is the approach that Labor adopted in the 2001 election, and an approach that I’ve indicated I’m very strongly sympathetic to.  We have that under active consideration in the run up to the declaration of our election commitments. 

The Alliance also makes the point that there are continuing difficulties so far as aged care is concerned.  Recurrent expenses in the industry, and also capital difficulties.  It again makes the point that the Howard Government has neglected the aged care area for the time it has been in office.  They changed the system in 1997, and since then, the industry has argued consistently that the Government has neglected it, and we see from the Howard Government an attempt at a last minute political fix with the aged care budget package.

Interestingly, yesterday the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare released residential aged care statistics and it showed that in the year 2003, that the ratio of aged care operating places was 82 per 1,000 people over the age of 70 years.  When Labor left office in 1996 that ratio was 90. 

This again shows the point we’ve been making consistently for the last half dozen years that the community continues to have grave difficulty so far as access to places and also very serious concerns so far as quality of care concerns. 

So the Alliance’s approach to the residential aged care benchmark of care approach is very much consistent and sympathetic with what Labor has articulated in the past, and what you can expect to see from Labor between now and the election.

JOURNALIST:  Do you have any comments regarding media reports that two Australian military officers tried to smear the then opposition leader Kim Beazley in the lead up to the 2001 election?

SMITH:  I’m sorry I’ve got no knowledge of those matters.  I can’t help you.

JOURNALIST: Judi Moylan (inaudible).

SMITH:  Well you’ve got a former Minister, a senior backbencher, a person who has brazenly written to a constituent fragrantly standing up the Prime Minister’s approach in this area.  As I make the point, the letter is dated after the release of the HREOC report.  It’s clear that Ms Moylan has the HREOC report in mind because it refers to the long term detention of children.  The HREOC report makes it clear that the basis of all the adverse consequences for children come from long term detention.  This is the first time we’ve seen a senior member of the Howard Government lend support to Labor’s approach - our absolute commitment since 2002 that children should be released from immigration detention.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible).

SMITH:  It’s the first time to my knowledge that she has put her views in writing, she may well have raised them privately in the Government party room.  She may well have been one of the Members who has privately raised concerns about the Government’s approach.  But this letter, signed by her, is flagrantly standing up to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration’s approach in this area.  It just lends support to Labor’s view, and I believe the growing community view, that it doesn’t make sense to detain children in immigration detention for lengthy periods of time – it can’t be in the best interests of children, and certainly not in the public interest.

JOURNALIST:  The Alliance has released a wish list for all the parties to consider.  What is the Federal Opposition’s response to that wish list, particularly in the areas of recurrent funding, caring for dementia affected residents, and getting better health services between the aged care and health system?

SMITH:  The chief point that I think the Alliance is making concerns residential aged care and a benchmark of care approach, where we judge the expenses and the outcomes on the basis of quality of care outcomes. 

So far as the other matters that they have raised, I’ve made it clear that we believe that the industry has been in need of further recurrent and capital assistance.  The Government did that at the last Budget as a last minute political fix having ignored the industry’s claims for a number of years.  Labor is currently going through the Government’s Budget proposals and our own proposals with a view to releasing our detailed election commitments between now and the election.

So far as dementia is concerned, I think it is very noteworthy and appropriate that the Alliance has raised the dementia issue as a matter of grave concern.  Certainly that’s one of the matters which is uppermost in my mind.  I think the ongoing difficulties that the industry has, so far as recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure is concerned, is capital difficulties in the high care area. 

I’ve previously made the point you’ve got a clear contrast of a choice here.  The Government is very happy to go down the road of accommodation bonds for the high care level.  They are being disingenuous about that, pretending that that’s not a road they’ll go down, but that’s clear from the fine print of their Budget response that after the election, if they’re re-elected they will introduce accommodation bonds for high care level.  I believe that there are other ways, more appropriate ways of raising capital in that area, and I’ve previously indicated, as I again do today, that my attraction to the notion of no interest or low interest capital raising facilities for the industry to address their ongoing capital needs.

JOURNALIST:  Can you give any details on the Labor’s new coastguard policy?

SMITH:  This one I’m happy to say I do have some knowledge of, but I’m also happily going to leave that to Robert McClelland who is our Homeland Security Spokesperson.  I think literally as we speak he’s making some comment about that in Darwin.  So I will leave that one for Robert.

Ends. E & OE