Ms HALL (4:35 PM) —This government has constantly failed the Australian people. Its failure has undermined their confidence in the structures and systems that we as Australians rely on to function as a cohesive society. It has undermined Australia's health services by failing to allocate enough funds to the states and by choosing to invest money in health insurance rather than health services to the extent that the New South Wales government as recently as yesterday has had to come up with $2 billion extra to make up for the shortfall in Commonwealth funds for health. It has undermined our industrial relations system by attacking workers' wages, entitlements and conditions, and by trying to advantage the employers at the expense of the workers. As the minister has said many times before, `Never forget which side you are on. You are on the side of business and against them.' That is what this government sees. They are on the side of business. Forget the workers. We on this side believe that you look after the whole of the community. You look after business, you look after the workers, and you are certainly not about taking away the entitlements, conditions and pay of workers. It has undermined the Australian culture of fairness and equality, particularly with its decision to implement a GST—a decision which will disadvantage families, and Australians who live in residential parks will be one group more disadvantaged than others.

This government has undermined Australia's welfare system, and adopted an approach of attacking Australians who need government assistance to survive and who need government assistance to find a job. It has undermined our employment service system by destroying the CES and programs that were operating successfully to assist Australians to find jobs. It has replaced it with a Job Network system that works on the principle of competition and profit. It is not the best outcome for the job seeker, not the best outcome for the unemployed person and not the best outcome for Australia as a whole. It has undermined our public education system, the system that most Australian students use, starving it of funds and propping up the wealthy private sector. It is a government based on division. It is a government that is about division between the haves and the have-nots, between the cities and rural and regional Australia. In the cities there are jobs and services, and people living there can enjoy the best of our society and the best that this government has to offer. But, unfortunately, people living in rural and regional areas—such as the area that I represent—really have to battle with such things as the closure of BHP and with many other services being removed from the Hunter area. This government has been noticeable by its absence. It has not been there for those people.

Today we are looking at Telstra. I attended the seminar in the theatrette along with a number of other members from this House. The CEO of Telstra said that it was `commercially desirable' to sack 10,000 workers. He said nothing about how desirable it was for our service and he said nothing about how desirable it was for our community as a whole. Rather, he said, it was `commercially desirable'. He said he would find it extremely frustrating if political pressure was put on him or his organisation and the government to change that decision. I find it obscene that a company that has just returned in excess of $2 billion in profit is now thinking of sacking 10,000 workers. They are 10,000 people who will not have a job, who will not be earning money, and that will have an effect throughout the whole of our community. In the electorate I represent I have noticed Telstra cars and vans with Queensland number plates on them. Do you know why that is? That is because Telstra do not have the staff on the ground in the Hunter to provide the service. They do not have the staff on the ground on the Central Coast of New South Wales to provide the service. That is now. And Telstra are considering sacking a further 10,000 workers. Tell me: how will that be for our area and for all those other regional and rural areas? This is the legacy of John Howard and his government—a legacy of division, a legacy of failing systems, and a situation where Australians are losing confidence in all those things they have come to rely on.

I will now spend some time examining the crisis that has developed in the aged care system. It is a crisis of such great magnitude that a coalition of all groups involved in that sector has come together. Yesterday I met with representatives from that coalition. We had people from the provider sector—both the charity and private sectors—representatives from nurses associations, from ACOSS and from the user groups. All these people who look at aged care from a different angle have come together because they are dissatisfied with the way the system is working. The government has really failed probably the most vulnerable group in our community, and I think that is sad. The tales that we hear in this House are symptoms of a system that is not working for those people who are relying on the government to support them. It is a system that has been starved of funds and a system that I and every other member of this House have received complaints about. We are receiving complaints from the providers—the people who are in there trying to provide a good quality service, the people who care about making sure that the people they are looking after are looked after properly. Providers are finding their funds being reduced, so they are having to cut staff and cut services to be able to continue to provide that service. The systems that are in place are just no good for that vulnerable group in the community.

In the Hunter region, for instance, there is quite a shortage of dementia and respite beds. There are only a few beds available outside Allendale, which is in the shadow minister's electorate. It is a very fine facility but, unfortunately, it covers a very large area. As we all know, as people get older, either a husband or a wife may find themselves in one of these nursing homes, or they may need to have some sort of care. Maybe the other partner does not have a drivers licence. It is very hard and very difficult for them if they cannot get to see their spouse of many years who is in a nursing home. These are just some of the problems that are occurring because of this government's failure.

The Treasurer asked for a review of nursing homes to be conducted by the Productivity Commissioner. The review came up with some recommendations, and they were really good recommendations. But what did the government do? It totally dismissed them. If it continues to do this, it will lead to great hardship. One of the recommendations in the report was this:

It is basically setting a benchmark and then, from that benchmark, re-examining the case for national uniform basic subsidies. It said that the review should be conducted transparently and independently of the government.

It also recommended that the basic subsidy rates should reflect the nursing wages, rates and conditions applicable in the aged care sector. They currently do not do this. The pressure that is being put on that sector because of that is leading to a decline in the standard that can be offered by nursing homes. Basic subsidy rates should be adjusted annually according to the indices which clearly reflect the changes in the average costs of the standardised input mix. These are seen as priorities by every group that is involved in the aged care industry, yet the government chooses to ignore it. If things go the way they are going now, we are going to get a continuing decline in the quality of care.

We need a system where there are spot checks. The accreditation system is good, in that nursing homes should be accredited—we should have a minimum standard of care available in nursing homes—but it is very paper based. The cost of having a very paper based assessment is that nursing homes are investing in the administrative side rather than the caring side. If this continues, it will lead to a further erosion of care. I have been advised that, if things keep going the way they are, a 60-bed nursing home will be forced to reduce staff by one per year for the next seven years. This will have a disastrous effect for the frail aged in our community. We do not want to see any more Riverside nursing homes. We need a system that works. We need a minister in whom we as a parliament, we as a society, and those people in involved in the aged care system, can have confidence. From the phone calls and advice that I have been receiving and the papers that I have been reading, this minister has lost the confidence of the people of Australia. Yet she remains as the Minister for Aged Care.

This government has failed not only those frail aged residents of nursing homes but also many workers in our community, including workers like Bob Taber, who was employed by Pioneer Park Pty Ltd. That company was previously known as Domino Mining Equipment Pty Ltd. Its parent company is called Retreat. Last year, on 10 June it appointed a liquidator. Prior to that, Domino Mining Equipment became Pioneer Pty Ltd. Domino Mining Equipment had been operating on the Central Coast for a very long time—for 28 years—and it was well known. The principal person in that company is called Cliff Carpenter. When Domino closed, it owed its 16 workers $400,000 in entitlements. Despite numerous letters to the minister, despite writing to the Prime Minister, I have received no response. I have even made suggestions that these workers could get some assistance under the Regional Assistance Program. But neither the minister nor the Prime Minister have even thought that worthy of a response.

Bob Taber is particularly concerned because Domino Mining Equipment has now resurfaced. It has started operating on the Central Coast, once again under Retreat—the same parent company—but still nothing has been offered to any of the workers who were made redundant when the liquidator was appointed to Pioneer. It is a very sorry saga. Here we have 16 workers—some of them will never ever work again—who are not getting any entitlement. Bob Taber and his mates have received zero dollars since being made redundant. The firm still seems to be operating in one form or another, although the actual company they were working under is not operating. Last Friday, I think it was, there was a meeting with all the interested parties and the new liquidator was given $100,000. Guess what? There is no money left for Bob Taber or for any other worker. Bob is 53—nearly 54 to be precise. He started working there on 6 March in 1980. He was made redundant on 10 June last year. On 20 May Domino Mining Equipment was changed from being `Domino Mining Equipment' to `Pioneer Park'. So very shortly after the name changed the firm went into receivership. Bob Taber was offered $42,423.84. So, after working for in excess of 19 years for one employer, that was the way he was treated. This government will do absolutely nothing to help him and his fellow workers. It is unfair, unjust. All Bob Taber and his fellow workers ask for is to be treated fairly, to be treated in a similar way to the National Textile workers. They want recognition of the fact that they live in a region that has specific employment problems and, as such, it should be one of the areas that is eligible for assistance under the regional assistance package.

This brings me to residents that live in residential parks. Nothing could be more unfair than the fact that this government is going to charge these people the GST on their rental. It is unfair. It is discriminatory. Why should these residents be treated differently from any other residential renter in Australia? The Prime Minister refuses to answer questions on this. The Minister for Community Services tells the people in his electorate who vote for him that he thinks it is unfair. Other members in this House have told voters in their electorates that they think it is unfair, yet they do not act to change it. I think it is a mistake that these residents are going to be charged the GST on their rental. I feel that the government should recognise the fact and admit that they have made a mistake. I think it is a decision that was taken by a bureaucrat in a little room in Canberra who thought that people living in a residential park were people living in caravans on holidays and who had absolutely no idea of the lifestyle that these people have chosen. It is a communal style of living. They are usually pensioners. The highest number of people living in parks within the Shortland electorate and, I know, other electorates on the Central Coast, in the Hunter and on the Mid-North Coast, tend to be pensioners. They tend to be people on fixed incomes and people that are really not in the position to come up with the extra money. The average rental that they pay each week would be $80. The tax will be five per cent, so that will be an extra $4 a week. They will be getting an increase in rental assistance, but so will every other person in Australia that is receiving rental assistance. It is unfair and it is discriminatory.

I have some constituents who live in residential parks coming to Canberra next Tuesday. I wrote to the Treasurer and asked him if he would be prepared to meet them. He has phoned my office and said he is unavailable. I have written to the Prime Minister, too, and he has not even had the decency to answer my letter. This is the contempt that he is showing to average Australians—people who count on him. The Howard government stands condemned. It is condemned for the way it has systematically undermined everything that is precious in our society. It is creating a society where there are many inequalities. It has created divisions between those people who can enjoy the benefits of the government's rampant economic rationalism based on the cult of the individual, and the ordinary Australian who is struggling to survive. This is a government for its friends with money, not a government for average Australians.