Tuesday, 2 May 2023

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (19:19): (139) My matter is for the Minister for Health and it concerns Meals on Wheels. Manningham is one of Melbourne’s oldest, by average age, municipalities, and there are currently around 2000 recipients of Meals on Wheels in Manningham alone, the largest provider being Uniting aged care. Noting of course issues around royal commissions into aged care provision, which have occurred in the last decade or so, and the treatment of our elder Australians, I think it is very, very important that we maintain Meals on Wheels in the manner in which we do today.

The current system has been working well and it has been working fairly efficiently. There are now 50 councils across Victoria who are looking at ceasing Meals on Wheels by July and home services by October as a result of federal government cuts, and the state government will not step in to assist. As a consequence, we are now seeing places like Manningham, according to our council as recently as Friday, having to cut services that are integral to one of Melbourne’s oldest municipalities. The quality of service cannot be guaranteed if the current system is not maintained. The level of oversight, for instance, on some of the providers that would intervene to fill those gaps would not be adequate and they would not be able to provide the level of service or quality that is being provided today. I think it is exceptionally important that we maintain Meals on Wheels in its current state for the sake of, in my municipality, the 3500 Victorians who avail from it.

Our pensioners cannot afford top-shelf Scotch. They do not hang around with people who have got helicopters. They do not seek bronze statues to themselves. What they seek is decency in their old age. I ask the minister to intervene to provide the funding to keep Meals on Wheels and home care services in the manner they are in today.