By Bonny Burrows
Taking a stand against his own government, McMillan MP Russell Broadbent has resigned from two prestigious parliamentary committees in protest over aged care bed allocations.
At the 30 May Liberal Party meeting, the Federal MP told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull he was standing down as chairman of the privileges committee and as a member of the Speaker’s panel.
The resignations, which will put an almost $28,000 hole in Mr Broadbent’s pocket, were due to legislation Mr Broadbent argues favoured large for-profit aged care providers over “local aged care heroes”.
Back in March 2017, the MP announced he was “going to war” on his own government due to its treatment of aged care providers in his electorate.
He told the Gazette at the time he was “prepared to make some noise on behalf of my local community” and the smaller facilities which missed out on bed allocations “time and time again”.
“I have to speak up for the smaller organisations that don’t have a voice in the corridors of power,” Mr Broadbent previously said.
At the heart of Mr Broadbent’s row is that current legislation places aged care bed allocations in the hands of bureaucrats, instead of politicians, who, he said, should have greater involvement.
He has also criticised the federal health and aged care ministers for “leading him” to believe Bunyip’s Hillview Aged Care would receive an allocation for an extra 14 beds, but that didn’t happen.
Speaking to the Gazette on 13 June, Mr Broadbent said he had been told by the ministers they would have “influence” in the bed allocation process, and was promised “people in your electorate would be very happy”.
“But we got nothing,” he said.
Despite calls from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Broadbent said he would not return to his roles on the committees, as his actions were making “a fierce point” which came at a personal cost.
“This is not about my money. I genuinely enjoyed these positions, but no I won’t re-join the committees,” Mr Broadbent said.
“This is me standing up and saying the little people count”.
Mr Broadbent argued the current allocation process had been proven to disadvantage smaller community facilities as “large organisations received hundreds of beds while Hillview who wanted just 14, got nothing”.
He said he would continue to fight for changes.
