Member for Mallee - Transcript - ABC Radio National Breakfast with Rebekah Lowe - Tuesday 24 February 2026

‍

‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

‍

TOPICS : housing and care for aged people in Pyramid Hill, aged care ‘care minutes’, 24/7 registered nurse policy, regional travel burden, aged people’s visibility  

Parker  

Dr Anne Webster is the federal member for Mallee. Doctor Anne Webster, good morning. What are you hearing about this issue?

Webster  

Good morning. Fiona, good to talk to you. Yes, I have been speaking with Dan Straub, the Mayor; Drew Chislett, who is a firecracker, for the Progress Association, and I've got to say, I'm so encouraged that the community have come together and have a plan. The building itself. I remember going through it in 2019 when people were still there, residents were still in the building, and it's really quite modern. And as Dan said to me this week, you know, you could walk in and open it today, because it's still in good nick - which doesn't happen very often. Obviously, the difficulty that they have is to become an aged care facility - again, of course - the red tape and the rules and the you know, everything that would be required -  would make it impossible for Pyramid Hill to open it as such, but they could open it as a hostel or an independent living space where Support at Home and other aged care packages could be delivered. You know, you would think Northern District Community Health would be the providers, I certainly would hope so, for delivering that kind of support in the facility. As the Carrolls  just said in your replay, having to move away from a place where you have lived and raised, I think they have five boys now, grown men, of course, having their own families, I imagine, and to move away from that area where you've been very active in the volunteer space. You've got loads of friends, people who look in on you. It would be incredibly difficult. I would hate it. So, you know, we've got a lot of small towns like this, where people want to age in their home if they can, if they can't, then they want to stay in place. And I think. We need to do everything we can to facilitate that.

Parker  

But as you say, there are those bureaucratic hurdles, and there's strict accreditation standards for actual aged care in Wedderburn, north west of Bendigo, the Lions Club trying to set up an aged care facility in town for over a decade. Now, they actually have the land, which was donated by council, but they just keep hitting bureaucratic hurdles, so it is terribly difficult. So you think one answer would be to have that in home care for people who can't remain in their actual home, but have it in that hostel setting, as they say, in that building, which does, you're right, does seem fit for purpose to me. I went through it just last week, and while it certainly needs a clean up, it's still got the rooms. It wasn't built that long ago.

Webster  

No, exactly. So, yeah, I think that, there are obviously standards that still need to apply. But I think if people have got that sense of community by living in the one set of buildings, that's a great bonus, surely, to have - you know - friends and family nearby. So look, I certainly I suspect, talking to Drew Chislett last week, that they've got all the issues and the challenges and the barriers they're addressing them, and I certainly hope that they can succeed. I'm going to Pyramid Hill today, actually, to meet with locals, so I hope to learn more, and certainly hope that that facility can get up and running.

Parker  

And then, what more can you do to lobby on this issue?

Webster  

Well, I've contacted Sam Rae. He hasn't returned my call yet.

Parker  

Who's he?  

Webster  

Sam Rae is the aged care Minister now, sorry, federal aged care. And so, yeah, look, you write the letters, you talk to them in Parliament, you make phone calls if they answer. That's great. And you know, just to promote this as a concept, to have that support behind them. I suspect that Northern District Community Health will be a key player, because they will, you know, they will need to be able to provide the services that people need, and that's often the problem out in our regional sparse populations. We don't have the workforce to be able to provide the services that people are actually looking for and need to in order to stay in place.

Parker  

Well, indeed, about 30 people lost their jobs back in 2019 when Respect aged care closed that nursing home in Pyramid Hill. So that kind of leaks skills from the town, if, you like, Northern District Community Health certainly are very supportive of this project. We spoke to them at our outside broadcast a week or two ago, but they need the money, don't they, to provide that service and provide more services in that town, not that they're not doing a good job or already with the funding they have in the community nurses they have that go into homes and help people be able to stay there. But certainly they need more money if they, if the Pyramid Hill Progress Association were able to get to the point of reopening that building for residential living?

Webster  

absolutely and the Support at Home packages that people have - often they have enough. Often have enough funding. I have a lot of people who contact me because there isn't enough or a decision has been made to reduce their funding, but there should be enough funding in people's Support at Home packages to be able to bring the expertise in, whether it's nurses, whether it's occupational therapists, whether it's other allied health, what we struggle with out in the regions, and that the formulas do not cater for this. And NDIS is the same. The travel factor is not in the package component. So if somebody has to travel, a nurse, say, has to travel an hour to a facility see one or two people may be and travel back. That two hour travel is not part of the calculations in the way that it should be. And I'm a strong advocate for that changing, because we can't change the fact that we live in the regions. So if people are going to travel, they need to be paid for it.

Parker  

Are you being listened to? I mean, you say you contacted the federal aged care minister, they haven't heard back. Are you being listened to on this issue?

Webster  

well, yeah, yeah, it's an it's an ongoing issue. Obviously, the Royal Commission occurred, the aged care recommendations were made, some of them are just not practicable. The 24/7 RNs in a facility, the care minutes that need to be provided. Facilities are telling me it's just not practical. They cannot do it and they can't pay for it, because obviously, you're paying more for RNs than you are, say, for a personal carer.

Parker  

That's a registered nurse, you mean?  

Webster

Yeah, registered nurse, sorry, acronym land, yeah, yeah. So I think there needs to be another look at the recommendations, especially in the regions, we don't want the care quality to be any less than it would be in a metropolitan setting. Don't get me wrong. It needs to be the same quality. However, I think there needs to be a review of the 24/7 RN policy and also the care minutes, because care minutes being provided by an RN when it can be provided by a doctor who's visiting with them, or a nurse, sorry, a personal carer who's visiting with them or sitting with them, playing whatever, you know, a puzzle. I don't know what they're doing, but it's the fact that it is face-to-face care. That's what it's about. It's about feeling like you actually matter. And I've visited an elderly gentleman yesterday in Nhill in an aged care facility, because he wrote to me and he said, I don't … I feel invisible now, and sorry, I'm going to get emotional. And I just thought “That's so unfair.” You know, if you go into an aged care facility, then you need to feel like you still matter and like your presence still matters to the people around you. And too many move in quite cognitively alert, you know, maybe physically, like … he couldn't walk. He was in a wheelchair. His wife lived two blocks away, so he could take his washing home in his wheelchair during the day, like it's an extraordinary story, and for him to write to me and say, I feel invisible, I just thought that I need to say hello and let him know he's not…

Parker  

Wow.wow.  Look. Thank you for sharing that with us and being vulnerable with us this morning. Dr Anne Webster, appreciate that.

Webster  

No worries at all. I don't like being this vulnerable, but it's just the way it is.

Parker  

Fiona, oh no, you're all good. I'll let you go. Dr Anne Webster, the federal member for Mallee.

‍