Ms SHORT (1:01 PM) —I wish to draw your attention to the plight of war veterans in my electorate. I am sure all members would agree that our sick and frail veterans deserve the best of nursing care. Yet it appears to me that those who rely on community nursing are now at the sharp end of the government funding cuts. Not only are the veterans unhappy; so too are the nurses who care for them. Community nurses want to know why veterans who require what is considered high cost home nursing care are the targets of funding cuts, so much so that many have to consider leaving the comfort of their homes and the love of their families to go into residential care. These funding cuts attack both nurses and veterans. The nurses who take on these clients are required to complete application forms every three months, and each one takes five hours to complete. On top of this, many experienced nurses have had their pay reduced. Not surprisingly, they are leaving the system and our veterans are missing out on their expertise. Those who stay have less time to tend to their clients. They have a grand total of 26 minutes to shower, dress and feed a patient. How is it possible for a nurse to give someone the benefit of companionable small talk when she is so rushed?

The only winner here is the government, and it is only winning in a most insidious way. Let us take a look at the showering policy. High care veterans are now entitled to only two or three showers a week. My electorate of Ryan is a hot and humid place in summer, as are many other places across Australia. Just last week I received in my office a brochure from the Council on the Ageing, which advised the elderly to take extra baths and showers during the hot summer months because they are at greater risk of heat stroke than the rest of the population. But our high cost veterans—those in most need—can only have two or three showers a week. It is shameful that our veterans are treated in such a way. I am sure they do not understand why, in their later years, they are forced to suffer the indignity of being unwashed; why the nurse can only spend 26 minutes tending to their needs; why they must provide their own bandages and get their own prescriptions filled. If these people need help showering, how can we expect them to get out to the chemist every time they need a medication?

Our veterans who fought for this country, and whose courage we honour on Anzac Day, are being reduced to a 26-minute block of time which is being funded as cheaply as possible. Where is the gratitude and where is the compassion? It is not the nurses who lack compassion. They certainly do not stay in community nursing for the money. It is our government that lacks the compassion. It is a government that has spent millions of dollars advertising its GST and millions of dollars more trying to fix the economic downturn this very GST caused. While this government is busy spending million of dollars advertising and atoning for its own bad policies, our veterans our being told they can only have two showers a week and their carers are being underpaid. I am not relaxed and comfortable about that.