THE NSW government is defending plans to privatise aged care and disability services after hundreds of people rallied outside state parliament.
AROUND 200 carers, nurses and families gathered at the front gates to the parliament on Thursday angry at a decision to transfer Home Care services to the private sector by 2018.
They delivered a petition to the legislature containing 25,000 signatures calling for the decision to be reversed and for workers to be protected. The Ageing, Disability and Home Care department currently falls under the Department of Family and Community Services and provides services where nurses visit elderly and disabled people at home and help them bathe, clean and do household tasks. The government claims opening the service to non-government providers will give clients a greater choice, in line with extra funding provided by the National Disability Insurance Scheme. “There will be a choice of a number of service providers for people with disabilities. They will control their funding and they control their choice,” said Disability Services Minister John Ajaka. “But right now they have no real control about how their funding is utilised,” he said. However, Public Services Association spokesman Steve Turner said the NDIS was being used as an excuse. “You don’t increase choice if you get rid of 40 per cent of the services that are delivered for those people with disability,” he told AAP. The union claims half of the 14,000 strong workforce is considering quitting in the face of a sell-off. Some of the non-government providers believed to be in contention include healthcare giant Bupa and refugee detention centre operator Serco.