Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to congratulate five recipients of recent Home and Community Care Program—or HACC—grants in my electorate. In February this year, the Northam Silver Chain group, the Shire of Northam, the Share and Care Community Services Group in Northam and the York District Hospital, as well as the Rise community support network in Mundaring, received nearly $1 million in funding from the coalition government to boost their services to older Australians and younger people with a disability who wish to stay in their own homes and remain independent in the community.

I am particularly pleased that, of the $9.4 million made available in total for the new care activities in the grants program, in the latest round of the HACC program Pearce received $927,982, or nearly 10 per cent of the total funding. This funding means that people living in and around Northam, York and Mundaring will benefit from improved services such as nursing, domestic assistance, social support, food services, allied health care and Indigenous assistance. Specifically, the people in my electorate living in the wheat belt will now benefit from a new regional assessment serviced by Silver Chain Northam to provide independent assessment and coordination of care, thanks to an HACC grant of $387,602.

The Silver Chain group in Northam also received $160,000 for a new nursing and allied health service in the wheat belt. The funding will enable Silver Chain to employ professional allied health staff and a therapy assistant to work across the region. They will also be able to commence their home enablement program and personal enablement program that assists people to be as independent as possible.

Due to the grant, Silver Chain will now be able to grow its nursing services in the wheat belt, giving them the ability to commit to clinical services in the region as well as increasing their nursing care at home. Indigenous and non-Indigenous aged people, people with a disability, youth at risk and people living with a mental health condition in and around Mundaring will now receive new and better services thanks to more than $330,000 in funding.

The Rise network in Mundaring received recurrent funding of $317,000 to support both mainstream and Aboriginal services; $197,000 will support the Aboriginal program Moorditj Mia. It will enable growth in the program by opening the centre for an additional day. It will enable the succession plan for service coordination by mentoring a young Aboriginal community worker and will provide appropriate support to assist older Aboriginal people to remain safely in their homes. A further $119,000 has been granted to the Rise network in Mundaring to add to existing services for frail, elderly people. A further $15,000 in non-recurrent funding will go toward a storytelling project to enable Aboriginal elders to tell their stories through art and to use their positions to improve wellbeing in the community.

I also note that the York District Hospital received an HACC grant of $11,000 for new gardening and home maintenance equipment, and a new trailer. The Northam shire received $40,000 for building feasibility funding; and the Share and Care Community Services Group in Northam received in excess of $5,000 for office equipment. It is critical that older Australians and people with a disability are able to live healthy, active and independent lives wherever possible. Once again, I congratulate these organisations on receiving this important funding to better service the people most in need in my electorate.