I'm gonna move on to a second issue: the first news item for this episode which
is the Aged Care Royal Commission as an asset September last year and hearings
kicked off in Adelaide this week and well, why? What caused it? Well, actually
the Prime Minister indicated statistics were released around that
time that showed 170% increase in serious risk notices given two aged care
providers and a 292% increase in significant non-compliance in the sector
over a one year period. That's when Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, "when you
confronted with that, you asked a simple question: how widespread is this? Does it
touch the whole sector? Now until we have clearer answers to those questions, I
think Australians will be unsure." And you know there's evidence to suggest that
he's on to something that this is a really good idea. In fact, I applaud it. I
think it's a fantastic idea but there's more evidence just in those
stats if you look at the Council of Ageing of Australia - they say
that Elder Abuse is an epidemic and as high as 10% of older Australians have
experienced it. That's huge. In 2016-17 there were 2853 notifications of
reportable assaults to the department of aged care and 348 of those were
suspected unlawful sexual contact. That's actually reports, official reports from
1.2% of people receiving permanent residential aged care.
That's pretty high. Research done by the UN into the Australian elder abuse situation
shows that there's where they estimate that there may be 20,000 unreported
cases in Victoria of elder abuse neglect and exploitation 20,000 in New South
Wales, 25,000 in Queensland, perhaps 100,000 throughout Australia
based on the data that they have been able to gather, which are there's no
database in any state or territory to record incidents and there's widespread
confusion about who to tell when such incidents happen. Now I think
all of that's very compelling, not to mention the many anecdotal stories that
we hear and that are coming out through the early days of hearings at the
Commission but why so little media coverage? It's a question that I have
about this actually and I wondered at this that there hasn't been much media
fanfare, there hasn't been much said why so little interest and I think there's
probably several reasons but you know I think that one reason is quite possibly
the elephant in the room on this and that is euthanasia
you know euthanasia advocates this was a huge issue later this time last year but
it's gone conspicuously quiet more recently and euthanasia advocates know
what works for them on what works against them and they're highly
organized and they know that elder abuse really works against them it works
against them you know because their statistics from around the place and
there's there's clear evidence that elder abuse and euthanasia are a deadly
cocktail you can look for example to one of the jurisdictions that's had
euthanasia for the longest Oregon and a fairly recent survey indicated that
nearly 40% of euthanasia recipients in Oregon nominated concerns about being a
burden on family and friends as a reason for choosing to die now that's pretty
serious maybe 40% and among the many verified cases of euthanasia being
administered in shocking ways in Belgium and the Netherlands where again the
Belgium Netherlands and Oregon have had this for the longest and it's really
quite out of control in Belgium of Netherlands you've got people over there
being euthanized because they're blind because they're depressed because
they're alcoholics in one case because they're disabled children with
disabilities three children actually with disabilities have been euthanized
the first in the world people who never requested it people who are misdiagnosed
and so on and so on but amongst those cases you know I did a quick scan of
some of the ones that we've documented and there's there's ones that affect the
elderly as well as you'd imagine you know an elderly Dutch woman in 2017
turns out was euthanized without ever requesting it the request was actually
made for her by her family or there's criminal investigations currently
ongoing in the Netherlands again and this is a case that happened a little
while ago and wasn't referred for some time for investigation and when it was
it anyway it's now finally being investigated where a woman an elderly
patient was forcibly euthanized by a doctor whilst her family
held her down as she struggled now that's awful
there is actually the fact the reported fact now that one in sixty deaths under
a GP scare in Belgium are now made without an explicit request by the
patients what does that mean for dementia patients who can't make an
explicit request validly there's a 2011 survey of 800 family doctors in the
Netherlands and it found that nearly half had felt pressured by patients or
their relatives to use euthanasia so relatives of patients who are often
elderly are pressuring doctors to use euthanasia and how about this for one of
the many anecdotal examples I'll read you the example from a Dutch case but it
was referred to by law - born in the House of Lords euthanasia debates in the
UK and he speaks of an old man who was dying of lung cancer his symptoms were
controlled and he asked if he could die at home when his children were told
about his wish they would not agree to take care of him even after repeated
discussion they refused instead they pointed to their father
suffering and they need to finish things quickly in the name of humanity when the
doctor refused they threatened to sue him as the patient insisted on going
home a social worker went to investigate and she discovered that the patient's
house was empty and every piece of furniture had been stripped out by the
family you know if we think that euthanasia laws will not lead to a
worsening of an elder abuse crisis well it's ready because it will that is
unfortunately human nature and the development of seeds that are in our
culture already tonight I believe that you can really measure the health of a
society in one way by how its elderly are treated scripture is full of
condemnation for those who abused the vulnerable and the widow and elderly and
James writes for example that religion which is pure before God is this to
visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained
from the world that's a good question you know how we're doing on the orphan
and the widow principle of course the orphan and the
widow will be cared for where love of neighbor as we love ourselves is truly
practiced by people and yet we're seeing the bitter fruit of so many avenues of
corruption you know you think what feeds into elder abuse or what feeds into the
neglect of the elderly what's the breakdown of family for one and the
loneliness that that produces particularly in old age and sometimes at
no fault of the elderly person or the rise of narcissism for living for
ourselves without do regard for others or the utilitarian worldview where we
measure people's usefulness we measure people's value by how useful they are
and of course if someone's getting old were they're less useful than less
valuable or self-gratification you know in the way we choose friends friends who
can do things for us friends who make us feel good never friends who cost
something you know it's rotten fruit from very rotten roots but you know let
me repeat this just in a new way this as I was writing this this occurred to me
and it challenged me how am i doing how are we doing with the orphan and the
widow principle of James 1 now surely the worst hypocrisy is to shout for
legislative and policy change in a particular area without bothering to
legislate it in our own personal lives do you know the example par excellence
of love of neighbor he's given by Jesus as the Good Samaritan and here's a guy
who personally himself at cost to self knelt in the dust administered care got
his knees dirty used his own time spent his own money risked himself personally
at cost to serve the highest and best interests of somebody else
it's personal we cannot virtue signal love of neighbor through calling others
like the government without doing it ourselves as you know the Good Samaritan
could have lobbied the priest and the Levite to put together a committee to
stop you know people getting bludgeoned to
death on the side of the road might have been a good thing to do let's see he
also personally was involved to preach good without Demark without doing good
it's wrong and sometimes I convicted particular as a lobbyist as always
preaching about good I think I just did I trust it's useful for all of us